Dunrobin grazier Bill Kirkwood was in the market for a new crush at Beef 2024, with safety and efficiency at the forefront of his purchase decision after his wife suffered a fall while working on their property.
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Mr Kirkwood's wife, Kit, was helping to move cattle when she slipped backwards from an older crush and onto an unimpressed Brahman.
"We want to make some changes," he said.
"Safety is number one and efficiency."
Mr Kirkwood said he had suffered from labour shortages as of late and that a new and efficient crush would help him run his operation with his wife and daughter.
"The difficult is in keeping staff. (This crush will make operations) less labour intensive."
Water technology, well pumps, pumping solutions and solar pumping were attracting the attention of sustainability-focused graziers at the Rockhampton Showgrounds.
"We're trying to show them all about renewable aquaculture management, trying to look after the environment. With solar pumping and (the use of our) windmill...you don't have to rely on diesel generated systems," Tatiana Delendik from Grundfos said.
With the tagline; 'Possibility in every drop', the water sustainability business was busy educating producers about the accessibility to renewable water use as well as the ease of remote monitoring from their mobile phones.
Damien Kelly said there had been demand for remote monitoring to help producers keep track of bores, troughs and tanks, especially in hard to reach places following heavy rain.
ThinkWater was promoting an array of products such as irrigators, pumps, Puretec filtration systems, Nelson valves and centre pivots as well as their most popular item - the Shark Wheel.
Jeff Reece said the wheels were gaining attention from producers as a solution to a common problem of flat tyres and field ruts.
"A traditional wheel goes flat and gets punctures...but the Shark Wheel (which has been on the market in Australia for six months from the United States)...alleviates flat tyres and instead of spreading soil out, when you run them on the front and back of a machine and they align and flow in a pattern, they will push the soil back into the hole rather than spreading it," he said.
Australian Cattle Back Rub co-owners Ciaran and Jayne Gentry from Toowoomba were back at Beef 2024 to promote their back rubs to treat fly.
The product is hung between two trees and coated in an oil and chemical mixture.
The cattle then rubs itself along the rub and coats its hide, in a "tried and tested" way to make the treatment of fly easier and more "economic" for producers.
Catagra Group's Richard Taylor said the Silencer Hydraulic Crush was a staple feature product for his business, attracting the attention of producers who were looking to slow cattle moving into the crush through an independent lower squeeze.
"It's reducing risk of injury to animals...and increasing speed of processing (while) reducing labour cost," he said.
Catagra was visited by past buyers who were raving about the use of the business' preg test machines which can detect pregnancy in cattle as early as four weeks.
"A lot of people have them and are saying this is such an improvement in terms of accuracy and fertility," Catagra's Angie White said.
"It's helping to get the information early and they're not wasting unnecessary feed. It's a viable investment."
