Sustainable cattle farming
The biggest challenge of modern cattle farming is to be sustainably profitable. Kylie Schooley gives a first-hand account of the work on her grazing business at Rocky Springs in Queensland.
Sustainability – both in an environmental and animal welfare sense – are very important to us on our 6000ha south eastern Queensland property, Rocky Springs.
We raise cattle for the European Union market and have about 1,600 cattle on the property at any one time. We want our cattle in top condition. To make that happen we ensure our animals are treated well, and we constantly improve our infrastructure, including the installation of new watering points and upgrading our pasture country.
We focus on nutrition by continually assessing our pastures, spelling paddocks in the wet season and supplementing cattle when necessary. This pays because healthy cattle are productive cattle.
We focus on how we handle our cattle by spending time with them as young weaners and familiarising them with cattle yards etc. We believe that cattle need to be taught how to handle pressure. We like our cattle to be responsive and do what we ask in a timely and efficient manner. We want our cattle to feel confident when confined in a small space, like a truck, not frightened. We feel that if cattle are not stressed in yards or infrastructure, they weigh more, and this also increases production.
We focus on husbandry practices by branding our cattle at an appropriate age. We have mostly polled cattle. We make sure people who work on our cattle are appropriately trained and competent. We give pain relief to our cattle at dehorning and castration because we believe it is the right thing to do, and we have observed that they are more comfortable. Comfortable cattle are productive cattle.
I believe the biggest challenge is to be sustainably profitable. Unfortunately this is not entirely in our control. Certainly graziers can operate excellent businesses with an eye for best practice animal welfare and grassland management; however, community pressure and political decisions can have a very immediate and damaging effect to our bottom line. The disaster that is playing out in northern Australia right now demonstrates this beautifully. Here we have an animal welfare and human train wreck initiated by media wildfire and political expediency, followed up by a nasty drought.
I believe passionately in education of our community so that political pressure is applied with intelligence and understanding. If graziers are to be held accountable to the general public, then at least let’s have our communities understanding the complexity of our businesses and the science behind our animal and land management practices.
Kylie Schooley grew up in the Eidsvold district. In 1991, Kylie completed her veterinary science degree, graduating with 1st class honours. She then spent the next nine years pursuing her veterinary aspirations. Kylie married in 1999 and moved back to the bush. She and her family now have a grazing business at Rocky Springs, a property also in the Eidsvold district. She is involved in several community groups and teaches her children by distance education.Kylie is a part of Target 100, an initiative that aims to deliver sustainable cattle and sheep farming in Australia.
