No regrets in ‘smart move’ to WA Courtesy of FARMWEST NEWS

Jackie Shawcross and her husband Rohan made the smartest move of their lives when they started dairying in Western Australia; within 12 months their net income had more than tripled.

“We got an incredible surprise the other day,” Jacqui recalls. “I phoned the bookkeeperfor an income estimate to organise finance for somefarm equipment. She sentme back a block of figures and it just blew me away.

“My husband and I both sat there speechless. We had no idea things would be thisgood when we left Victoriato go to Western Australia.”

The decision to move to Scott River in the Margaret River region followed 17 years sharefarming and
managing dairy farms in northern Victoria. “We were both managing separate farms,” Jackie said.

“They were both completely different enterprises; I managed a herd of 280 stud Jerseys while Rohan
was milking 600 Holstein-Friesians on a big-scale farm. “We decided that if we were going to milk cows we might as well do it together.

We looked around Victoria but the drought made it very scary. Everything was so reliant on irrigation - we wondered if should we risk it, or should we stay with what we’re doing.”

They saw a sharefarming position advertised in a processor newsletter, but it was way across the other
side of the country. “We wondered ‘do we want to move this far way?’ But we flew over and had a look,” said Jackie.

First impressions were very favourable, she continued. “The climate was a big plus. We came over in December and yet it was very mild, neither real cold or hot and there was regular rainfall.

Everything was reasonably green and yet it wasn’t irrigated. We thought that was impressive and we started to really consider the prospect of coming over to buy cows and build assets.”

They worked through the budgets for a low-input farm. “We thought ‘it almost sounds too good to be true’. But no, it’s been that good. In fact, it’s been better than we thought,” she said.

“We will own our cows outright within two years of starting and our own tractor in three years.” They sold their new house in Victoria, paying off the remaining mortgage debt and bought 380 cows, mostly Holstein-Friesians with the occasional Jersey and Jersey crossbred. “A good commercial herd,” said Jackie.

They bought the cows from the man whose property they are sharefarming - Ross Woodhouse. He had owned the farm, one of three he owns, for 15 years. The Shawcrosses came to a dryland farm of around 405ha, complete with good laneways, an excellent fertiliser history and an adequate milking set-up - a 15-year-old, 28-unit swingover with auto feeding.

The cows, however, were a challenge. They came off another Woodhouse farm and were used to a rotary dairy. They were also the autumn calvers of a year-round herd, so calving “was a bit strung out”, said Jackie.

“There hasn’t been too much slog, although the calving was difficult. We weren’t set up. We were making calf pens as the cows were dropping the calves. We walked straight into it and we didn’t have the feeders when we needed them. “It was an equipment shortage and hopefully this year we’ll be a little bit more organised. And we’ve tried to keep the joining to an eight-week period.”

Making sure they get organised is their consultant, Glenys Hough, who crunches all the figures and helps secure finance through the banks. “Glenys did most of the dealings with the bank for us and it was so easy, the fellow was really keen to promote the dairy industry,” said Jackie.

“It’s just been astonishing. “It was a big jump but we haven’t felt that at all.” The couple, both 38, also
faced the task of moving their three children - Henry (14), Gary (12) and Courtney (7) across the country. “The kids breezed through it all, they were great,” Jackie said. “When we decided to go sharefarming we sat down and talked to them.

We explained that it would mean moving out of our new house, they asked ‘where are we going to go?’ “We got out a map of Australia and they sat there with their eyes getting wider and wider when we pointed to the other side of a map. But they just said ‘fine, fine. If that’s where you want to go we’ll go to school tomorrow and tell them we’re leaving’.”

And so Jackie and Rohan packed the three kids, the cat and dog into two cars and the family drove across the country to a new life. “The kids had only been at school for two days and they came home and said ‘we love it here’. They made friends straight away,” said a relieved Jackie. “It hasn’t been hard work.”

The parents too, found the transition easy, helped by the strength of the country. Jackie said: “It’s amazing country, you have to see it to believe it. It rained soon after we arrived and there was a foot of water laying on the paddocks and yet the grass was still growing. It’s very sandy so it doesn’t pug.” It is also very productive.
This season they cut 3000 tonnes of pasture pit silage as well as 140 big round bales of silage off 117ha. Supplementary feeding ranged from 8kg/cow/ day to 2kg, just to keep the rumen healthy.

Nor do the Shawcrosses have to stress about buying in grain. “We don’t have to forward buy,” said Jackie. “We know that in Western Australia there’s a lot of fodder available so we just deal with a stock feed agent. There’s a lot of fodder around. We can always purchase some.”

Ross gets an agronomist to soil test annually and, apart from a regular annual urea application and a bit of lime, there hasn’t been a heavy fertiliser regime. Nor has there been any need for pasture renovation.

The Shawcrosses discuss major decisions with Ross and Glenys but the day-to-day herd management decisions are theirs. “When to dry off or when to join, it’s our decision,” said Jackie.

They could lift the stocking rate, although the dairy capacity could limit the amount of cows the farm carries. The couple works together and each milking takes three hours to the completion of washdown.

Ross is considering installing a rotary and that will require staff, together with on-farm accommodation for the new workers. “Down the track we’d love to purchase this place but it depends on the figures,” Jackie said. “And then we think ‘we’re doing so well here why change anything?’

Once we own the cows perhaps we’ll invest in property off-farm. We love it here. It’s a great farm, in a great community and perhaps stay here and work for Ross. You know, there’s not a down

END

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