A SIMPLE philosophy of low stocking rates, quality pasture and hybrid vigour has helped Hartley Grazing Company general manager, Norton Crane, consistently produce top quality vealer calves at yearling weights.
Mr Crane said producing quality progeny was all about pursuing the most kilograms of beef a hectare, rather than cattle numbers a hectare, and broke it down to having a “good cow, good feed and a good bull”.
“More than 50 per cent of breeding the right animal for your market is what goes down its neck,” he said.
“We don’t chase numbers, we chase the kilos.”
Mr Crane runs two properties totalling 13,000 hectares – one under the Warrumbungles at Mendooran, the 10,000-hectare “Glencoe”, and a smaller property, the 3000ha “Karingal”/“Liddleton” at Hartley, near the Blue Mountains.
He manages the beef enterprise of former Australian Meat and Livestock Corporation chairman and mining businessman, Dick Austen, and his wife, Yvonne.
For more see this week's The Land.
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