Western Australia’s biggest cattle feeding facility Koojan Downs showcased to the public for the first time

WA’s biggest beef cattle feeding facility has opened its doors to the public for the first time, with Harvest Road inviting cattle producers on an all-access tour of its new $50 million Koojan Downs facility near Moora on March 30. Owned by billionaires Nicola and Andrew Forrest, Koojan Downs has been under construction since March 2020 and has capacity to turn out 60,000 head of 100-day grain-finished cattle per year. It is currently home to 16,000 cattle on feed with capacity to hold 20,000 head — a figure that could be reached within three months. Surrounding the feeding facility’s 142 shaded pens, another 2000 cattle are being backgrounded (grazed) amongst the 8000 hectare property’s open paddocks. Koojan Downs — which straddles the shires of Moora, Dandaragan and Victoria Plans — is also home to a state-of-the-art feed milling facility pumping out 240 tonnes of feed a day. Harvest Road chief executive Paul Slaughter welcomed about 250 cattle producers, feedlotters and industry players — including 50 from the Eastern States — at the unveiling event, which coincided with the two-day WA Lot Feeders Association’s biennial Better Beef conference. Amongst the crowd were three Teys Australia bosses — Shane Bullock, Grant Garey and Ashley Sheahan — who oversee 67,000 head of cattle finished on feed in Queensland, NSW and Victoria. THE INS AND OUTS Harvest Road chief operating officer Ben Dwyer said Koojan Downs would establish a year-round cattle supply for the Forrest family’s growing beef empire, which includes Harvey Beef meat works in the South West. “It’s a vertically integrated cattle and beef supply chain, so we go from conception to consumption, which is not a new concept for our Eastern States guys, but it’s very rare in WA,” he said. “We get a heck of a run of great cattle through the spring flush (in WA), and then we run out of feedable cattle, so we’re trying to extend that season out with bunk feeding. “One of the main reasons that our business looked at building a large scale feedlot was so we had consistency and quality in supply throughout the year. “By building Koojan, we’ll be able to have a consistent supply to those customers… as reliable as our Eastern States processers, through the year.” Mr Dwyer said the the first pen of cattle were inducted during construction in late December, 2021, with numbers built up slowly in the following months. “We settled those down, and then we had to keep trialling and making sure all the infrastructure was working soundly, and then after that we started to add pens,” he said. “Once they get into backgrounding, we don’t really make the determination whether they’re pastoral or southern cattle. “If they’re good cattle, they’re good cattle, we don’t care where they come from once they get to that stage. “We’ve got some Brahman cattle here, we’ve got a lot of Droughtmasters… and then we’ve got a lot of black cattle (Angus) and other British and Euro breeds.” Other animals are sourced from the Forrest-owned Minderoo Station in the Pilbara, where Harvest Road has been working on breeding development for the past six years. Mr Dwyer said the Minderoo Composite breed comprised 75 per cent Bos taurus indicus content, including one third Brahman, one third Senepol and one third Bonsmara, as well as 25 per cent British breed (Angus) content. He said the composite breed was designed to be tropically adapted with good fertility, heat and insect resistance, boasting a good frame and eating quality that finishes on between six to 12mm of fat as well as a good proportion of intramuscular fat for eating quality. “We’re now stabilising that breed… and we’re very happy with the results,” Mr Dwyer said. “We’re targeting the meat eating quality and animal production… but most important is how the animal eats at the end of the process.” Cattle enter the feedlot at 420kg and are turned out for processing at the Harvey Beef abattoir at a minimum of 630kg liveweight. Mr Dwyer said Angus cattle were gaining about 1.8kg a day with the option to feed to 125 days while crossbred types were gaining 1.6kg. Asked what daily weight gain was required for the operation to be profitable, his response was vague. “Our profitability really depends on the profitability of the meat marketing at the other end,” he said. “It’s hard for me to answer that, because currently, anyone who’s grain feeding or processing, their margins are very narrow, or in fact, in the red. “It’s not a great time to be feedlotting, but it is a cyclical market, so you’ve got to rise up with the cycle and come down with it.” Surplus manure from the feedlot is spread across the property to boost the organic content of soils, while most roads and fence lines have been lined with trees to promote biodiversity and increase soil carbon content. ANIMAL WELFARE Harvest Road feeding facilities general manager Amanda Moohen said cattle were kept at a stocking density of 18 square metres per animal, well above the best practice feedlot standard of 12sqm found in the Eastern States. “We’re working on about 170 head per pen,” she said. Speaking at the event, consulting veterinarian Dr Lachlan Strohfeldt said the low stocking rate to gain a wellbeing uptake was equal to a fixed $30/head loss “straight off the bat” Mr Dwyer said it was Mr Forrest himself who made the decision following consultation with various experts, including American academic and renowned animal behaviourist Temple Grandin. “From a profitability point of view, it’s probably not maximising the pen space, but because we’re in this for generations, we really have a strong focus on animal welfare and we’ve decided to take that lesser margin out of the feeding to endeavour to try and spread the cattle,” he said. “But there was no science behind it… If you go and look at the cattle in the pens, you really can’t tell that we’ve got them at a lesser density from a visual (inspection). The animals don’t behave any differently.” Ms Moohen said all cattle pens were “100 per cent shaded”, which reduced the temperature by five to six degrees. “We’re very fortunate we’ve got the westerly wind