Dandarriga Farms targets paddock to plate market

When Bruce and Elizabeth Wise moved back to his family farm with their own children back in July 2018, they had a vision for where they would like to take the cattle operation.

"Our overall business model is to move away from our traditional approach of what this farm used to do, which is essentially produce feeder cattle for feedlots, getting them to that 330- 400kg mark at age 14 or 15 months," Mr Wise said.

"We're still doing that... but the aim is to try and move away from that and transition into direct sales of cattle that are a little heavier in the 400 to 500kg range, trying to sell in quarter, half or full bodies.

"That will be our primary market... whatever we can't sell there we'll sell into the feeder market.

"I think what we really what to do is try to engage more closely with consumers. In the [United] States in particular they have these sort of buying clubs they've developed and the relationship between the consumer and the farmer is quite strong."

The 470 hectare farm is currently carrying 140 head of predominantly Angus cattle, with some Murray Greys that they're phasing out. In normal seasonal conditions it has carried between 200 to 250 head.

The family plans to use Angus bulls over Angus or Angus-cross cows. Mr Wise said they look for framy bulls, with low birth weight another key trait.

"The cattle that we sold [recently] they averaged around the 400kg but you could just see they had good-sized frames to put a lot of weight on for the feedlot but they will mature and you can get a prime product at that 450kg weight as well if your season is right," he said.

The operation uses natural joining with the aim of having product all year round, resulting in two thirds of calves born in spring and the other third due in March.

The Wises have been using one "American Angus style" bull over about 40 to 50 cows for a 95 per cent calving rate, with a couple of new bulls on the way to cover a further 10 to 20 females.

Mr Wise, who spent years overseas working with major agricultural companies through the International Finance Corporation, said it's only been recently that they've been making steps towards marketing the paddock to plate operation, launching the Dandarriga Farms website.

During their first 12 months they focused on infrastructure improvements such as fencing and taking advantage of dry conditions to desilt dams.

"The farm at this stage we're really still scaling up and we haven't really been able to scale up because of the drought," he said.

If there's one thing Bruce and Elizabeth Wise have brought to their cattle operation, it's an international perspective.

Mr Wise's parents ran a cattle and sheep operation at Dandarriga from 1978 until 2005, when they sold the farm to him. Living in England at the time, Mr Wise ran the cattle business in partnership with his parents and later another partner.

Fourteen years ago he met his now wife Elizabeth, originally from Argentina, at a cocoa industry conference in the Phillipines, a cross-continental romance was born, with her in the USA and him in Indonesia initially.

In July 2018, the couple moved home to Dandarriga, where they're now raising children Charlotte, Josephine, Benjamin and Clara, each born in a different country.

The Wises have brought a truly global point-of-view to the business, right down to connecting with a growing Latin American community on the Darling Downs.

Mrs Wise said their Latin American friends were already keen to see if they would be able to supply cuts of beef more typical to South America, including skirt and flank.