Limited suitable agistment combined with the impact of QGC’s lease of its Surat basin rural property portfolio to Stanbroke has many beef producers staring down the barrel of a serious destocking program.
Jeff Noller, Kialla, Greenmount, was left with no option but to undertake a significant herd reduction after QGC elected Stanbroke to manage its rural property portfolio in the Surat Basin.
The decision late last year, came after a tender process that involved many smaller family-run businesses.
Having previously run a stud Charolais herd, Mr Noller sold 275 head of purebred commercial Charolais cattle at Tuesday’s Roma store sale and said it was disappointing to have to let them go.
“We sold our Wandoan property, Delga, to QGC 12 months ago and hoped to maintain our numbers there after going through the tender process,” he said.
“We went away from the stud side of things because we were busy with QGC construction, but with the infrastructure work breaking down we were looking forward to focusing on our stud cattle again.”
Mr Noller said he hadn’t registered cattle for five years but QGC’s announcement prompted him to kick start his back-up plan of finding agistment for his herd, to no avail.
“We always thought we’d have the option of agistment should things go pear-shaped with the lease and we looked at country at Augathella but it was only three months away from being in drought again,” he said.
“We thought breeders were in short supply so there’d be plenty of country around but the good summer rain we expected didn’t come and it wasn’t worth the risk.
“We didn’t want to shift 20 decks out there and come the middle of winter find out we’d need to look elsewhere- selling today was our only option.”
Of the 275 head Mr Noller sold, the 168 Charolais heifers made to 310c/kg to average 289c/kg for 328kg returning $945/head.
Mr Noller said he saw more value in selling his heifers into the feeder market rather than selling breeders from his Injune property, Oakwells.
“It is a shame because they’re last year’s weaners and they’ve got a lot of breeding in them but we’re better off with a cow in calf and a calf at foot compared to holding on to these heifers and carrying them through,” he said.
“The feeder operation here can take them and they’re worth more in cents per kilo too.
“We were hoping to average between 270 and 280c/kg for the heifers and fat cows have been making about 230c/kg so there’s a fair difference in price- it was the best way forward for us under the circumstances.”
Mr Noller said his breeder block Oakwells was fully stocked with 600 cows and his remaining 220 steers and bulls would be taken to Kialla to finish.