Millmerran's Macqueen experiment with leucaena and Wagyu cattle

When he took over ownership of Murralah, 26 kilometres east of Millmerran, Kenneth ran dairy cattle and pigs, and trialled lucerne, cotton and cereal crops on the undulating brigalow softwood scrub country, but it was as an artist that he became best known.

A modernist, Macqueen became the most distinctive watercolourist of his generation, bringing a fresh approach to Australian landscape painting and revealing a deep bond with his property.

The family's proud Scottish heritage is reflected in the artist's son, Revan, named after 15^th century clan chief Revan MacMulmor MacAngus MacQueen.

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According to Revan's son Bill, dairying began being phased out in the district in the 1950s and his father took up broadacre farming - wheat, sorghum, barley and oats - but the undulating topography prevented the uptake of modern farming technologies and so the third generation refocused onto breeding beef cattle.

Originally they had an Angus crossbred herd but in 2004, Bill and his wife Nikki decided on an Angus-Wagyu breeder operation, growing out feeder steers and heifers.

"The F1-F2 deal has been our bread and butter," Bill Macqueen said. "It interested me for a couple of years - it was a point of difference."

The Macqueens have been predominantly selling their progeny to Stanbroke, resulting in a long-term relationship where each party helps the other out, with pen space or with numbers when needed.

"It's been a bit of a two-way street but it's worked well," Mr Macqueen said.

They also work with live Wagyu cattle exporters Edwards Livestock, Oakey, which they say gives them variation.

Thanks to setting aside 240 hectares of the 1215ha property to forage cropping, the Macqueens have the ability to grow cattle out well, which means sometimes their animals are 300kg or more and not suiting the domestic feeder market, but Edwards Livestock gives them a different place to go to.

The Macqueens were the top volume buyers at the Bar H sale in April this year, purchasing 131 purebred cows, to average $4641.

The couple also purchased two Sumo bulls online in early October, and a bull from Bar H, describing it as a "pretty big" move for their operation, explaining that they needed to refresh their herd.

They're not strangers to big decisions though, after background feeding all their production cattle plus 400 bought cows, when the big dry was biting.

"It was a gamble but it worked out alright," Mr Macqueen said. "It kept things going along pretty well but it kept us very busy."

Their thirst for knowledge to make their operation better saw them plant leucaena 12 years ago, becoming one of the most southern growers in the process.

"We wanted pasture diversity and I had a belief it was drawing on a different nutrient deeper in the soil than most of our grass pastures," Mr Macqueen said. "Given the elevation here it works pretty well because it doesn't like the frost."

Planting it in 'dribs and drabs' has resulted in a total of 200ha, which, until it rained, had been manageable with mobs of cattle.

Because cattle weren't able to eat the top of some plants, they've just bought a mechanical chopper. As well as making the whole plant accessible, it's rejuvenating some of the older, woodier plants and bringing them all into the same growth phase.

They're pleased they planted it, saying their cattle do so well on it.

As a bonus, it may now be helping reduce methane emission by 30 per cent, although Mr Macqueen said there was no system that allowed them to account for that positive change.

It's no doubt a topic for their three-monthly Nature's Equity farm management group meetings, another of the innovative activities the Macqueens are part of.

"We subscribe to the ideals of the Grazing Naturally Systemdeveloped by Dick Richardson," Mr Macqueen said.

"We're rotational grazing but trying to get better at it."

According to Nikki Macqueen, the local group meetings of farm operators is always well attended and the days are always productive and informative.

"We discuss all sorts of different stuff, predominantly around pasture growth and cattle production," Mr Macqueen said.

"I was invited to do a carbon workshop with Rabobank that they did through Melbourne University.

"That told me a lot about what we don't know about the carbon deal."