Boosting north Australian breeder performance with pasture management: Mastering the balance

Is your breeder herd pulling its weight?

If you’re unsure, then this BeefConnect webinar recording is for you. We’ll cut through the data and focus on what really matters for northern Australian pastoral businesses with practical steps to identify underperformance and improve results.

By watching the recording, you will hear from the following industry experts:

• Dr Kieren McCosker (QAFFI) and Dr Robyn Cowley (NT Government) will share key insights from the Cash Cow and Sweet Spot projects.
• Ian McLean (Bush Agribusiness) will break down the economics of breeder performance.
• NT and QLD producers Michael Johnson (Tipperary Group) and Grant Keane (Australian Country Choice) will reveal the changes they’ve made on their properties and the results they’ve achieved.

What you’ll learn:

✅ How to spot underperforming breeder herds.

✅ Key benchmarks for breeder performance.

✅ The link between pasture utilisation, reproduction, and productivity.

✅ Practical steps to assess and improve your herd.

✅ The financial benefits of optimising breeder performance.

Don’t miss this opportunity to learn more on optimising your breeder performance and identifying the productivity opportunities that may be available to you!

You can watch the full recording or use the playlist below to jump to the start of a particular section within the presentation. (58:18; published 17 December 2025 by FutureBeefAu).

Download a copy of the presentation – Boosting north Australian breeder performance with pasture management (PDF; 3.78 MB)

Additional resources:

• • Sweet Spot: Improving breeder herd performance through optimal pasture utilisation (Future Beef)
  • Northern Australian beef fertility project – Cash Cow (FurtureBeef)
  • HerdFlow – transform your herd data with confidence (FutureBeef)
  • Crop Livestock Enterprise Model (CLEM) – bioeconomic modelling
  • Forage utilisation and consumption patterns with distance from water (NT Government)
  • Optimising beef business performance in northern Australia: what can 30 years of commercial innovation teach us? (A Barkly case study on effect of water development on pasture utilisation and land condition and business performance – The Rangeland Journal)

Northern Territory carrying capacity information:

• Land condition guide: Barkly district (FutureBeef)
• Land condition guide: Sturt Plateau district (FutureBeef)
• Land condition guide: Victoria River district (FutureBeef)
• Mitchell Grasslands – Quality and Quantity guide (Chris Materne)

Queensland carrying capacity information:

• Queensland property carrying capacity information and reports (FORAGE – The Long Paddock)

Full recording

Playlist

1. Boosting north Australian breeder performance with pasture management: mastering the balance
2. Outline
3. Regional performance – key performance and loss statistics
4. Pasture utilisation
5. Why does utilisation matter?
6. Breeder Production
7. Production and profits
8. Safe levels of pasture utilisation in northern Australia
9. Pasture utilisation impacts (short-term impacts)
10. Pasture utilisation impacts (long-term impacts)
11. Could pasture utilisation be impacting your herd performance?
12. Practices in action
13. Panel session
14. Relating profit drivers to Sweet Spot learnings
15. Getting good herd data
16. Panellist questions and producer conversations