A CRACK team of dogs is an essential part of the farm tool kit for Charlie Onus.
The southern NSW grazier runs his cow herd in 2834ha of pine plantations and a team of about 10 mature and young dogs battle blackberry infestations, pine thinnings and dense undergrowth to find the cattle.
Charlie uses only border collies which he breeds himself.
They are all trained to his whistle and to bring the cattle out of the plantations to him.
"The work is very tough on the dogs - they can't be sick or injured," Charlie said.
"They need to be confident, work silently and have enough courage to make the cattle move.
"And be calm and soft enough to back off the cattle at the right time."
The border collies can penetrate undergrowth which would stop a horse or motorbike.
In the Onus household, the dogs are treated like kings but usually retire at age seven.
Charlie and his wife Mandi, son Will and Will's fiancee Simone Viljoen run 1000 spring-calving Angus cows at Adjungbilly.
The tiny settlement, between the Hume Freeway and Tumut, is reliant on high country grazing and softwood plantations.
Climatic conditions can be challenging with snowfalls in winter and an annual rainfall of 900mm.
The Onus family arrived at Adjungbilly in 1989 from Mungindi, in far northwest NSW, where they ran a 1000-ewe Uardry Merino daughter stud.
"We saw an opportunity to run more sheep in this country," Charlie said.
"When we arrived our neighbours were running Angus cattle so we settled on using local Bongongo Angus-blood females.
"We started with heifers, cast-for-age cows and some bulls."
Today, their operation stretches over the 1214ha freehold property, Woodside, and 4048ha of leasehold pine plantations.
Owned by NSW State Forests, the radiata pines are growing on a 30-year sawlog regime.
Of the 4048ha, 2834ha is planted to pines, 1214ha is steep, unimproved country, and 161ha surrounds the old homestead, Kileys Run.
Often visited by pioneer poet Banjo Paterson, Kileys Run is the setting for his famous poem, On Kileys Run.
Now in ruins, the home built from locally quarried basalt, boasted beautiful views, often admired from the veranda by Paterson.
The pine plantations are pivotal to the Onus family's enterprise, dictating all important dates on the cattle calendar.
Mustering, joining, weaning, pregnancy testing and stocking rates revolve around feed availability in the plantations.
"The mustering must be done in blocks of 1000-2000 acres (404-809ha) using the dogs to push the cattle into open country," Charlie said. "We will muster for two to three hours and then leave the cattle alone. It is time consuming and can take up to two weeks to get 100 calves for weaning."
"Any calves that are missed, are picked up at a later muster."
Charlie has put together a nucleus herd of bull breeding females - stud cows from Bongongo, Eulonga and Narrangullen.
He selects sires from specific Angus bloodlines to breed up to 30 bulls a year.
Bulls are chosen for their birthweight, calving ease, 400-day growth, marbling, eye muscle area, and positive rib and rump fat estimated breeding values.
Herd bulls are selected at weaning on temperament, structural soundness, and phenotype.
They are then tested for serving capacity before being joined at two years of age.
They are allowed to mature to three years before tackling the challenging plantation environment.
"We are not trying to breed curve-bender bulls or the biggest cattle on the planet," Charlie said.
"Because of our difficult environment, the cattle cannot be extreme - we are after quality, not more kilograms of beef."
When it comes to the cow herd, Charlie is tough on fertility and mature cow size.
He likes a moderate framed, feed-efficient female able to conceive on the first heat cycle.
"We join 300 heifers for a tight calving pattern by removing the bulls after six weeks, and pregnancy testing two weeks later," Charlie said.
Heifers are placed on a rising plane of nutrition to reach a critical mating weight of 300kg by 14 months.
Any cows not pregnant after the second cycle get a "special tag and a holiday" (sold).
The weaners and finisher steers graze improved and native pastures on Woodside.
"This year we drilled oats and perennial ryegrass into our phalaris based pastures, resulting in a good hay cut," Charlie said.
The native pastures are aerially fertilised with 100kg/ha of single super every second year while the improved pastures are fertilised each year with similar rates.
"We are a breeding operation so don't get the full benefit of any high performance pastures," Charlie said. "We stock conservatively so we cannot run out of feed in the pines.
"Based around that feed availability, the calves are yard weaned in May and sold at the Gundagai weaner sale in June.
"If feed is short, the calves may be weaned as early as February. That happened in 2006-07 when the drought killed 30-40 per cent of the pine trees."
During the seven to 10 days of yard weaning, the cattle are taught to accept dogs. For the past five years, the family has sent about 100 steers a year to Cargill under the Certified Australian Angus Beef program.
In this year's CAAB Quality Awards, they received a certificate of excellence for overall conformance.
Will, 26, and Simone collected the award at a dinner in Melbourne.
Will returned to the farm a year ago after working for a music management company and still produces computer-generated electronic music from his rural base.
"It has been a steep learning curve but there are some fantastic short courses I have done on animal health and agronomy," Will said.
The family has come through a bumper spring and was able to produce 500 tonnes of pit silage and 500 large square bales of hay.
