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Borden mixed farming guru Paul O’Meehan reveals secrets to successful enterprise

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Paul O'Meehan at his feedlot, near Borden.
Camera IconPaul O'Meehan at his feedlot, near Borden. Credit: Zach Relph/The West Australian

Borden mixed farming guru Paul O’Meehan has revealed his top tips for successfully scaling up the family farm — and they are surprisingly simple.

Speaking at Meat and Livestock Australia’s MeatUp forum in Northam on August 5, Mr O’Meehan — who runs a 5000-head cattle feedlot and crops more than 11,000ha — highlighted the importance of “proactive business and people management”.

With up to 14 staff working on his farm during peak periods including seeding and harvest, he emphasised the need to foster good workplace culture.

His philosophy — developed in 2009 with the help of friend and CEO Institute chair Steve Stanley — boiled down to three key aspects: vision, values and human resources.

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“Steve gave us 50 questions, and he said ‘I want you to pick a dozen questions out that are pertinent to your business’,” Mr O’Meehan explained.

“They were taken to our staff and I said ‘I want you to (develop) a vision (based) around these dozen questions’.

“I wasn’t involved, which is a bit daunting at first because you feel like you’re losing control … and these guys put together a vision of what they wanted to see happen in our business.

“It was entirely done by our staff … and it’s something that I couldn’t have done better myself.”

Mr O’Meehan said the vision outlined the need for an organised, efficient, effective and teamwork-driven operation that all staff could be proud of.

It has since been reviewed and refined every few years.

“It’s a great template, and what makes it so interesting is that it’s not what I think, it’s what my team thinks,” Mr O’Meehan said.

“That is the difference in why this works, because they feel they have ownership of it and they have purpose in the business.”

Mr O’Meehan — who also runs his own Stirling Ranges Beef brand — said values were just as important in the workplace as in one’s personal life.

“We’ve broken our values down into four segments: communication, work ethic or effort, teamwork, and openness or trust,” he said.

“Again, I wasn’t involved in this; I stayed out of the room … and it’s a credit to the guys who came up with this set of values and something that I’m very proud of.”

Mr O’Meehan said human resources were a critical part of the business, adding that establishing a well-functioning team was vital to the execution of a successful farm.

To achieve this, he created several opportunities a year for his staff to give input and receive feedback to better understand the farm program.

“Human resources just as just as important as doing a farm plan, just as important as doing a budget, and just as important as servicing the tractors before seeding,” he said.

“It is just a critical part of business and we do not negotiate on this.

“We have four or five meetings a year; they are usually based around pre-seeding, pre-harvest, post-seeding and post-harvest.

“Steve runs these meetings, which is critical because his independence is what makes it work and why people believe in it.”

Mr O’Meehan took over the management and operation of the family farm in 1990 from his father, whose grandfather established it in 1906.

In 1990, he was cropping 1500ha and running 3000 sheep and a 400-head cow herd.

In 2008, he completed an Advanced Diploma in Business Management at Ballarat University.

Within five-years, he went from cropping 3500ha to 11,500ha.

“We doubled our plant but more than trebled our farming size in 2013, and achieved scale that fitted into our model,” Mr O’Meehan said.

“We currently farm about 11,300ha of crop, of which 8000ha is owned by an overseas super fund and the rest is owned by us.

“We operate a 5000-head licensed feedlot and our main customers are our Stirling Ranges Beef brand and Woolworths. We also custom feed cattle for other clients which include a couple of Wagyu clients.

“I’m very grateful to my great grandfather for getting off the train in the right place.”

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