Narrogin producers take a customer focus to stay viable and relevant in livestock industries

“If you are not the biggest you need to try and be the smartest, or different.”
That was the message from Narrogin pork producer Dawson Bradford Jr at the recent WA Pork Producers Association Industry Day, held at the Pan Pacific Hotel in Perth on August 25.
The Hillcroft Farms owner, who farms with his father Dawson Bradford senior, said he was the first to admit his property was “not the biggest”.
“We’re not the biggest, and I’m not going to be the smartest, so we have got to go different,” he said.
“That’s one of our philosophies we’ve had on farm.”
In that bid to be different, the Bradfords have created a “vertically integrated” mixed farming system that is “customer focused”.
It allows for three generations of family to work on farm, with 18 total staff.
Eleven of those work in the piggery which holds 1400 sows “from furrow to finish”.
Mr Bradford also operates a 16,000 head UltraWhite sheep flock and stud, and crops 2500ha of wheat, barley, canola, and hay, as well as making 7000-8000 tonne of silage.
The piggery turns off 650-700 baconers each week, and makes up 50 per cent of total farm income.
His sheep and cropping programs both make up 25 per cent of income.
Mr Bradford said to improve the animal welfare of the pigs and produce a better quality pork product, the farmers have “reinvested” in three new piggery sheds — which they built themselves from imported materials.
“We build all our own infrastructure — it’s a big part of trying to keep capital costs down and trying to get a return on our dollar,” Mr Bradford said.
“If we can’t get a premium price for our product in our marketing, or relationships, we have got to make sure that we can keep our returns positive, and the only way to do that is keep our costs down.”
He said the three new sheds were not an “expansion” of the operation but an upgrade for better performance and improved welfare outcomes, as they work to decommission two piggery sheds that were built in the 1980s.
“Our first shed was built in 1982, and we’ve put five floors, three roofs, and re-penned it about four times, and it still doesn’t work,” he said.
“It’s a poorly designed shed.”
He said it was important to reinvest in the industry because “if you are not proud of the industry” and if “you can’t get press on farm and be comfortable with what they see, it’s just a time bomb that will go off, in time”.
Piggery staff collected and process all semen from the Duroc breed to “try and get a premium market” through improved genetics.
“We have gone down this line to try and make sure we can be there in the future — we are not the biggest so we have had to differentiate ourselves,” Mr Bradford said.
“If we can get a marketable difference for our product we have some hope of matching on price.”
The UltraWhite stud and commercial ewe and lamb flock provides income through prime lamb production, as well as via ram sales, with 450 stud rams sold each year — although “there’s a goal to reach 2000 rams per year”.
“That might be a struggle this year in terms of how the meat industry has gone but the lamb industry will be here to stay,” Mr Bradford said.
There’s a 3000 head feedlot on farm, set up for 500 head per pen, which has shade cloth coverings due to the improved “animal welfare focus”.
The UltraWhite is a wool shedding sheep breed which means they don’t have to worry about mulesing, crutching, or the fluctuating wool market, shearing costs or wait times.
Mr Bradford said the stud rams supply semen that has been exported to New Zealand, China, Mongolia and the United States to assist in growing the international flock.
Hillcroft Farms holds 4000 tonne of grain in silo storage and operates its own small fully automated feed mill which can process 12 different grains and meals at a rate of 10 tonne per hour.
“We got it in from China six or seven years ago and it’s been good — we’ve had very little trouble with it,” Mr Bradford said.
The farm also took up “a commercial opportunity” to be an agent for Milne Feeds in the area as a way to generate another source of income.
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