Swan’s Lagoon business owners Peter and Brenton Malpass along with livestock manager David Roberts are looking forward to returning to the Gold City Brahman Sale from which they’ve purchased a number of bulls over the years.
The Malpass family bought the 33,819ha former DAF beef research station situated at Millaroo, 70kms from Ayr, from the State Government in March, 2014.
“When we purchased the property it was unstocked so we’ve just been building up our numbers as we go, using Brahmans as our primary breed of choice as they’re well-suited for the conditions here,” Peter said.
“We’re producing quiet, early maturing cattle to meet various market specifications, and using Brahmans helps us accomplish that goal efficiently,” he said.
Store and prime lines are sold through the Dalrymple Saleyards, and the live export market is also targeted.
“We produce 350kg feeder steers for Indonesia, and 450kg fat cattle for Vietnam, which are shipped through the Port of Townsville.
To get a good variety of genetics into the herd, Peter said they’ve been buying a lot of high quality stud cows and bulls.
“We have close to 30 bulls from many different stud operations in with the breeders, and we purchased close to 30 stud cows at Charters Towers last year.
At the 2016 Gold City sale, David purchased Glenborough Robust Manso from Lance and Karen Pope for $21,500.
“He’s an good outstanding bull, which is why we paid top money for him.
“He’s really helped with our breeding program, we’re very happy with the calves out of the stud cows we put him in the paddock with.”
David and Peter returned to the Gold City sale last year and bought six bulls, including another three Glenborough bulls.
“The Gold City sale appeals to us primarily to it being held in close proximity to Swan’s Lagoon, and as many of the bulls on offer are bred in the region we know they’ll have no troubles acclimatising to our conditions on-property.”
To help reduce production costs within the operation, Peter said they’re producing their own Rhodes grass and Desmanthus for use as silage and hay to feed the herd.
“We’ve also been making good use of the feedlot we have on-property.
“When we pull the weaners off their mothers we put them in there for a couple of weeks on hay and silage which gives us a headstart in preparing them for our destination markets so they’ll go straight onto feed there.”
Peter said despite no falls arriving on-property since March this year, the cattle are still holding their condition well, though he said they’re “looking forward to receiving some rain soon”.
