A GOOD finish is vital, writes BRIAN CLANCY
"I guess you could say I'm really a grass producer," says South Gippsland cattle grazier Graeme Box.
For Graeme, who farms 620ha of coastal sandbelt country at Tarwin Lower and Walkerville, the steers or the bullocks are simply the converters.
"Hopefully, at a profit," he said.
Graeme concedes that, over the past year or two, the market for heavy export Japanese Ox-type bullocks had been far from profitable.
But, like many of his fellow South Gippsland bullock fatteners, or grass-finishers as they preferred to be called, Graeme said the profitability - apart from the margin between the buy and sale prices - depended on an efficient turn-out or finishing time, which can be anything from 12 to 24 months.
The skill of a producer to read the markets was also critical, he said.
Graeme runs 1000-1400 steers, easing numbers off before winter.
"At times, we are running a steer per acre," he said.
Regardless of the buying and selling strategies, Graeme said the first essential was to keep up a year-round supply of grass, ryegrass and clover.
A rural science graduate from the University of New England at Armidale, a Nuffield Scholar and a former member of the productivity group BeefCheque, Graeme is no stranger to the science of growing grass.
Certainly, an average 900mm rainfall, ranging from a dry year of 525mm to a wet year of 1000mm, is a big help.
The negatives are the cold and a soil heavily dependent on fertilisers.
"If you don't fertilise down here, you might as well give the game away," he said.
Fertilisers which are applied twice a year include triple and double super, DAP and urea.
Graeme estimated his fertiliser bill, using a contractor, was almost $250/ha.
"It is certainly our biggest input cost," he said.
To ensure maximum value from the fertiliser, Graeme runs his own research, with replicated 10m by 2m field plots trying a variety of fertiliser options.
The other big cost, he said, was the replacement steers.
With the downturn in the premium Japanese Ox market, Graeme has opted to buy lighter calves, of about 280kg, over the past 12 months.
Graeme uses local Landmark agents to find replacements, which have come from store and prime sales, privately and through AuctionsPlus.
Likewise, he uses Landmark to find and price his sales.
He prefers to sell direct to either processors or lot feeders.
At the recent Casterton weaner sales, Graeme bought almost 400 calves at a landed average price of $515 a head.
He said there were two reasons for the lighter calves.
In their first year, he said, they had a lower energy or feed requirement to get them through the first winter at Tarwin Lower.
But, more importantly, they provide an additional marketing option to be sold as 420kg feeder steers to feedlots.
If that option is not available, Graeme said he held on to them to finish as 600kg bullocks.
Graeme's preference is to buy Angus steers, as that's what the feedlots prefer.
All replacement cattle are drenched for worms, given a 5-in-1 injection against clostridial diseases, drenched for worms and given a trace element capsule for copper, cobalt and selenium.
In many instances, the younger cattle haven't been weaned, Graeme said.
He holds new arrivals in the yards and walks them up down a paddock laneway for two or three days "until they get used to me".
Cattle are segregated by age and grazed in mobs of 100-150 head.
Hay is fed during autumn and winter and cattle handling is kept to a minimum.
Graeme uses scales, but only weighs cattle when drafting to market specification.
He musters with a motorbike and dogs with help from his brother, John.
Graeme said he had been running a steer-only operation for 12 years.
Previously, he had a cow-calf operation, but abandoned that because he lost so many calves from scours.
Prior to that, Graeme and John farmed two properties cleared and developed by their father, Noel, in the 1950s.
