Case Study: Tarallcaral

TARALLCARAL

'Tarallcaral' is a family owned and operated beef business which is part Glenflorrie Brahmans. The beef business has a station in the Pilbara and two backgrounding properties in the West Midlands region.

Based in Yathroo (Dandaragan) with his wife Adele, daughter Odelia, and sons Jack and Jesse, Murray Grey is the Managing Director of Glenflorrie Brahmans, a family-owned and operated beef business. The Grey family has been in the pastoral industry for five generations.

FARM FACT FILE

FARM NAME: Tarallcaral

STOCK: Tarallcaral is mostly for backgrounding and finishing pastoral cattle from Glenflorrie in the Pilbara and other properties opportunistically.

The family also runs 100 breeders (80 cows and 20 replacement heifers) and share-farms with Adelle's father who has a herd of 150 Angus/Red Angus/Murray Grey breeders.

Their cattle are predominantly Brahman, with some Bos Taurus crosses.

OWNERS: Murray and Aticia Grey

LOCATION: Dandaragan, a small town in the Wheatbelt region of Western Australia, just over 2 hours north of Perth

SIZE: 2300 hectares

WATER: 3 aquifers

CLIMATE: Dandaragan has a Mediterranean climate. Summers are hot and dry (can reach 40c) and mild winter. The average annual temperature is 26° degrees and there is about 165 mm of rain in a year. It is dry for 262 days a year with an average humidity of 59% and an UV-index of 5.

LIVESTOCK: Brahmans Cattle

SOIL TYPE: Coarse white non-wetting sand

BACKGROUND

Murray and Aticia Grey bought 'Tarallcaral', the property the farm in 2017. They had started farming in the area back in 2004 on the adjoining property to the west.

Regen Test Paddock

The details below outline the status of the test paddock in February 2023.

Murray has identified a 'test paddock' for his regen journey. This gives him an opportunity to explore the principles without significant impact on his current farming business.

Initially the test paddock was bare, with no prior records of any cropping being undertaken in it. It was initially partially cleared, then planted with perennials, predominantly panic grass and some rhodes grass in 2017 - primarily to stabilise the soil.

In 2021 and 2022 a multispecies winter cover crop was planted over the perennials as a test case (8 or 9 species). The mix included vetch, clovers, rye grass, barley, triticale, oats. Blue lupins were already present in the paddock.

2022 was a fairly good, long season, and the weather broke in March and rained through to November. Although this was a good result, the bumper season made it an anomaly which was impossible to compare to other years.

However, initial reviews of the soil show a greater root density and improved soil structure. The soil aggregates will retain moisture and reduce erosion as the winter winds whip across the paddock.

An initial dig into the soil showed that roots from the multispecies mix were punching down to 600/700mm before hitting gravel - but this was already having a positive impact on soil cohesion.

The trial paddock was planned out in 2019.

Grazing

187 mature cattle (around 400 kilo average) went through the test paddock in October 2022. They ran through for about 13 days and it was rested after that. Murray explained that he felt the turnaround response time was good - there had been rain in November (approx 24ml) which was great for the perennials. The cattle trampled the ground pretty hard and took out a fair bit of the dry forage.

From November to February there had only been 7ml of rain, so Murray was hoping for a seed set soon.

He's wating for another rain event, then he'll consider another graze around the start of April.

GOAL: to create a year round growing environment and make the most of the year round growing cycle

Root Systems

During the field walk, Ellen Walker, Managing Partner of EarthWhile Australia, analyses the root systems of the pasture on the test paddock.

Some of the perennial grasses could reach a root depth of 700mm if there aren't any layers or impediments underneath - creating a significant structure to hold soils together and retain moisture.