BILL and Maxine Cragg, Mourindilla, Dingo started controlled breeding only three years ago and the family operation is still ironing out the kinks.
The Cragg family, which includes children William, James, Tom, and Sarah operates over Mourindilla (15,000 hectares) and Fairview (3250ha) properties.
With 800 breeders, predominantly Droughtmasters and Droughtmaster-cross, Mr Cragg said controlled breeding was a drought management choice.
“I’ve been home since 1983 and I’ve seen more dry years than good years,” he said.
Mr Cragg lost his father in 2012.
“Dad just always left the bulls in all year around,” he said.
“It takes a bit of a time to get them all in sync for controlled breeding.”
Mourindilla has been in the Cragg family since 1929 and the family had Herefords and Brahmans before moving to Droughtmasters.
I’ve been home since 1983 and I’ve seen more dry years than good years.
- Bill Cragg, Mourindilla, Dingo
Mr Cragg said he “dabbled” in Brangus bulls at one stage, but preferred the Droughtmasters due to issues with ticks.
He mostly buys his bulls from John Atkinson, Glenavon Droughtmasters at the Capricorn Droughtmaster sale.
He said he prefers to buy paddock bulls because he would rather have two paddock bulls than a single more expensive one.
The Cragg family is EU accredited and turn-off bullocks on oats at about two years old at 350 to 360kg to send directly to Teys.
With about 400ha of farming land, Mr Cragg said he grows mostly fodder crops.
He said currently the family is focused mostly on meeting EU cattle requirements.
“I’m just after good confirmation, quietness and weight for age,” Mr Cragg said. “We breed and fatten plus try to produce the right article for the market.”
Mr Cragg said he aims to have bulls going in early November and he weans calves in June.
However this year, floods on the back of ex-tropical cyclone Debbie put the family behind with weaning still occurring in July.
Of the four Cragg children, Tom is working at home while William has finished a boilermaker apprenticeship and James is studying engineering.
The youngest, Sarah, is a Year 11 student at The Rockhampton Grammar School.
Cyclone Debbie Dramas
WHEN ex-tropical cyclone Debbie dumped her deluge on the Dingo community, the Cragg family, Mourindilla were not immune from the devastation.
Maxine, Bill, William, Tom, James and Sarah Cragg operate over Mourindilla and Fairview properties near Dingo.
The family received 100 millimetres of rain – and a whole lot of flooding from the river that runs alongside.
Of the family’s total 18,250 hectare property, 8095ha was left under water with 50 kilometres of fences knocked down.
Now the family is still trying to catch up on the fencing, while ironically waiting on much-needed rain.
Weaning is two months behind at the property because of the amount of time put into the fencing efforts.
While much of their own herd was stranded in the floods, Mr Cragg said they also had another problem – with nine decks of other people’s cattle from up the river washed into their paddocks.
“In between fencing, we had to muster them all up and walk them home because we couldn’t get trucks to the yards,” Mr Cragg said.
“We had to do the fencing as we went because there were no paddocks to put them into.
“One mob we walked home 15 kilometres.”
Mr Cragg said it was an issue he had not seen before because Debbie’s flood was bigger than the one seen in 1991.
“The river was running so fast that those cattle that got washed here would normally have been fine, they were where they would have been in 1991 and were okay then,” he said.
A combination of helicopters and horses was used to muster before and after the flooding, but all the recovery was done on horseback.
Now, the family is left fencing and try to get a handle on weeds that have come in after the flooding.
“With the floods we always get a lot of weeds like Parkinsonia and we battle controlling that,” he said.
The family budget for at least $50,000 per year just to control Parkinsonia, but Mr Cragg said they get “a bit of everything” because of the river and creek frontage.
After the floods this year, they found themselves with Noogoora burr and rubber vine both causing issues on the cattle property.