Meet Julian Carroll, a livestock producer from Mudgegonga in Northeast Victoria, about 50km south of Albury Wodonga. Julian runs Stellar Livestock and also manages a commercial cattle operation with his family. He is standing in a mob of 18-month-old mixed stud and commercial heifers. After moving their steers, Julian uses Optiweigh to keep a close eye on these heifers, ensuring they are growing well before they have their first calves.
Why Optiweigh?
Julian has been using Optiweigh for about a year and a half, having purchased his unit in November 2021. His initial reason for investing in Optiweigh was to fine-tune the turn-off dates for his steers. He calculated that gaining an extra 10 kilos per head on a B double could pay for the unit within a couple of years.
While young cattle, including steers, regularly go through the yards, it’s harder to pinpoint when they really start to grow well in September or October. Optiweigh allows Julian to know exactly when the cattle are hitting their growth spurts. This is valuable information when talking to buyers, as he can give them a more accurate timeframe, potentially avoiding the issue of cattle growing beyond the desired specifications and missing out on the best prices. Similarly, it helps avoid selling too early and having cattle that are underweight.
Using Data for Pasture Management
Julian moves his young cattle every five days. This means he’s constantly looking at a five-day rolling average for weight gain. Optiweigh provides insights into how well the cattle are performing on new pastures compared to older pastures. Knowing how clover content in pastures impacts weight gain helps Julian make informed decisions about where to focus their pasture renovation efforts. Checking the daily data updates in his email has become part of his routine.
Understanding Weight Fluctuations
Julian understands that weight gain isn’t consistent and can be like a “roller coaster ride.” This means he doesn’t react to every single daily fluctuation. Instead, he looks at the broader trend.
For example Optiweigh helps him identify if heifers aren’t growing as expected for the time of year. While he won’t make immediate changes based on one day’s data, it prompts him to consider his options and what management adjustments he might need to make if the trend continues.
Julian points out that we often assume a straight line of growth between two weight points taken weeks apart. However, real weight gain fluctuates. Optiweigh helps him account for environmental factors like cold weather or management practices like vaccinations, which can temporarily impact weight. By looking at the bigger picture, while understanding these influences, Julian can make more informed management decisions.
Considering Optiweigh for your operation? Just like Julian, you can gain valuable insights into your cattle’s performance and make smarter management decisions. Get a quote today.
Read the full transcript:
G’day, my name is Julian Carroll. We’re standing in a very beautiful autumn day in Mudgegonga in Northeast Victoria. We’re about 50 km’s south of Albury Wodonga. I’m from a livestock business called Stellar Livestock, and we also have a significant commercial enterprise that I run with the family, which we’re on right at the moment.
Sitting in a mob of mixed stud and commercial heifers, about 18 months old. And once we get rid of our steers in spring, the Optiweigh comes in with the heifers and just keeps an eye on them, making sure they’re hitting their critical targets for growth before their first calf.
Q: Julian, how long have you had the Optiweigh now?
It’d be, that’s more than a year, it’s probably about a year and a half. Pretty excited to pick one up back in November ’21, I guess it was.
Initially we liked the idea of following our steers to really nail the turn-off date. We figured if we could get an extra 10 kilos per head on a B double, this unit would pay itself off in a couple of years. So that was what initially motivated us to get involved.
We have the steers and make sure most young cattle come through the yards quite regularly, but when they really bloom in September or October, it can be difficult to pinpoint. And being able to know when they’re starting to kick and be able to ring up the buyer and say, okay, I reckon we’ve got three weeks ahead of us, is worth a lot.
Because otherwise, we end up with too many going over the top of the spec, and that’s the challenge because we’ve got to then put an extra 150 kilos on them to catch up to that same sale price.
And likewise, we want to get as many on board as possible.
So if we go too early, we end up with too many down low. We generally move these young cattle every five days, so we’re kind of very conscious of the fact that we’re looking at a rolling average weight gain over five days. So we’re always looking a little bit back in the rearview mirror.
What it does is it informs us how we’re going with the new pastures that we’re improving, where we’re going with the productivity of the old pastures. Knowing about Clover content in pastures and what that does to kick weight gain helps us have some idea about where we need to line up in front of us and what we need to spend money on with our renovations.
Part of the breakfast routine is to see what’s today’s update on in the data that comes through on the email.
And then we sort of think about the app more with the brackets of animals in, you know, certain weight brackets in the histogram. That’s really good to know. You know, it’s a real roller coaster ride with the weight gain, so you can’t sort of see something one morning and say right, pull the trigger and make a change. You’ve sort of got to blur your eyes a little bit and and look at the the broader trajectory.
So it’s really good to know that these heifers aren’t growing like they should be at this time of year. But they’re not going to go out and react straight away, but just think about that and think about what your options are in terms of what lever is going to pull to mitigate this if this trend continues.
I think what most of us assume is when we’ve got two two points or two weights in two different points of time, that we assume that when we’ve got, it’s two static weights, six weeks apart, that it’s a straight line between them. But in reality, it’s a roller coaster.
So what we really need to do is say think about how much noise we’re getting from the environment. So a cold wet stint or bringing them in for a vaccination, that’s likely to sit, give them a setback and wait. So it’s important for us to guess, blur the lines and look at the bigger trajectory, but understand what impacts we’re having with all of our management decisions.