Charlie Mort, Mort & Co

RISING construction costs have delayed Australia’s second largest lotfeeder’s plans to build a world class new feedlot in Central Queensland.

In 2022 Mort & Co announced it had entered a partnership with prominent funds manager Rural Funds Management to develop Central Qld’s largest feedlot, with capacity of close to 36,500 head, near Gogango.

Mort & Co was to cover the cost of building the feedlot, with construction expected to begin in late 2023 / early 2024.

But the rising cost of materials and a need for more investment have slowed those plans.

“We have all of the approvals needed and we have received some funding from Queensland Treasury to support the build of the feedlot, but the costs associated with building this facility exceed what we had first planned,” said Charlie Mort, Mort & Co Executive Chairman.

“Capital raising has been underway since the end of last year and that process is ongoing, given our strategic plan to grow our feedlot footprint.

“We want this to be a feedlot of the future, a feedlot that takes us into the next two decades so we want to ensure we can build the feedlot we envisage, and Central Qld deserves, because it will put us at the forefront of lotfeeding potentially globally.”

Mr Mort said innovation and technology were both critical to the design of the Central Qld project.

“We really want to invest in innovations including, but not limited to, shedded pens and what that might look like in Central Qld will look very different to our other feedlots,” he said.

“Automation will be essential moving forward, and we are seeing some really exciting results from our fertiliser factory at Grassdale and we now have the knowledge and experience to build an even better factory at Gogango.

“We want to be leaders in sustainability, so that is also influencing our design because the innovations in feed additives will likely impact any feedmill design.

“Those innovations obviously come at a cost and far exceed anything Mort & Co has ever built before, including Grassdale.”

It is expected to cost in excess of $150 million – excluding the cost of the Fertiliser Factory.

One rural property valuer told Beef Central the cost to build a new feedlot had doubled in the last few years and some materials had tripled in price.

“The rise in costs have meant we have had to go back to the drawing board a number of times since we started this process,” said Mr Mort.

“But we want to ensure the feedlot is what we say it will be – a feedlot of the future.

“As much as we would like to start building it today or tomorrow, Mort & Co never does things by halves and for that reason we simply can’t put a completion date on it. It is more important that it is done well.

“We plan to grow our feedlot footprint significantly in the next five years, so we would hope to have Gogango up and running within that time.”

RFM will own the land at Gogango and Mort & Co will lease the land.