ONE of Australia’s largest lot feeders, Queensland’s Mort & Co turns over more than 220,000 head of cattle annually, providing an enormous stock transport requirement.

The company’s lot feeding operations take place at Grassdale near Dalby, Pinegrove near Millmerran, and Yarranbrook feedlot near Inglewood. The overall business has one-time feeding capacity of 107,000 head. The Grassdale yard alone, accounts for about 4200 in-or-out movements a week.

Mort & Co’s expansion plans for a new 36,500 head greenfield feedlot site at Gogango west of Rockhampton, will likely see more growth in the Transport business.

Mort & Co’s original entry into transport came via Farmhaul and included a 50:50 in Gilbert’s Transport business out of Toowoomba, that appeared in our earlier Top 25 list back in 2013, with ten prime movers.

Mort & Co took full ownership of Farmhaul in 2021 and officially rebranded the fleet Mort & Co Transport.

Currently, Mort & Co’s livestock transport fleet includes 25 prime movers (mostly Kenworth 909s), with a one-time uplift capacity of 89 decks. Beyond that, the company’s truck fleet includes another 17 vehicles, hauling feedlot commodities like molasses, supplements and oils, to grains, cottonseed and other inputs. The trailer fleet comprises of various configurations of livestock trailers, tankers, tippers and walking-floor trailers.

While the biggest portion of the company’s cattle transport work is finished grainfed animals departing one of the three company feedyards to slaughter, Mort & Co Transport also moves a significant percentage of its incoming feeder cattle requirements.

Feeder cattle trucking operations extend to Winton in Northwest Queensland, and south into southern NSW and Victoria. Cattle from further out are sometimes dropped off by other operators at centres like Winton or Roma, where they are picked up by a Mort & Co truck.

For the finished grainfed cattle, deliveries can go in a number of directions, including Kilcoy Global Foods, JBS Dinmore, Stanbroke Grantham, Teys Beenleigh, NH Foods Oakey or John Dee at Warwick.

For this reason, many of the transport runs are quite short, by industry standards, with a drop-off at Kilcoy from Grassdale being only around 260km, and Roma to the feedlot for feeders 269km.

Advantages

The key advantages seen in operating an internal stock transport fleet are efficiency, and control of the supply chain – especially during times when stock transport access is tight.

“The Transport business fits within Mort’s circular economy servicing our beef supply chain”.  general manager of Mort’s Transport, Commodities and Farming division,  Ben Carrigan said.

“Mort & Co invests heavily in its cattle from the Producer’s paddock, to the feedlot and the processing facility. Having a transport arm makes sense and not only allows the company to control the standard of transporting cattle but also provides it space for more investment in a circular economy.”

Economies of scale within the Mort business helps, especially in delivering efficiencies. For example a truck delivering feeders from Roma to Grasssdale will often re-load with grain finished cattle heading for processors the same day.

Mort & Co Transport is certified under the National Heavy Vehicle Accreditation Scheme and is audited as part of the TruckSafe program. Additionally, the business is a member of the Livestock & Rural Transport Association of Queensland.

To support the servicing requirements of the fleet, Mort & Co Service Centre was formed, specialising in heavy vehicle fit-outs and mechanics. The Mort & Co Service Centre is located near Pittsworth on Queensland’s Darling Downs.

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