Goondiwindi-based Woods Group are expanding their presence in Central Queensland, after recently commissioning a new loose lick plant in Emerald.
The state-of-the-art facility hosts a fully automated plant, which is capable of producing custom loose lick products.
With a growing client base in Northern Australia, the facility has already seen many shipments of loose lick products to west of Longreach, Richmond, and into the Northern Territory.
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Woods Group stockfeed division business development manager Jeff Collingwood said the thriving cattle market in the north enticed the company to expand into the region.
"We've been servicing the stock feed market with pellets out of Emerald for a couple of years now," Mr Collingwood said.
"We've seen the great potential in a lot of that cattle country in Northern Australia and we decided to build a stock lick plant.
"It's a state of the art facility, and we probably commissioned it towards the end of last year, a little bit later than what we thought due to Covid-19."
Set up to produce custom licks, Mr Collingwood said there has been great demand, with graziers looking to enhance the nutritionally benefits in their cattle.
"The plant is set up to do custom licks and we've got our standard range of licks there that we're putting out to graziers and we're able to do the custom licks that people are needing as well," he said.
"In terms of demand, the Woods CQ Beef Breeder HI-P loose lick, which is high in phosphorus, is in demand and our customers are finding that's useful.
"We have a starter lick as well and we like to start people off on the Woods Starter 5 loose, which is 5pc urea, just to get them going."
Using cotton seed as a base for their loose lick products, Mr Collingwood said the new plant is capable of formulating any particular diet.
"We're finding that people have got their own custom licks and there's a lot of demand for custom licks at the moment," he said.
"Graziers over the years have gained experience on their own property and have certain formulations that work for them.
"I think what people like about our products is we're using cotton seed meal as the base in the dry lick.
"It's the best quality you can get for dry licks and it gives farmers confidence in feeding it."
Woods Group also develops stockfeed pellets at their main facility in Goondiwindi, where they then ship it to their Emerald distribution facility.
"We've developed quite a good market for the product, particularly across the Central Highlands and further afield towards Alpha and Longreach," Mr Collingwood said.
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