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Community & Business

2 July, 2021

Family find ideal work/work balance

After moving to the Tablelands with his wife Jean and his parents, Ken and Connie in 2010, Trevor Petersen has managed to find an ideal work/work balance that allows him to practice his profession, while indulging his passion.


Even with current cattle prices making it harder for a cattle trading operation to operate, Trevor Petersen and his family are doing well on their Malanda farm.
Even with current cattle prices making it harder for a cattle trading operation to operate, Trevor Petersen and his family are doing well on their Malanda farm.

BY SALLY TURLEY 

PRIOR to moving north and buying a farm just outside Malanda, the Petersen family had a small cattle block outside of Capella. The two generations pooled their resources and after a year of leasing, bought 50 ha of rich dairying country. 

Both practicing accountants Jean and Trevor spent the last 10 years working for an Atherton accounting firm, before buying them out in June last year and forming their own company, JNT Accounting. 

After a long day of frenetic figure crunching and client care, Mr Petersen said he can't wait to get home to his farm and his animals for some therapeutic time outdoors, feeding his cattle, irrigating pastures or checking waters and fences. 

"We use our 49 Meg water allocation and our solid set and travelling irrigation system to keep green pick for the cattle from August to October, reducing the impact of winter conditions, for the cost of around one round bale of hay per week," Trevor Petersen said. 

"A grant from Terrain NRM, the natural resource management body for the Wet Tropics which enabled us to fence all our creeks and stabilise our creek banks with 5000 trees, has delivered improved water quality." 

The Petersens run a trading operation, buying the bulk of their cattle through the Mareeba sale yards and the balance from local paddock sales, when mobs become available.

Ken Petersen's business, P4K Livestock Cartage plays an important role in transporting cattle from point of purchase and between blocks. Finding the ideal article has become difficult in the current market and Mr Petersen said they have had to just take what they can get this year.

"We buy weaners and turn them over at 450+ kilos. They are back-grounded on our lease blocks, our steers on a 70ha place at Butchers Creek and heifers or other cattle on the 32 ha block at Middlebrook Road, Millaa Millaa," Mr Petersen said.

"Once they reach 300kg, we bring them home to Malanda and put them on a silage-based feed ration of grass and sorghum with hay concentrate combined with Suplaflow, a Wilmar Sugar liquid stock feed supplement. 

"We have been trialing Suplaflow, a bi-product of the ethanol process, as molasses was getting dearer to buy and it was quite hard to use in our feeding regime. 

The Suplaflow is just like brown water, making it easier to mix and the cattle took to it straight away. "

It has a different smell to molasses, but it is not sweet and cattle aren't just drinking it, so consumption is self-limited. It has less energy than molasses, but is higher in protein and we just feed it in troughs by itself or with forage sorghum hay as a complete ration. 

"A few of us went into the trial together and got a truck and dog of Suplaflow delivered from Wilmar Sarina. We paid $2,139 late last year for 9.3 tonnes (9,300 litres).

The supplement has 11% protein and it is PCAS (Pasturefed Cattle Assurance System) eligible. We are still assessing results at this stage. 

"We weigh the cattle every few months and once they reach their target weights, they are sold to whoever has got the most money. 

"We have traded an annual average of 200 head over the last few years and our last mob averaged nearly $1640/hd which makes it a very rewarding form of therapy," Mr Petersen said.

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