Feed lot success

Young business operator feed lots cattle to supply the domestic market and turns  out 75 head a week.

With not much to do and a fair bit of cattle knowledge under his belt, Cohunas Brad McKenzie decided to set up and run his own feed lot.
My dad was mucking around feeding a 100 cattle and I told him the only way to do it, was to do it properly, so here I am, Brad said.
Brad now turns out 70 -80 head of cattle a week through the feedlot he operates at Horefield.
Our cattle are sold straight to the abattoirs, direct to the processor, Brad said.
They come in at about 10-12 months of age weighing around 300 kilograms and go out at about 500 kilograms, 70 days later.
Cattle are set up in seven pens which aids in management and allows for greater stock control.
Setting the feed lot up this way is the only way to control 1000 animals. If they were out in the paddock they would be running all over the place. It gives you a controlled environment for management.
The cattle are specifically feed to put on around 2-3 kilograms of body weight a day.
For every 5 kilograms of feed they eat, they put on a kilo, Brad said.
They are feed a feed mix, high in grain to allow these weight gains to be achieved.
You have to know what you are doing. The cattle start out on a 30 per cent mix of grain and over two weeks, they work their way up to 74 per cent grain.
Brad said sick cattle can be a problem, so constant monitoring is required.
Some weeks you will have no sick cattle and the next week, you could have 10. Pneumonia is the biggest issue and this time of the year is usually the worst. Sick cattle are isolated in the sick pen and stay there until they get better.
Brads business is AusMeat accredited, meaning he can feed cattle to export overseas.
The Aussie dollar is too high at the moment so I havent really looked into that. When it drops I will look into contract feeding bullocks. I just need a heap more money and the time to sort it all out, he smiles.
When I first started grain prices were dear and I didnt make a thing. Now grain prices are cheap and the Aussie dollar is high and you cant compete on the export market, but there is no point complaining the domestic market is not too bad at the moment.