In agriculture, diversity is safety.
When one commodity is up, another can be down and Dean Jonsson has spread his risk across multiple sectors.
The Jonsson family has been thinking outside the box for years when it comes to high production values for their beef.
Not only are they spruiking the benefits of homegrown silage, but leading the charge for a number of Tablelands producers, seeking to boost the efficiencies of their younger cattle.
Mr Jonsson operates Wombinoo Station, southeast of Mt Garnet with his wife Emmalee as part of a family partnership, with another property on the Atherton Tablelands.
They run up to 5000 head on their 28,327 hectare property, allowing room for a feedlot, an extensive dryland cotton and cropping operation and an avocado plantation.
Their Brangus steers and culled cows and heifers are backgrounded to 400kg on pasture, before being sent to the feedlot for 50-70 days.
They are then processed at Bingal Bay and sold through their family's butchery and produce shopfront in Cairns.
"We need to send about 550 a year through our own shop, and everything else goes to other markets," he says.
The Jonssons are currently wrapping up their cotton harvest- sending it to be processed in Central Queensland.
If the prices aren't right, they do retain cotton seed to mix into their feedlot ration.
The feedlot ration is based on corn silage which is grown on farm.
It's typically a 65 per cent silage mix with 12-14 pc molasses- 8-10pc corn and sorgham and then added concentrates.
"It's got to be a balanced ration for weight gain and typically they can gain about 1.8kg a day. If you start putting in whole cotton, it'll bump up to 2.2kg/day," Mr Jonsson said.
"Whole cotton seed's pretty good gear. There's plenty of protein in it."
With 900 hectares of cleared country, the majority is planted to cotton and corn.
They also produce hay and have some country planted to Leucaena as another option for finishing heavier cattle.
"We're not seeing too much weight gain on the Leucaena yet, but it's only a young crop," he said.
"I'm expecting it to get to 0.7kg/day when it gets going though."
After witnessing the success of the Jonsson's operation, Bernie English, a beef extension officer with the Queensland Department of Agriculture and Fisheries says it's buoyed the interest of a lot of other producers.
Currently there's 25 growers on the Tablelands, with six on stations in the Mt Garnet region.
"Mostly they're growing maize, but everyone's using it in different ways," he said.
"It's the cheapest feed going at about $100 a tonne so they're using it to finish bullocks, or preparing weaners to head elsewhere."
With some producers rotating sorghum and maize crops, Mr English highlights the benefits of feeding it to younger cattle, making it a more efficient option.
While the Jonnsons have plenty to keep them occupied with their cattle and cropping operation, they're also irrigating 7500 avocado trees on the Mt Garnet property, with more on the family's other property on the Tablelands.
With 4000 mature trees in production, 30,000 trays have been sent to southern parts of Australia from Woobinoo this year.
The orchard is four years old and completely propagated on farm, as the family weren't able to commercially purchase seedlings for three years, thanks to a huge market backlog.
"We didn't want to wait. So we just pulled our finger out, built a couple of hot houses and made it happen. We grew about 2500 trees ourselves," Mr Jonnson said.
"You should never have all your eggs in one basket, so when there's another opportunity, we'll take it."
