Regenerative grazing practices — Strathalbyn | Page 3

STRATHALBYN STATION RESULTS

The Hughes family acquired the 32,000-hectare Strathalbyn property in 2004, which at the time consisted of approximately 10 paddocks and was set stocked with occasional wet season spelling.

They undertook RCS training and attended Holistic Management activities with Rodger Savory and Brian Wehlburg. In 2015, a new rotational grazing system was implemented, inspired by Dick Richardson’ s Grazing Naturally approach, with stock numbers adjusted based on forage availability.

Over the next five years, significant improvements were made to the property, including the installation of 150km of fencing, increasing the number of paddocks from 10 to 69, and installing 90km of piping, 60 troughs, and 25 new tanks.

This created a connected network of watering points and close to 70 paddocks, reducing grazing‘ hot spots’ and ensuring a more even distribution of grazing pressure. This allowed for greater utilisation of the entire property and reduced over-utilisation, particularly on the productive heavy clay soils.

Additional subdivision of paddocks and installation of more water infrastructure has since been completed, with a focus on managing serious weed infestations, such as rubber vine on black soils and dense bellyache bush off the Burdekin River and its tributaries.

Pasture improvement in these treated areas has resulted in improved grazing conditions across the property. The property also transitioned from a predominantly Brahman-based herd to a fully Wagyu herd since 2015.

In 2015, when the property was primarily set-stocked with some wet season spelling, approximately 3,700 females were pregnancy tested. By 2017, the number of largely Wagyu-infused females tested increased to around 6,000, reaching a peak of over 7,200 in 2020, with nearly 5,200 calves branded from 5,450 PTIC. Refer to Figure 1.

Female numbers decreased in 2022 following the acquisition of the Collinsville property, Amberkolly Station, which led to the restocking of heifers from Strathalbyn to Amberkolly.

In 2015, approximately 1,742,000 live kilograms were carried on Strathalbyn, reaching a peak of 3,393,000kgs in 2020. There was a slight decline in 2022 as heifers were transported to Amberkolly, with 3,023,000kgs in 2023. However, there has been a steady increase in live kg carried since 2015. Refer to Figure 2.

Using a standard 350kg animal weight, the stocking rate at Strathalbyn has nearly doubled in the past decade and has remained relatively stable at around 3.5ha to 1 AE since 2020. Refer to Figure 2. The improvement in stocking rate has been largely unaffected by rainfall variations, which have fluctuated significantly over the 10-year period. For example, the rainfall gauge at Bonnie Doon paddock recorded 288mm in 2016, 330mm in 2018, 576mm in 2020, with a peak of 790mm in 2022.

Wentworth Cattle Co., the owner of Strathalbyn Station, has adopted similar grazing practices across all properties owned and managed by the company.

4,000,000

Figure 2: Strathalbyn live kg carried and stocking rate 2015-2024.

2022 commenced trucking heifers to stock Amberkolly

Live kg

3,500,000

3,000,000

2,500,000

2,000,000

1,500,000

1,000,000

500,000

0

6.00

5.00

4.00

3.00

2.00

1.00

0.00 ha / AE( based on 350kg average animal weight)