Operations At Bar H – with Andrew Jansen

February 21, 2022

In Operations at Bar H, the past couple of months have seen our team send off a shipment of quality feedlot steers to Smithfield Feedlot, two shipments of cull cows to Roam Wagyu at Paradigm Foods and complete an entire Embryo Transfer program. All completed off the back of December, our branding and joining season. 

  

All of this has been at the helm of Andrew Jansen, known as the farrier, the rodeo legend, and one of the most profound cattle dog trainers in Queensland. The quality in everything he does is reflected in his ability to bring out the best in the staff and animals at Bar H. 



We recently caught up with AJ to chat through the Pits & Peaks of this busy period: 

 

As Summer comes to a close, we are starting to think about how we can maximise pasture productivity. Rotational grazing has proven to let our cattle perform, but this requires significant strategising. At the moment we have this in place but there is always another level of planning we have to be paying attention to. 

 

AJ says, “we were mustering heifers last week and my dogs were struggling to get through the grass in our front paddock. Its low and starting to dry off but the ground cover is still thick and the cattle are really thriving off that. A couple of weeks ago 84 heavy steers were sent to Smithfield Feedlot where they achieved a 443kg average and a current ADG of 0.89kg a day. They came back with a 7.5% shrinkage and we were pretty happy with that. This gave us the confidence that what we are doing is proving to work, even though we will continuously try to improve on this.”

 

“We are preparing supplement lick and pellets for the cattle, the timing of that is important because we need to utilise the feed we have at the moment; however, we also don’t want to lose too much ground cover. We will see what the weather is going to do, however that’s definitely playing on our minds.”

 

Other than that, AJ is preparing for an early wean. He says “I have currently have a number of young dogs that I am excited to be training for the futurity a little bit later this year. We also have a number of young horses coming along, and it’s all very exciting for the team.”


In the next couple of months, the operations team at Bar H will be preparing and completing an AI program/natural join, a spring wean, and an Autumn brand among other projects. There are a number of new strategies and techniques the team have been working hard to establish, and it will be interesting to see the results of these projects in 2022 compared to the previous two years. 


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