They are as fat as feedlot cattle and putting on almost two kilograms a day, but there are no grain bins involved in producing these Hereford bullocks.
The beef fattening abilities of the Channel Country in western Queensland are on full display this year, with solid rainfalls and multiple floods producing feed faster than cattle can eat it.
Bronte Lloyd and her husband Connor Austin run a breeding herd alongside her parents Jeff and Anne-Maree Lloyd on the 180,000 acre Jedburg Station, on the Barcoo River between Yaraka and Jundah.
Last year their drought, which had lingered since 2010, finally began to broke when 192 millimetres fell for the year, combined with "two good floods going past" and multiple river runs.
It's resulted in what Ms Lloyd could only describe as a "phenomenal" season.
Their home-bred and bought in Hereford bullocks had been in "river flood-out country" for around 12 months and averaged 1.42kg ADG, topping at 1.98kg.
They plan on turning them off to Clayton's Organic Beef in September.
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"There is feed in the river that I have never seen in my lifetime come up," she said.
"There is no monocultural of one particular species; we have got all sorts of herbages.
"This is the first year I've ever seen crowsfoot, which is another type of legume that's natural in Channel Country. The old generation, Dad was telling me, used to say you could fatten a crowbar off crowsfoot.
"We have got gidgee burr and those types of herbages and then...just outside the channels there is a bit of sandy country...that's where all our buffel grass grows and there is button grass in the bottom of the creeks.
"It just looks unbelievable at the moment."
While the herbage on the Mitchell grass/Downs country is turning and a top up soon would be nice, there is enough feed in the channels to get them through the year.
The Lloyds aim to kill their bullocks weighing 650kg or more, at two teeth but no more than four.
While the drought was "super tough", Ms Lloyd said they were seeing the rewards now.
"We were selling a heap of breeders by the end of it so we were being very selective on genetics," she said.
"If you weren't the type of cow we liked or carrying a calf, even through a tough season, we sold them.
"We've come out of the drought genetically in a really good spot so anything we have on the place can gain weight very, very quickly and our cows are super fertile.
"We have got it down to where we are really happy fattening our own bullocks because we know in the river they can do 2kg and we have had mobs do better than 2kg per day."
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
