While most of the working week for Peter Flegler at Flegler Farms, Cecil Plains is taken up with crop farming, in recent years he’s pursued his passion for cattle by producing a small high quality Red Angus/Charolais-cross herd.
Carinyah which is situated on the Condamine River at Cecil Plains has been in the Flegler family since 1945, with Peter, wife Fiona and children, Mac and Will have resided at there since 2000. In 2008 the family business which includes Peter, his brother Guy and parents Ken and Shirley, purchased Station Creek located approximately 45kms from the Carinyah.
The cattle run along 80 hectares of river frontage on the 728ha Carinyah property which is primarily used for dryland and irrigated farming with a variety of crops planted in winter and summer including sorghum, wheat, cotton and corn.
The 732ha Station Creek is predominantly brigalow/belah/box country, with 325ha of cattle country, with the remaining land used for winter cereal cropping operations.
Peter said after farming for many years, and running a mixture of cattle – with the purchase of Station Creek they chose to take a particular direction with the cattle side of the business.
“We decided to develop further, the positive aspects of the small area of unfarmed river country to get value for money and better returns by integrating an improved cattle producing program utilising both properties,” he said.
“Given the small area, our goal was to produce a small herd of high quality cattle with the least amount of ‘manpower’ since our main focus is cropping.”
Peter commenced this process with the purchase of 15 head of Charolais heifers which were used to gain heifers and increase numbers.
And after a couple of years of looking at other people’s results they chose to go with a cross-breeding program using Red Angus bulls over the Charolais’.
“In the last 10 years we’ve purchased two Red Angus bulls from Gavin and Kirrily Iseppi, GK livestock, Dalby.
“We recently purchased GK Red ND Lionheart which is in working with the Charolais heifers at the moment and is doing a great job for us.
“We know GK Livestock produce great quality cattle in the local area, with the results speaking for themselves after their success in the Ekka show ring this year.”
He said they like Red Angus for their temperament.
“They’re gentle natured which makes them great cattle to work with given our small area available sided with cropping.
“Temperament and quietness are a high priority for our cattle so that they aren’t disruptive in the paddock, don’t annoy our neighbours and don’t damage our fences.”
He said they’re well suited to the climate at Cecil Plains with summers usually never getting too hot.
He said crossing the Red Angus with the Charolais results in great carcase quality, problem-free early maturing calves, and consistent colouring which provides even lines of sale cattle.
“We now run close to 100 Red Angus bulls and Charolais breeders across the two properties,” Peter said.
“We use Station Creek to run the cows and the progeny are also weaned there before being brought to the irrigated Condamine River country at Carinyah where they’re fattened and grown out. We use winter oats and summer forage sorghum for this process.”
He said the Red Angus-cross have the ability to be targeted at a range of market expectations.
All the Flegler’s cattle are sold through GDL in Dalby, with heifers normally turned off at 380kg to 400kg and the steers at 450kg to 530kg depending on the season.
Peter said the small cattle program gives him an outlet from the day-to-day farming operations.
“I’ve always been interested in the production of beef and this has enabled me to further that interest.”
