Since 1991, the Australian Feedlot of the Year Competition has aimed to encourage continuous improvement within the feedlot industry and to recognise those feedlots that are operating their business at the forefront of the principles of the National Feedlot Assurance Scheme (NFAS).
The feedlot industry prides itself on the integrity of our long-standing quality assurance scheme, and this competition shows the dedication our sector has to fulfilling the high standards we sign up to.
This competition continually showcases what high-performance in lot feeding looks like and inspires and encourages businesses alike to operate at the very best standard.
This year, we have six entrants from across Australia who are vying in their respective categories to be named 2024’s Australian Feedlot of the Year at ALFA’s BeefEx 2024 Conference held in Brisbane on 15-17 October.
In the 3,000 – 8,000 head category, NSW’s Gundamain Feedlot has been named a finalist. Read on to find out more about their story.
Gundamain Pastoral Co is an intergenerational family owned and operated agribusiness. Based in Eugowra, NSW, Gundamain has been producing high quality food and fibre for over 150 years. At the forefront, Gundamain has a commitment to best-practice animal health and welfare, and sustainable farming practices.
What are your business values?
VISION
The Gundamain group will continue to be a fully sustainable, adaptive, resilient and intergenerational family agribusiness producing high quality food and fibre for domestic and export markets.
MISSION
This vision is achieved by commitments to:
Operational excellence
A sense of strategic purpose
An optimistic and positive approach.
Inventiveness initiative, and adaptability
Honesty and transparency
Strong long term business relationships Fast, effective and efficient processes and systems
OUR VALUES
Respect for and care of the natural resources under our stewardship – animals and the land
Prioritising our people, their lives, their safety and their contribution to the business.
Accountability and responsibility
Quality – of product, of process, purpose and performance.
Strengthening community- contribution to local community through inclusivity and trust.
What does animal welfare look like at your feedlot?
Gundamain Feedlot is committed to ensuring the welfare of the cattle under its care is maintained at all times. Gundamain addresses in welfare in terms of the five freedoms:
Freedom from hunger and thirst, discomfort, pain, injury or disease, Freedom to express normal behaviour and freedom from fear or distress.
Other initiatives include:
The feedlot is fully shaded with dedicated bedded hospital pens.
intensive training monthly by the consultant veterinarian,
low stress stock handling on site,
diagnostic tools for identification of antibiotic use
weekly benchmarking in reporting of animal health data.
A fully trained livestock team- Gundamain has seven accredited Animal welfare officers who have completed the ALFA training
At a minimum Gundamain is compliant with state legislation, the Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines for Cattle, Animal Welfare Standards and Guidelines - Land Transport (NSW 2020) and the Fit to load guide. Gundamain animal health and welfare policy looks to a standard above this – to a “Life worth living” (Dr. Temple Grandin) and the Caregiver principle advocated by Dr Tom Noffsinger.
How would you describe the feedlot’s focus on community engagement?
The business is heavily involved in its local community. The town of Eugowra (population 500) is located 4 kilometres from the feedlot site. Most employee are long term local residents. Others are attracted to the “tree change “concept of living and working close to a small town, but with larger towns within half an hour.
All staff accommodation offered is within 5-10 kilometres of Eugowra. The town offers services to attract employees including two primary schools, supermarket, bank, post office, clubs, Multi-Purpose Health Centre, doctor, chemist, other retail and a pub. The business has strong relationship with neighbours who provide silage cattle and grain and who in turn use manure from the feedlot.
Gundamain is the major sponsor of numerous local events, sporting teams, and fund raisers.
These include:
being major sponsor of the Eugowra Golden Eagles (with 3 employees currently playing- and many current employee’s ex-players)
major sponsor of the Eugowra Show including pavilion prizes
sponsor of the annual major trotting event the Canola Cup
fundraisers such as the Cancer Council Biggest Morning Tea- where a donation is made and smoko provided for staff (a win- win!)
support for the local preschool and long day care centre
the Eugowra Men’s Shed
product contributed to the Relish Eugowra event held at Eat Your Greens Function centre in Eugowra, showcasing locally produced food
sponsorship of local events such as Woodfired Eugowra held in August each year
sponsor of Ladies draft at Condobolin Campdraft – two employees are members of this committee
Gundamain has an open-door policy for site visits- these include high schools (not just local, many are out of region), and universities.
the feedlot also accepts work placement requests from high schools, universities (including Horizon scholars), and TAFE (Tocal).
this year Gundamain hosted a university student from Toulouse in France, whose agricultural study required he spend 12 weeks in an English-speaking country working in an agricultural business. We have signed again for this program next year- and will partner with a neighbouring large intensive dairy to host more international students.
What's next?
Gundamain Feedlot now moves on to the second round of judging, which involves an independent judging panel made up of industry representatives evaluating key areas within these pillars including innovation, employer attractiveness, responsibility throughout the supply chain, and community engagement. These factors aid in distinguishing the top performing feedlots from the pool of entrants.
ALFA commends the incredible work these feedlots have done to become finalists, and for the efforts they make in continually meeting and exceeding the NFAS’ requirements.
More information on the Australian Feedlot of the Year Competition can be found on the ALFA website at feedlots.com.au/floty.
The Australian Feedlot the Year Competition is an initiative of ALFA and proudly independently run by the leading provider of agribusiness auditing, certification and training services, AUS-MEAT Limited.
Kommentare