Drought resilience built in to Clark's Roma operation

Returning to the Roma property he grew up on after 18 years, Mr Clark knew he had the energy to take over Euthulla but not the experience.

One of five siblings sent out into the world to learn other professions before deciding if running a beef cattle enterprise was for them, Mr Clark went into the Australian Army and then a defence industries technology job.

"It gave me a lot of life experiences, and I learnt not to be afraid of technology but to use it as a tool - it broke down a few paradigms I had at 18," he said.

With his father having passed away, Mr Clark recognised he didn't have the corporate knowledge to call upon to manage the property 20km north west of Roma, and so undertook an RCS Grazing for Profit school along with his wife Cath.

An add-on, they didn't initially feel the RCS Drought Resilient Soils and Landscapes program was necessary but changed their minds a couple of months later, and haven't regretted it.

Along with 23 other grazing businesses across the southern Queensland and northern NSW rangelands, the program, funded by the federal government's Future Drought Fund and delivered by RCS, has helped the couple develop drought resilience in their operation.

When they took over Euthulla in mid-2021, the herd was a mixture of Hereford, Santa Gertrudis, Angus, Brahman, Shorthorn and Droughtmaster, or as Mr Clark put it, there was "no defined product".

They now run a 50:50 split of Brahman and Santa Gertrudis females, which they call their "carry-over champions", joining them to Charolais bulls.

"It's less about the breed and more about the type," Mr Clark explained.

"We wanted the Bos indicus breeding frame and the Charolais influence for lighter coloured cattle.

"To my way of thinking, they should handle the heat."

He said they were very happy they'd decided to look into the Soils and Landscape program, saying it meant they'd been able to put everything they'd learnt into practice, with the assistance of a mentor.

"You're making decisions that are potentially costing hundreds of thousands of dollars," he said. "Discussing it with our mentor, RCS's Raymond Stacey, meant we got an outsider's perspective."

Changing from set stocking to rotational grazing was one of those things.

Mr Clark said they'd wanted to get into it anyway, running all their animals in one mob across the property, and found the course gave them a better understanding of how it fits with the ecological cycle.

"We could be more confident with our decisions, not wasting energy worrying about how to make decisions, just stepping into them," he said.

They've also developed bores, tanks and secure trough water infrastructure.

Keeping the drought resilience theme in mind and against a background of experiencing livestock losses in previous droughts, the Clarks have also adopted grazing software and decision trigger points.

It paid off for them almost immediately.

Last January, because they were tracking their rain totals, they offloaded a large number of breeders and early weaned their calves, selling them in April.

"We had come up with decision points so we weren't doing anything in the heat of the moment," Mr Clark said.

"I think it gave us more options, or it didn't paint us into a corner.

"When we sold the weaners I was worried I'd made a bad decision - the steers went for $5 a kilo and the heifers for $4.

"Three weeks later, it was the best decision I'd ever made.

"Making decisions at the right time and using tools like MaiaGrazing flowed through to less stress for us, and a better bottom line as well."

They're fortunate to have been under rain in early December 2023 and again at the start of January, but last November, they were sitting at 55 per cent of their long term average.

"It was looking pretty bad," Mr Clark said.

Their RCS mentor Raymond Stacey has seen the changes in the Clarks and their operation over the last 18 months.

"The greatest resource we have in this country is the people - the program helps people like Fred and Cath be more resilient to a changing environment," he said.