Any questions about Australia?

[Australian Cattleman]

Anyone like to know anything about Australia? Cattle related or any other things.
I'm interested to learn as much as I can about the US and Canada.

Colin

 

[Tod Dague]

Do you have branded beef programs? Are they breed specific, quality specific, or both?

 

[ranchwife]

what breed(s) of cattle do you raise? How much annual rainfall can you expect for your crops and what sort of crops are you able to raise in your area? How hard is "good" help to find? (lord knows it's hard to find around here....everyone wants a paycheck but noone wants to earn it!! :roll: ). What is the cost of living like in your neck of the woods? What about neighbors?....are they helpful and available in a "pinch" or are they more trouble then they are worth? What sort of government programs are there in Australia for ranchers/farmers in difficult times? What about your fuel prices? How do you do your irrigation for your crops....pivot/flood/wheel lines? There.....that outta give you a good start as far as questions go, Colin....and those are just from my kids...wait til the hubby gets home and we think of some more!!! ;-)

kris

 

[Cattle Rack Rancher]

Do the crocs eat your cows? 8)

 

[ranchwife]

Flint (my 9 year old history/geography buff) wants to know about those "very, very poisonous spiders that hurt people and are very aggressive"...think he called them funnel spiders!!

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Tod as far as I know the Hereford and angus breeds have breed specific branded beef,there are about 6 or so other groups that market a specific areas beef. Thats all I can tell you,if I get some more info will let you know.

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Ranchwife,answers to some of your questions,
We breed Hereford,South Devon,South Brahvon,Brahman and have Black Baldies. We run 300 head on our 1,000 acres at 3,000 feet (about 1,000 metres) We run stud herds of Brahman and South Devon.
Our average (supposedly) rainfall is 34 inches. We don't grow any crops at present but if we ever do it is oats through the winter and forage sorghum in summer. Some grow a little lucerne. This is not a cropping area,ours is cattle and about 20 klms to our west fine wool Merinos are raised. It tends to be a bit too wet to run sheep on our side of the mountain.About 100 miles to our north and our west you get into cropping. There they use pivot irrigators. Out in the flatter country flood irrigation to grow cotton is used. The northern part of Victoria state and the southern part of our state use flood irrigation to grow lucerne for dairying.
Good help is fairly hard to find,the same rule can apply,want the money but not do the work.
The cost of living is not too bad compared to the city,our biggest problem is variety we don't have a lot to choose from in our little town of 4,000. For a day out we either go 115 klms north of us to a town of about 15,000 or another 80 klms further to a city called Toowoomba (90,000 population)
To our east we have another city called Lismore which has a population of 45,000. Lismore is about 100 miles (160 klms) from us in the same state the other places are in Queensland state.
The price of fuel has gone up it is now about $1.10 a litre for petrol and about $1.15 a litre for diesel (the US dollar is worth about 75/77 cents of our money)
An answer to your son's question,yes there is a nasty spider called a funnel web spider which can cause death and another called a red back spider which isn't quite as bad. We have anti venom for each of these.
When I look back at your posting I'll answer other questions that I have missed.
Colin
We used to whinge when it was 85c a litre

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Ranchwife, a couple of questions that I missed.

Neighbours,generally they are pretty good,one of our neighbours doesn't mind running his cattle on our property as long as I chase them out.
His place is on the market so hopefully he may be gone soon.

Our government doesn't do a lot for the landholder,if we are lucky we get a rebate on transport of fodder in drought times. Exceptional circumstances is what they call it. Some might get interest cuts on loans etc. We usually don't qualify for much because of our off farm incomes.

Colin

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Answer to CRR question,
crocs don't touch our cattle because there isn't any in our area. They do take cattle up north. Crocodiles are generally found north of the Tropic of Capricorn. From a line level with Rockhampton Queensland across to Western Australia,north of that. A lot of the middle of Australia is desert so they are not there.

Colin

 

[Craig-TX]

Colin your info is interesting. I'm curious to know what land goes for in your part of the country.

