By Linda Mantova, photos supplied by Sturt Plains

Opportunities are endless for Australian Brahman producers exporting live cattle to Indonesia, according to Northern Territory cattleman, Brad Inglis.

He believes producers can reap the benefits of the Indonesian President, Prabowo Subianto’s program launched this year to combat childhood malnutrition, which is aimed at providing every schoolchild and pregnant woman in the country with more nutritious meals including fresh beef and milk daily.

“That’s huge – 90 million mouths to feed beef to daily,” Mr Inglis said.

“An Indonesian selector I spoke to was very positive about the future potential of Australia to meet that demand,” he said.

Mr Inglis, who is a member of the NT branch of the Australian Brahman Breeders Association (ABBA), is on the committee to hold the upcoming conference in Katherine in May.

“We want speakers who will be 100 per cent positive about the Brahman job,” he said.

Operating Sturt Plains Station, 360km south of Katherine, Mr Inglis and partner, Lisa Dyer run a herd of 7000 grey Brahmans, including 2700 breeders, and the family group have been exporting cattle since it began.

“Lisa’s parents, John and Val Dyer, have owned Hayfield since 1974, and through a succession plan we have subdivided 1000 square kilometres which we operate as Sturt Plains Station,” Mr Inglis said.

Shipping 18 decks of Brahman steers to Indonesia late last year, the couple believes a grading system should be introduced to the live export market.

“Live export is our main market, but we have sold our cattle to bullock growers over recent years when the market has been strong, and to some feedlots down south, mainly because it was a bit better money than the export job at the time,” he said.

“However, at the moment export is where we are at. We load trucks here and the cattle are weighed at the Katherine weighbridge, with our most recent steers averaging 405 kilograms.

“For the feeder job, they have pretty strict rules and like a straight clean coated Brahman.

“There’s a lot of people caught with cattle up here at the moment. It’s now back to what it was 25 years ago. I remember when I was young the selector used to come out and assess the cattle – they were always pretty strict on brindles, crossbreds etc.”

While the live export job has been pretty good for a long time, Mr Inglis and Ms Dyer are both disillusioned with the lack of a premium offered for quality Brahman cattle.

“We can go and spend $20,000-$30,000 each on bulls and produce a beautiful article, putting a lot of effort and time into our cattle and then we get the same money as others that aren’t the quality of ours and some other producers,” Mr Inglis said.

“When the demand is quiet and also when some exporters may run short to fill a boat, we do usually get a phone call so that’s a positive,” he said.

“For northern Australia to improve their herd, they should introduce a grading system of an A, B, or C category, where cattle still meet the specifications, but you receive a premium for premium cattle.

“That might encourage people to improve their herds, and help the breed as well, as the perception of Brahmans in the north, especially territory cattle, is that they are all wild and woolly and the quality isn’t there, but there are some high quality/well handled Brahman herds in the north that are a premium product.

“An exporter was looking over our cattle and said to me ‘how do we get everyone to produce this quality’. I told him there is no incentive for anyone to do this mate.

“What incentive have people got as everyone gets paid the same price. If we can get people looking over the fence saying why are you getting paid 20-30c/kg more, then that’s a good thing, and you will get producers to start to think outside the square and improve their cattle and their management.

“It will also make it easier for exporters to source cattle rather than travelling a lot of miles for six decks here and six decks there.

“If you’re talking to a feedlotter in Indonesia whose feeding 10,000 plus head, and he has got a line of steers that yield so much more due to genetics and quality, he’s winning. That has to be a benefit to them.

“I’m pretty passionate about it, and I’ve seen the benefits of what we do.”

Mr Inglis believes it has to start with the importers and buyers.

“We need them to say to the exporter, righteo there’s $3.30, $3 and $2.80 (for example), that’s your prices for different classifications. They don’t really want the $2.80 cattle, but if you find high grade cattle with clean heads, educated, nice cattle that are going to feed, pay the $3.30. It would change the industry regarding welfare, handling and management practices,” he said.

“Quality sells and this is the only industry that you don’t get rewarded for it.”

Mr Inglis said they bought their bulls at the Rockhampton Brahman Week, Elrose and Lancefield sales in Queensland.

“We love the Brahman’s adaptability in tough conditions,” he said.

“The last quarter of the year here and the northern Australian environment can be very harsh, and you want cattle that will forage long distances and handle the build-up period – we believe Brahmans are the go!

“Our cattle are run on natural pastures supplemented with urea lick blocks in the dry and phosphorous based in the wet season, which is a big cost.

“We keep a line of heifers every year to join. There will always be demand for a quality grey female that suits a variety of markets. We sell a lot of replacement females to people and we get a kick out of that.”

Mr Inglis said they recently purchased a mob of registered heifers from Matt and Janelle McCamley, and will register and DNA all the progeny.

“We were commercially registering a few animals but now we are getting a bit fair dinkum and buying registered heifers from people that we trust,” he said.

“We sell over 100 commercial bulls annually, but these (new ones) will be registered and we’ll register the females and expand on that.”

Mr Inglis believes the tide is turning when it comes to popularity of Brahmans in the NT.

“I’m getting a lot of phone calls for my bulls, and there is a lot more people going back to reality as most of the country up here is really not suited to anything but Brahmans to be honest,” he said.

“People are starting to realise that if a selector comes out to draft their steers, unless it’s a clean coated, straight coloured high-grade Brahman, it’s almost not saleable.

“They need to be a quality grey honey or a clean red, as that’s what Indonesia wants so that’s what we should be breeding.

“I do think the job is only going to get stronger.”