Environment at Peechelba, a priority

Snap shot

Organic fertiliser, tree planting, and now the possibility of a conservation covenant: there are few environmentally sustainable options that Peechelba Beef feedlot area manager, Gina Lincoln, hasn't thought of. She's even dreaming of a manure-powered future. For now, however, she's happy if her feedlot and others like it keep improving their environmental credentials with the science already available, reducing their emissions, recycling their waste products and using less land to produce more.

Key points

• Feedlot houses up to 25,000 cattle, averaging 10,000 head at any one time
• Each animal is allowed ample room to exhibit all normal behavioral activities. Run-off water is captured and stored in a holding pond and used as irrigation for crops that are harvested and fed to the cattle, thus recycling the nutrients
• The biodiversity success of Peechelba is reflected in the number of swans on the property. In the past 12 months, five sets of signets have been born

Peechelba Beef's Gina Lincoln has a dream

She'd like to see the feedlot she manages produce all of the energy it consumes, through the processing of the manure it produces. It could even feed back into the electricity grid, supplying power to local towns.

She admits it's not something that's going to happen overnight. In fact, she says it could be another five to 10 years until the science is affordable enough to invest in.

But her willingness to explore the possibility now, is characteristic of her attitude to environmental work on Peechelba, a feedlot which runs up to 25,000 cattle 20 kilometres from Wangaratta and 3km from the town of Peechelba.

And it's something that others at Peechelba are also committed to.

Setting aside land

The company is keen on tree planting and preservation and are looking at forming an agreement with Trust for Nature to put a conservation covenant on part of the land, effectively making it a state forest.

Gina says it just makes sense. While land is money, she says they haven't been using that site for grazing for some years now and the birdlife within it is worth saving.

"If you can put a covenant on it, they manage that for you." It also means that if the land is sold, the new owner will have to conserve that area.

Gina recommends working with the government and environment organisations to negotiate solutions that suit farm businesses and the environment.

"It's just about … not trying to make life difficult and having that give and take attitude. If you're not using that land, don't make it difficult now.

"We will not always agree but if we as land owners/managers can work to sustain our farming land then we should at least try to work together."

Abundant bird life

Gina says that you can gauge Peechelba's green credentials from its birdlife. In the past 12 months, they've had five sets of swans born: "If your involvement in the environment is not right, then bird's don't come."

There have been challenges at Peechelba in the last few years though, with trees planted with help from local Landcare operations, having to be replaced due to the ongoing drought conditions.

Despite this, tree cover is still excellent and Peechelba even employs a gardener to tend the extensive gardens around the feedlot. According to Gina, there's such a buffer zone of trees around the property that most tourists visiting the area wouldn't know a feedlot was there.

Manure management

Not all of Peechelba's environmental work is quite so pretty, however. Manure from the feedlot is also an ongoing concern: the feedlot, which can house up to 25,000 cattle, averages 10,000 head at any one time. Animals turn over several times per year and can produce 800 kilograms to one tonne of manure annually.

Manure at Peechelba now has organic certification from the National Association for Sustainable Agriculture, Australia (NASAA), an accreditation that's reviewed every two years.

Gina says its time consuming, but that they'd already been carrying out most of these processes beforehand.

The pens are cleaned and the waste put into a compost pile, which is heated and turned regularly.

Later, the manure is sifted through a 40mm screen to remove rocks and is studied for its nutritional analysis. This information is then passed onto buyers of the product, who range from people with backyard vegetable patches, through to landscape gardeners, viticulturalists and farmers.

Rather than simply a waste product, then, Gina says this manure is actually valuable.

"If we can build on an asset that we produce on a regular basis and improve people's soil structure at the same time, then obviously we're going to try and do that."

It fits with Peechelba's general concerns with the environment, as well as animal and human health.

They also capture liquid waste and any rain run-off from the feedlot and store this in sediment ponds. From there, it's mixed with river water and used to irrigate crops. "Once it's diluted with river water, you wouldn't know the difference."

Run-off water though has been low in the last few years. Gina estimates that Peechelba has an average rainfall of 635mm rainfall. In the last few years, however, they've been lucky to get 200mm.

Standards in the feedlot industry

Although Peechelba has a particular interest in the environment, Gina says the law ensures that feedlots have to be sensitive to environmental issues.

She says the Environment Protection Agency monitors their activities. "If we don't meet the criteria then someone will be on your door step."

To date, the only EPA visit Peechelba has had was at Gina's request. Although they're only 3km from Peechelba, they've had no complaints about odour. "Under our licence, we have to have a complaints book: there's nothing in it."

Peechelba also run under the National Feedlot Accreditation Scheme and the National Guidelines for Beef Cattle. This means, among other requirements, ensuring there is enough space for cattle and that pens are maintained.

About Peechelba

Peechelba pens vary in size, running from 30 up to 250 head. In each case, however, the cattle have 25 square metres per animal. Of Peechelba's 800ha, just 240ha is

feedlot.

The rest is used largely for grazing, where cattle are kept until they reach the right weight to go into the feedlot.

A custom-fed feedlot, Peechelba clients retain ownership of the cattle, while Peechelba manages their diet and care in their facilities over the time they are there - anywhere between 70 to 420 days, depending on the market they're destined for.

Wagyu cattle, for instance, are slow growing, putting on between .7 and .9 kg each day from birth until they are slaughtered at 420 days.

Other cattle, however, gain between 1.5 to 2kg a day depending on the season, and leave much more quickly.

Promoting the Feedlot industry

While feedlots may attract criticism, Gina says they have many advantages over traditional farming, such as the amount of space they take up. Gina says it's a different landscape to when she left university in the early 1990s to work in the industry, largely thanks to public interest.

When she first started there were few women. There was also less of an awareness of animal and human health issues and environmental sustainability.

"We have come a long way", says Gina. "That's been driven by consumer awareness."

But she says they've got to remain vigilant. "We, as an industry, have got to make sure we've got those positive environmental effects, such as decreased emissions and reusing our resources through recycling, planting trees and using less land to produce more.

"We need to make sure we are doing things better each day."

And she says openness is a big part of this. "We need to make sure we put out to the public what we do and how we do it."