Craig-TX

 

[Australian Cattleman]

Craig,land in our tablelands area (mountain area) ranges from 2-3,000 an acre. Down towards the coast it can be 20-30,000 per acre. The land toward the coast isn't that good for cattle they don't grow as well as our country or the better western country. The coastal is just lifestyle type land. In the coastal area to the east of us a lot of tropica/sub tropical fruits etc are grown. Avocadoes,Macadamias,Mangoes and Sugar Cane and a few low chill type stone fruits. There is still some dairying though that is being squeezed out by the urban sprawl.
Just an ordinary brick home on a small suburban block, is now hard to get for less than $300,000.
our family has 1500 acres of land about 75 miles by road south east of us,it is worth about $600 an acre. It not that good country.
Plenty of water and looks green but no guts in it. Not good British or Euro cattle country. Good Brahman and Brahman cross country.
Hope this has answered a question for you.
Apologies for any different terminologies I use. I'll explain if you have any doubts.
Colin

 

[docgraybull]

What are the prices of cattle in your area? Examples: 500-600 pound feeder steers/heifers, heavy bred (6-9 months) heifers/mature cows/old cows, slaughter (cull) cows, registered herd sires (variance between breeds)? Are flies and ticks a problem for you? How the heck do you dally off on a calf/cow that you have roped, on those Australian saddles that don't have a saddlehorn on them? :idea: What size pastures are common in your area? What type of fencing do you use? What is in Vegimite? Thanks.

 

[Australian Cattleman]

No roping is carried out here in Australia,only generally in the rodeo arena.
The size of pasture I take you mean how much each paddock is in size. On our places it varies from 50 to 100 acres,further out west it might be 1,000 to 3,000 acres.
Ticks are no problem to us because of our higher altitude. The only fly problem we have is Buffal fly which usually arrive from the end of the second month of summer till about the end of the first month of autumn. They go as soon as the first hint of colder weather. They really love black cattle and more often bulls are the most affected. They irritate the cattle causing them to rub till they cause sores usually around their eyes and on their necks.
Vegemite is concentrated yeast extract,I hate the stuff but most Australians like it,especially on toast or cracker type biscuits.
The price of cattle is rather variable at the minute,cull cows have been making any where from $1.10 to $1.30 per Kg
Better quality cows might make up to $1.60 per kg
Feeder steers might make from $1.45 to $2.00 kg
Under 200 kgs the price can be from $2 to $2.20 a kg,all these prices are on the hoof through our sale yards.
Registerd bulls 2 year old generally sell for 3 to $4,000.
Very few breeders ask for less than $2,200 for a bull,anything less is not worth it. Some of the minor breeds might make a bit less. We averaged $4,000 for our South Devons last year.There are still SD breeders asking $800 for bulls thats why it is hard to ask decent money when low prices are asked by some breeders. For $800 you get a bull that should have been a steer. Thats why some smaller numbered breeds fail to gain notice.
Depends on what area you live in. Brahmans make more money further north as well as other tropical breeds. British breeds do well further south. Inferior Angus bulls still make good money just because they are black.
Hope this has answered some of your questions
Colin

 

[CopeMan]

How much is a pound compared to our dollar? Was the Man From Snowy River filmed in the Victorian Alps? Is there much ranching done there?

 

[Australian Cattleman]

CopeMan I was merrily typing along,had a big long story to tell you then lost the darn thing.Here goes again.
2.2 pounds to the kilogram is the rough estimate
For each of your dollars (US) ours is worth about 75c currently.
Australian producers like it when its down to 50 to 60 cents. The only ones that this isn't good for is travellers to the US etc.
The man from snowy river was filmed in the Victorian alps.
Ranching as you call it is now not very prolific in the high country of Victoria as the Labor government of Victoria has just banned the use of this high country for grazing of cattle,a custom that has been going on for 150 plus years.
Landholders form the lowlands on both side of the mountains used to take their cattle to this high country during summer.
Dotted throughout this high country are many huts used by these graziers.I love the high country,especially the Upper Murray valley (where Murray Greys were developed) which is on the western side of the Australian alps it always seems to be green and pretty. The Murray river divides the states of Victoria and New South Wales (my state,I'm at the northen end of it about 1,000 miles away) and flows into South Australia then into the Great Southern Ocean. The actual Snowy river isn't very long it runs east into the Tasman Sea (the sea between Australia and New Zealand ) About 50 years ago they dammed the river and diverted it to produce electricity and to provide irrigation for northern Victoria and southern NSW. Otherwise a lot of that country would be useless.
They have recently rediverted a fair bit of water back into the Snowy because of the ecological problems they were having because of it. It has made a big difference apparently.
The Labor government in our country have never been very keen on helping those that want to get out and work and any that want to get ahead in life. They love the welfare side of things giving money to those that are wasters, in most cases.
Our Federal government is no problem its a shame that they don't run all the hospitals,police etc instead of individual sates.
Sorry if I've waffled on a bit. I tend to do that.
Hope I've enlightened you on a few things.
Colin