Since 1965 Keith and Betty Douglas have produced grain and cattle on their 3000 acre property "Keigho"at Mullaley near Gunnedah.

But rocketing costs for fuel, fertiliser and insecticide have forced the couple to wind their grain operation back while expanding cattle production on the property.

Keith Douglas said that it was one of the best management decisions that they have ever made, particularly with the recent boom in beef prices.He and Betty, their son Graham and his wife Glenice now make the majority of their income from crossbred milk vealers.

Most of the couple’s recent success with beef has been due to the introduction of Limousins to their beef program in 1996. Although the couple had established a fairly successful beef outfit based on breeding purebred Santa Gertrudis vealers in 1996 they noticed that other cattle producers were getting better returns with crossbred vealers.

"We had always found that the Santa’s were great for calving, good foragers and were pretty resistant to bloat and insects but the blokes who were crossbreeding seemed to finish their vealers quicker and get better returns than we did for our purebred vealers," Keith said.

A friend recommended Limousin bulls and Keith said he was immediately attracted to the muscling and yield of the breed.

"We’ve tried a fair few different breeds of cattle on the property over the 30 years that we’d been here but that first lot of Limo cross vealers in 1997 were the best we’d ever had. We were turning off beautiful muscular calves that weighed up to 350kg straight off the cow."

He said that there was also an unexpected benefit to using the Limousin bulls.

"We used to find that the Santa bulls would get a lot of injuries from grass seeds getting into their sheath. We’ve never had a single problem with the Limousin bulls, they’ve been really hardy."

After this initial result the Douglas’s decided to phase out their purbred program completely, retaining only their purebred Santa Gertrudis matrons to cross with their Limousin bulls.

Their operation now stands at 300 Santa Gertrudis females and 8 Limousin bulls.

"We don’t buy Santa cows with papers but we make sure that they’re pretty well bred and well put together."

He added that he is very picky when selecting news bulls. Keith said it is vital to get a bull that is quiet with good feet and general conformation.

"We want to get at least three good years out of our bulls. The country is pretty hilly so they need to be able to get about and do their job without breaking down."

He added that because Santa Gertrudis females are later maturing and usually don’t fall pregnant until they are 16 to 18 months old he wants extremely fertile bulls so that no females are left empty.

He has found that the best way to ensure that every female in the herd produces a calf every year is to leave the bulls running with the cows all year round.

"As well as giving the cows more chance to get in calf it gives us a nice even spread of vealers throughout the year. We’ve found that good for a couple of reasons, firstly you can deal with the vealers in smaller mobs that are easier to manage and secondly if there’s a slump in prices at one time of the year it doesn’t matter so much because you’ve spread your risk out over the entire year."

Keith said that the low birthweights of the Limousin cross calves, combined with the easy calving of the Santa Gertrudis females has meant that calving difficulties are virtually non-existant.

"We get nice litte calves but they grow really fast from the minute they hit the ground. I think that’s partly because of their breeding and partly because they are on excellent feed."

Keith and Graham have planted improved pastures across the majority of the 3000 acre property, relying heavily on the use of clovers, dryland lucerne and local summer and winter grasses.

"The lucerne and the Hi Foot White clover have been the best of the lot. We try to plant about 300 acres of fresh lucerne every year so that we’ve always got a new lot to replace the paddocks that run out."

He added that the only problem with having such good pastures is the risk of bloat.

"The Santa’s are excellent as far as bloat is concerned and they’re calves have been really good too. But we still keep bloat oil in the water and we also mix it with molasses and put it out as a lick."

The pasture improvement program complements the remaining grain production on ‘Keigho’.

"At the moment we’re planting 300 acres lucerne with a cover crop of barley to protect it from the frosts during winter. I’d like to think that we’ll be able to head about a tonne to a tonne-and-a-half of barley per acre. We sell that through our normal grain buyers and then we’ve got the lucerne and the stubble to feed off to the cattle."

The property generally receives 24 inches of rainfall annually but can get quite dry. Keith said he sometimes combats poor seasons by feeding a grain supplement but has a secert weapon in the native flora of the area.

"We’ve got a hell of a lot of kurrajong trees on the place and the cattle love them. Even when they’re standing knee deep in lucerne they’ll still reach up for a mouthful of kurrajong leaves. Being such a good tree in dry weather that helps us a lot."

Generally however, he avoids feeding anything but pasture to the cattle.

"The people that come bakc time and again to buy these vealers are after quality grassfed beef so we try not to stray too far away from what our buyers want."

Cows graze on the improved pastures year-round and are shifted into the better paddocks as they approach calving.

"By keeping the cows on good feed all year we know we’ll be able to turn out good calves in that 300-350kg bracket at about eight months of age. We always leave the calves on their mothers until the day they’re sold so we try not to let them run out too long or it takes too much out of the cows."

The property is Cattlecare accreditted which Keith said has been helpful in attracting top dollar a the local Gunnedah Sales.

"We’ve made sure that the yards are all up to scratch and everything is right so that when the cattle go to sale there’s no problem with brusing or anything."

He said while the Limousin bulls and their progeny have a tendency to be a little fizzy this is easily handled.

"People complain about Limousins being temperamental but we don’t seem to have any trouble. As long as you take them quietly and keep the dogs away they’re fine. It only stands to reason that if you give them a hiding trying to get them into the yards they’re not going to be in a real good mood when you want to do something with them."

"When we built our yards we built them on a circular design so that the cattle flow through easily and that’s turned out to be really good with these particular cattle."

While they don’t tend to pursue in depth carcase data after their cattle are sold Keith says that the result at the saleyards is all the feedback they require.

"We sell all of our vealers in small lots at the Gunnedah sales through Rex Carter and every time we take a mob in they either top the sale or go close to the top."

"At the last sale we sold a mob of 14 steers and heifers. The steers made 203.2cents per kilo and weighed 346kg so they returned $703.94 each. It was a really bad day for heifers but ours still made 182.6 cents per kilo and returned $572.15 each."

"That’s not bad money for cattle that are only 8 months old but it seems that a lot of people are looking for that type of beef. And when you’ve got people coming back asking for your cattle that are prepared to pay that kind of money then that’s all the feedback you want in my opinion."

Keith added that the other major quality check for the cattle happens at their dinner table.

"We’ll pull a heifer out for ourselves pretty regularly. The meat is excellent, there’s always just a good cover of fat and it’s nice and tender. That’s about the best way for us to tell if we’re producing the right kind of beef."