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 8,000 – 15,000 head category, Hancock Agriculture’s Gunnee Feedlot has been named a finalist. Read on to find out more about their story.
What are your business values?
Animal Welfare is one of our highest focuses – our business supports the motto of HAPPY HEATHLY CATTLE ARE THE BEST CATTLE. We display signage around our site to reinforce this messaging and we verbalise this belief in discussions with our people and with our customers.
At all times we will strive to be the best Feedlot in Australia, through attention to detail and commitment to our cattle and people – safety in operations, confidence in product quality, reliability.
Mutual respect for each other is how we will work together into the future – looking out for each other’s safety, supporting our teams to ensure our operations can be performed in a timely and efficient manner and encouraging continued improvement by recognition of positive outcomes.
How important is environmental responsibility and sustainable practices to your feedlot?
Our commitment to environmental sustainability reflects who we are as a business, it causes us to reflect on our duty and responsibility to protect the environment we operate in and underpins the values that contribute to the quality of our product.
We have a business and management culture supporting sustainable practices – we have invested significant capital into replacing fossil fuel powered pumps with, to date 328 500wt solar powered panels across our water pumping sites. Today we can state that 100% of our feedlot and farm water supply is provided via solar power generation.
Gunnee has made and continues to make significant capital investment into solar energy, progressively replacing energy source of fossil fuel powered water pumps and bores around the property.
Hot water systems on buildings and houses at Gunnee progressively being moved to solar powered systems.
What does animal welfare look like at your feedlot?
Animal welfare considerations are paramount in daily routine and procedure at Gunnee.
Starting with the backgrounding phase, the majority of our cattle arrivals come from our own backgrounding properties, where cattle are socialised for several months in mob sizes reflecting feedlot pen capacity. In the backgrounding phase we are able to select animals in similar weight range and type, and prepare cattle for feedlot entry through providing adequate time to socialise and build up immunity post vaccination with preventative respiratory vaccines.
Cattle arriving at our feedlot are presented immediately with Lucerne hay and clean water in receival pens.
Cattle are assessed individually by livestock pen riders every day and also appraised by feeding staff during feeding activities.
During spring to autumn period, we provide FlyBuster fly traps with yeast attractant to capture and control fly population – this program has proved beneficial to the comfort of cattle, horses and people. Gunnee was the first business to trial this product in Australia and the product has been in use for the past two summers.
Water troughs are cleaned and recorded weekly in cooler months and twice weekly in summer. We regularly engage a professional to perform foot trimming for cattle comfort.
How would you describe the feedlot’s focus on community engagement?
Gunnee provides annual sponsorship of various community organisations including Inverell Show, Inverell Junior Netball, Delungra Campdraft, Delungra ANZAC Day and Delungra Australia Day event.
We partner with WIRES to rehome koalas, which have lost mothers, to Eucalyptus trees on Gunnee – these koalas are tagged and monitored to monitor ongoing health and wellbeing.
Gunnee is open to visitation from individuals and community groups for feedlot tours.
We prioritise engagement with local suppliers where possible to source parts and services. We also have long term dealings with local farmers for supply of grains into our feedlot – further we work with these suppliers to fit in as best we can with their preferred delivery periods.
Gunnee 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.
