No premium in selling young organic progeny

Mr and Mrs Alexander operate at Bindaree, 42km north-west of Rockhampton where they are running about 250 breeders on 1400 hectares. 

With Droughtmaster/Braford females and Santa Gertrudis/Angus bulls, Mr Alexander said the primarily-organic operation had been evolving over the past five years and now turns off weaners, some cattle at the 400kg mark, and recently 500kg heifers and steers to sell direct to consumers. 

Last week the Alexanders had their first major delivery, and said it was a milestone for the family organic operation which switched to organics just over four years ago.

Mr Alexander said it was a realisation that they did not have the capacity to finish their cattle which led them to consider dropping numbers, finishing, and selling straight to local consumers. 

“There was a lot of planning and legwork in the processing and marketing, but all very rewarding to bring organic beef to Rockhampton,” he said. 

“We had been selling our younger animals to other producers because we couldn’t carry them ourselves, but we were doing pretty well at breeding – but we just weren't getting the return.

“Producers who are organic are only wanting to pay the same c/kg as the conventional market.”

Now the Alexanders are processing their organic beasts in Monto at Millers Gourmet Meats, which is the only place in the Central Queensland region that offers service kills for certified organics. 

As part of the swap to organics, Mr Alexander said he took a closer look at the country – and which minerals were lacking. 

Once he had soil and grass tissue tested and realised copper, selenium, and sulphur were required, Mr Alexander worked with a southern-based organic lick company to develop a charcoal-based (Green Cow) lick/supplement for his land. 

Now, they are dropping lick every couple of days year-round, and are also rotating cattle through paddocks every day or two to remove the need to use chemicals for tick control. 

“If you go back seven or eight years ago, we were turning off Jap Ox cattle at 600kg at four-to-five years old which was industry standard, but because we knew we had to turn them off at two-to-three years of age, we started the nutrition program and now we're turning them off at 500kg-plus at two years of age,” Mr Alexander said.