News
Salters push for sweet growth rate.
8th July, 2010
By Shan Goodwin (The Land)
SUPERIOR growth rates on the back of a commitment to modern management practices has southern Queensland Droughtmaster breeders, the Salter family turning Japanese export cattle off oats at 22 to 24 months.
David and Betty Salter, their son, Cameron, and his wife, Cheryl, and their other son, Shaun, and his wife, Sherry, run as many as 3000 head on 13'900 hectares across three properties - "Glen Fosslyn", "Cooma" and "Gaybrielle Downs" in the Glenmorgan and Surat districts of Queensland. They run a core breeding herd of about 250 stud females and 850 commercial females.
By using high growth and scrotal size estimated breeding values (EBV) bulls, the Salters have been able to lift weaning and turn-off weights upwards of 10 per cent and increase pregnancy testing rates in heifers to 93pc.
With these results, the herd has attracted strong demand for its commercial heifers, with orders now taken 12 months in advance.
Due to the good season in western and south-western Queensland this summer, the Salters said they could have sold their replacement breeder offering "many times over".
About 1100 core breeders are mated annually, with 1000 head weaned, of which 150 are sold as stud and commercial bulls.
As many as 350 go as Japanese export bullocks, 150 heifers are retained as replacements and 300 heifers are sold at 18 to 20 months as replacement breeders to other producers.
The remaining heifers, cull and cast-for-age cows are finished for sale annually.
Like many areas of southern and western Queensland' the Salter family's Droughtmaster operation is having one of the best seasons on record, although they are now looking to the skies for follow-up rain after the floods of March, particularly for the 240ha of Tipan and Moola oats planted.
If rain comes before mid July, they are hoping to plant another 250ha of oats.
During the Past five Years, the Salters have embarked on an extensive program of blade ploughing, and deep-ripping pastures to increase moisture penetration.
"Whether or not you believe in climate change, the experts are telling us that in this area we will be getting less frequent, but more intense, rainfall events and this seems to have been the case over recent years where we have received good falls followed by two to three months of nothing," Cameron Salter said.
"If we can break open the soil to let moisture in more easily during the large events instead of having it run off, we will have more moisture to be utilised by the Pastures. "It worked well in March when we had 250 to 300 millimetres (of rain) over five days and virtually no water ran off the country that had been blade ploughed."
Across the three Salter properties, the country runs from Poplar box, belah and wilga red duplex soils along the creek flats and drainage lines to gently undulating belah with scattered brigalow, Bottle tree, wilga and yapiunyah red earths and clays rising to ridges timbered with bendee and ironbark.
Native pastures include Queensland blue grass, curly mitchell, windmill grass, and digit grasses, however these have been predominantly replaced with introduced species such as buffel in the red country and bambatsi in the darker country.
Large areas have been blade plou[hed and seeded with buffel and silk sorghum in recent years to increase carrying capacity and moisture retention while controlling regrowth.
"Deep ripping of older, buffel grass pastures has released nutrients tied up within the root system and we now have about 8000ha of good quality buffel grass pastures” Mr Salter said.
Courtesy The Land 08-07-2010