Alsops forge path to self-sustainability through income diversification

Casey and Sam took over their 141 hectare home property, Overflow, from Mr Alsop's parents 10 years ago following their retirement.

Prior to their retirement Mr Alsop worked alongside them at the property and helped to launch a leucaena cutting business.

Mr Alsop's parents started growing Cunningham leucaena in the late '90s, with around 101ha of leucaena still grown at the property today, both for fattening cattle and for growing seed to sell to others.

In terms of fattening steers for the feeder market on leucaena, Mr Alsop said he had seen fairly high daily weight gains of around 0.7 to 0.8 kg per day.

These days, the Alsops have mainly been focused on their leucaena seed growing operation, with around 61ha of leucaena locked up for seed at Overflow. About 40ha is dedicated to cattle fodder.

Additionally, they also have plans for another 16ha to be set aside for growing seed at Apex Downs, which is a 206ha block they purchased three and a half years ago.

There they also planned to plant about 121ha of leucaena for cattle feed.

"We harvest, grade and clean all of our own seed and sell it mainly direct to farmers through our business, Leucaena Seeds Australia, or through distributors," Mr Alsop said.

He said a good season for seed was directly correlated to getting rain at the right time of year, and even though they were back around 200mm on their average yearly rainfall, the leucaena was still looking good.

"We always have good germination results, in the mid '90s in terms of germination percentage, and it comes out 99.5pc pure - we get that independently tested," he said.

For a long time the Alsops were buying and trading cattle and were mainly growing out feeder heifers, turning off around 200 feeders every year, with an overall carrying capacity of around 130 head.

"You could buy heifers a fair bit cheaper than the steers at the time and there wasn't that much difference in price at the other end, we bought them around 200kg and sold them around 400kg within nine months," Mr Alsop said.

"We've been a bit all over the shop the last few years with the market, we were sort of selling them as heavy weaners while the price was good."

After purchasing their second block they started focusing more on breeding and have chosen to keep a fair few of the heifers for breeding, intending to eventually chase a more flatback feeder steer with a black coat.

They are carrying about 70 breeders at Apex Downs and 40 breeders at Overflow.

They are focused on breeding an Ultrablack cross at the moment, putting an Ultrablack herd bull over their commercial cattle, which were mainly a Brahman cross base.

"It's been surprising though the quality of the calves off any old cow. I think the performance of the bulls has been good there," Mr Alsop said.

"We're putting an Ultrablack over our own heifers and then crossing them again with another Ultrablack bull and maybe an Angus bull. At the moment the offspring are a bit more of a Brangus.

"We'd probably just like to get a bit more thickness into them if we can, because they look good but you just don't get that width maybe in the back-end as much as we'd like."

Mrs Alsop has also found a great way to support the on-farm income after purchasing an online kids and baby boutique last year called Little Meme Designs, selling leather goods and hats.

A few years ago she also started selling baby and gift ware through her business Seed and Sparrow.

In addition to the online, she also sells her products in town through Little Market Co., which is a gift boutique and artisan collective showcasing locally made products in Biloela.

"It's supported us in the down time of a broken tractor for example or it's been good to just pay the grocery bill and not have to stress about it, especially when things are getting tighter and tighter," she said.

She has a warehouse on-farm where she stores the products and packages orders.

Her next big project was selling her goods at Beef 2024.

"I think the foot traffic will be amazing. I think it's worth giving it a shot, it's exciting. I'm excited for it," she said.

Mrs Alsop said while it was their goal to get Mr Alsop on farm more and away the contract work, it was her own goal to keep expanding and one day have her own shopfront in Biloela.

"I have a real passion for women in business in the bush and I think we've got to keep the little towns going, so it's the wrong season for me at the moment with my son Oliver, but down the track I'd love to have our own storefront in town," she said.

While the family has been able to make major improvements at their properties with funding help, including fencing off paddocks and areas of erosion and putting in water infrastructure, more time on-farm would allow them to make further developments to their properties.