A recent field day held in Central Queensland has provided a trip back to where it all began for one of Australia’s cell grazing pioneers.

Innovative cattleman, Robin Spark, now retired on the Capricorn Coast, was one of the earliest adopters of cell grazing principles when he owned Moura district grazing property, Wirranda.

It wasn’t something that the ‘authorities’ of the time agreed with, but his decision to begin cell grazing in Queensland in the early 1990s, despite little evidence to suggest that it worked in Australia, set a path of innovation that many have since followed.

This reporter certainly recalls interviewing Robin on the concept and principles behind largely-unproven cell grazing in a sub-tropical environment, soon after he started building cells and adding watering points. 

Driving home from a successful RCS ‘Keep-In-Touch’ field day held recently at Wirranda, Robin spun some yarns about the ‘early days’ of implementing cell grazing. As the first property in Queensland to take the leap of faith, there were some testing times, he recalls.

“I worked together with the DPI, but gee wiz, when I went along and started implementing cell grazing, I was ignoring their advice completely, and they weren’t real happy about that,” Robin said.

“But it was a challenge that I was willing to take-on. And the fact that fellas said ‘I thought you had more brains than that’, and all that sort of thing, didn’t worry me, because it was a challenge that I had accepted and wanted to be involved in.”

“I just said, ‘this is what I’m going to do and I’ve made up my mind that that’s the way I want to move.”

Today, Wirranda is owned by Andrew and Claire Mactaggart and family, and is capably managed by Alistair and Jenni Corr.

The group of 60 producers and other stakeholders gathered for the recent field day agreed that after 20-plus years of continuous cell grazing, Wirranda looked magnificent – both from a land condition perspective, as well as the cattle.

Robin added an important historical perspective when he spoke to the audience about what set him on his path towards innovation, and the lessons he had learned along the way.

The day was a great opportunity and gathering-point for producers from all backgrounds and approaches to stock and land management, where lessons could be shared, new innovations discussed, and networks and connections made.

“For me, the things that really helped us when we got started was that there were blokes from South Africa and the United States, who were prepared to come out here to Australia and tell us what their experiences were with cell grazing,” Robin said.

“They had already had 10 to 15 years’ experience in using cells by that time, which was very useful to us in trying to start out on our own. They gave us a valuable run-down on how it all worked for them,” he said.

“It gave us the confidence that it was working for people in similar environments as ours. To me, once we got it working, it was part of our obligation to repay that kindness, and pass that knowledge on to others, rather than keeping it to ourselves.”

“That’s what these KIT Days have been helping us to do: give us the opportunity pass on the good things that we learnt that somebody else was prepared to give to us for nothing, and hand-on to us for free,” he said.

One of the beauties of the KITR days was that they kept ‘raising issues’, he said.

“Recognising that you don’t know all the answers, but identifying the questions is a bloody good starting point,” Robin said.

“That’s been our philosophy all along. We’re not out there to actually teach people or tell people how to do stuff: its really about finding ways for all of us to improve what we’re doing, and then how we use that knowledge to help others. That’s how it grows.”

RCS director Terry McCosker said the Wirranda KIT day attracted a good mix of stakeholders, from RCS participants right back at the organisation’s beginning to very recent graduates.

“It’s good to see that mix. It gives the younger people and the newer people a lot more confidence when they can mix it with people like Sparky, the Joyces, the Mactaggarts and people that have actually been in the game and using the RCS principles (such as cell grazing) for a long time,” Mr McCosker said.

Some of the topics touched-on during the day included stock psychology, paddock rest periods, parasite control, watering systems and quality, managing water quality (coal seam gas), dealing with resource sector on-farm, the latest in carbon sequestration developments, stock density and supplementation programs.

Andrew MacTaggart, Wirranda’s current owner said his take away from the day was “carbon is pretty exciting, might be the next big breakthrough for us,” after hearing a down-to-earth update on carbon from Terry McCosker. Read Terry McCosker’s recent summary on carbon issues and opportunities published on Beef Central here.

The current manager at Wirranda, Alistair Corr, said it was nice to hear that other producers had the same issues as he did; and that he was not ‘missing something.’

“There’s no real miracle solution, and what’s working for some might not work for others.  To sit down with a few people and discuss the subject of animal psychology was great, but also to talk about what people are doing with different rest periods and managing parasites.

“It was good to see, and I was really happy with the whole day.”

Before departing, Robin Spark said it was good to see the country on Wirranda looking well – and being looked after so well – 40 years after the first cells were constructed.

• Resource Consulting Services hold KIT Days, free for all to attend, to share and benefit from the gathering of varying experiences, perspectives and backgrounds.