as well, so that helps with heat stress,” she said. While the wind poses its challenges — including feed shrinkage and wastage — Mr Dwyer said it was a key determinant in choosing the site. “We get a good breeze in the summer… (and) the aspect of the breeze allows it to come through (in the afternoon) and you get the cooling effect in the evening,” he said. “The shade helps during the heat of the day, but it’s the aspect of the yard that really helps with cooling.” Another key reason for choosing the site was the quality of water available. “One of the positives about building the feedlot on a big sandpit was there is incredible water underneath it,” Mr Dwyer said. “The groundwater here is as close to rainwater as we’ll be able to get in the State.” Ms Moohen said all water was sourced from three bores. “One animal can consume between 50 litres to 90 litres a day, so with over 16,000 head, that’s a lot,” she said. FEEDMILLING Ms Moohan said cattle were fed a ration of tempered barley, lupins, molasses pellets and canola oil. “We’re feeding about 240 tonnes a day, roughly, at the moment; we’re milling 140 tonnes of barley,” she said. “We source 100 per cent of the grain locally. All of our hay and straw is sourced within 50km: all the lupins are coming from Bullsbrook, the pellets are coming from Perth, and for our barley, we’re really focussing on cultivating… our local suppliers. “Freight is a big killer over here for the logistics of grain… There’s two main CBH depots that are close, but the rest of the grain is coming from the northern Wheatbelt. “The mill’s been set up so we can do eight more big silos for storing.” Feedmill leading hand Ben Galvin said the mill currently boasted four main storage silos with a storage capacity of 4500 tonnes, and three commodity bays that could hold about 100 tonnes each. “All our grain comes over the weighbridge and it’s sampled and moisture tested before it gets accepted at the mill,” Mr Galvin said. “There’s probably about a truck every 10 minutes.” Ms Moohen said Koojan Downs was using “the best milling technologies in Australia for best practice feedlotting”. “Our setup is really technology-based for efficiencies, and also animal welfare… so the cattle are processed quickly,” she said. “We’re working very closely on the Grain Trading Australia standards to ensure that we’ve got consistency of the grain, because that will help with the consistency of our milling, and of course, with the consistency of consumption of our cattle “At the moment we’re working on 125 tonnes a day; we have a storage capacity of 30 days, so we’re always trying to utilise that storage.” Harvest Road head of ESG Scott Strachan said the mill was being run off several diesel generators, with plans to install solar panels in the “hopefully not too distant future”. “The plan is that the mill and the equipment down there will be over 90 per cent run from the beautiful sunshine we have here, with a small battery back-up,” Mr Strachan said. “(We are) really trying to decarbonise as much as we can and switch those generators off, which is great from a carbon point of view, but obviously also an economic decision. “We won’t have to buy in tank loads of diesel to run the place. It will be purely mostly powered from the sun, which is really exciting.” Ms Moohen said Harvest Road was working on ways to prevent feed shrinkage and waste caused by the strong westerly winds that batter the site daily. “We’ve had our challenges to try to hold the sand together during the summer months, and not export it to our neighbours,” Mr Dwyer added. CHALLENGES In his opening presentation, Mr Slaughter described building “the State’s largest feedlot” as an “ambitious project”. “We don’t have the size and scale of the feedlots on the eastern seaboard, so that threw up many challenges,” Mr Slaughter said. “It was an ambitious project to build, firstly on a large sand hill, and secondly a feedlot of this size and scale in WA.” RSA Contactors project director Brendan Ostwald, who led the panel discussion on the facility, said the variety of sandy soils on the property posed “the biggest challenge” of all. Mr Dwyer said there were “three or four” different sands across the site with “very different” permeability characteristics. “Our deep white sands are full of silica, so they actually repel water, and then we get to our other sands which pull water in,” he said. “Across the whole site, not just the feed yard, we’ve got a lot of challenges with the sand.” Mr Ostwald said managing effluent run-off was another challenge. “If you look at that feed yard, anywhere where there is effluent, there is, 450mm below surface, basically a white carpet which is bentonite-filled and layered across that whole site,” he said. “There’s 550,000sqm of effectively a white carpet… and we basically had to put a bentonite mud around that to ensure that there was no penetration, because this site very much sits close to the water table. “The owners did not want to ever be in a position where this facility could cause environmental damage to the water table. “There was a quality assurance procedure that was over and above what would normally be acceptable.” A more obvious challenge was securing the skilled workers needed to run the facility. Mr Dwyer played down the difficulties this posed, saying the site now had a sufficient workforce of 28 staff. “We’ve all got a shortage of skilled labour… so we’re no different to anyone else in any other industry in WA,” he said. “Being a feed yard this big, and being in a State that doesn’t have a big feedlot industry, obviously we’ll have our challenges, but I wouldn’t say they’ve been overly arduous. “One of the main challenges was probably getting the expertise out of Queensland during COVID. “What should have been quite a simple process was held up by WA… being shut down and isolated. “It became very challenging during those years of construction… It delayed the project immensely. “We’re not over yet; we’ve got a lot of measures to meet on the way through. “Reasonably high winter rainfall and the terrain here will make it challenging, but we’ll work together and we’ll hopefully prove that a large scale feedlot in WA is workable.”