But while the yarding won’t have the weight of previous years, fodder crops of forage rape at the Hurley partnership, Dargo, turnips at Julie Rogers’ Bayrook, Gelantipy; winter wheat at Glenshiel, Gelantipy, an on-farm feedlot at Dale Rogers, Buchan, and a centre pivot irrigator at Buchan Station, Buchan, has helped get the calves to sale in store condition nonetheless.

The wonderful breeding of all these herds also shines through.

See our two-page feature on pages 52-53.

The following Friday, August 8, the associated Bairnsdale agents will hold their annual feature spring sale with about 2000 head from 11am. Full details next week.

* * *

LIKE their Australian counterparts US lotfeeders are operating on paper thin margins – as little as $12 a head.

Matt Tinkler, Elders livestock manager at Albury, reports on their visit to the 50-year-old Sandy Hill Feedlot feedlot at Taber, in Alberta.

Matt says it is owned and operated by Richard and Margaret Viser. Sandy Hill feedlot has a 15,000 head capacity and is currently running around 9000 head. Half of the feedlot’s 60 pens are allocated for custom feeding for cattle breeders in the region.

Owner Richard Viser, said more than 95 per cent of the beef

produced in Alberta is grain

finished. The Visers feed both steers and heifers and have commission buyers purchasing cattle weekly.

“Margins in feedlotting over the past few years have been very fine.

‘’Last week I sold some steers and cleared about $12 a head,” Richard said, “but I have to continue in this operation because of all this infrastructure”.

“We look to purchase yearling cattle between 800-900lb live weight (360-400kg) and weaner calves around the 600lb range (270kg).

“We are paying between 90 and 105 cents a pound (193-225Ac/kg) for yearlings and up to 115c/lb (246Ac/kg) for weaners”.

Main production of the feedlot increases into the winter months with capacity numbers on feed from October through to May.

“We aim to grow the cattle out to weights ranging from 1350-1400 lbs to best suit our trade and domestic markets. Although our winters are very cold the cattle do perform very well in the feedlots at this time.

“It also gives us a diversity with our enterprise over a period where a lot of producers cannot generate a lot of income,” Richard said.

The Visers buy their grain from the local area. However, they grow barley under irrigation, which they cut for silage in the feedlot.

The Visers are well regarded lotfeeders in the region, taking out the best pen of feeder steers at the Calgary Stampede for the past two years – not a bad feat.