theboys
Over 100 years ago, when our farm was vastly larger than it’s current 70 hectares, the holding probably stretched as far as the eye could see from our old farmhouse. Many properties of the area were mixed farming with beef cattle and dairy cows. The dairy produced cream which was left at the old cream box (still standing) and taken away to be made into butter. The original dairy buildings also still stand on our neighbour’s property. This continued up until about the sixties when the common market fell in the UK and dairying gave way to primarily beef cattle.
During the 90's, however, owners of this property used a portion of our land to contract rear diary heifers and were paid per kilogram of condition on weaner heifers until they matured into milk producing cows. However with the deregulation of the dairy industry in the early 2000s many small dairies in Queensland were wiped out when subsidies were removed and, in turn, this venture also became unviable.
Today the area of Kilkivan and surrounds is primarily devoted to beef cattle. At Fat Hen Farm we carry up to fifty head, depending on the season and buy weaner steers which we fatten to about 400kg, a process which takes about a year, whence they are sold at sale to feedlots. We are currently running Droughtmaster and Droughtmaster-cross (affectionatley called 'the boys' by our kids), but have also run Santa Gertrudis-cross.
Fifty hectares of Fat Hen Farm’s land is undulating hill country. It has been pasture improved with Rhodes, Bisset, Stylo and Cassia grasses. Stock water is reticulated throughout the farm and is serviced by a bore. Our ability to produce fodder crops on the Fat Hen Creek flats can also allow us to supplement feed to the cattle when necessary (see 'Fodder Crops' ).
