Article from The Weekly Times, April 2026
A Beeac producer uses hi-tech feed bunks to build a more efficient herd, writes RACHEL SIMMONDS Improving feed efficiency and growing top commercial beef and full-blood Wagyu herds are on a Beeac farmer’s bucket list.
The Weekly Times last visited Paul Meade 12 months ago when a new facility for his family’s cattle enterprises had been in operation for a year.
The facility, a shed fitted with Vytelle net feed intake bunks, was designed to specifically measure feed across animal cohorts for 63 days, including a 14-day warm up and 49-day test.
There are now 21 similar Australian sites and 158 globally with the potential to test 170,000 animals annually.
“The main thing we’re starting to see is the top 10 per cent of animals we’ve tested convert feed intake to weight gain at about 4.8kg of intake to a kilo of weight gain,” Paul said.
“The bottom 10 per cent convert 9.4kg of feed intake to 1kg of weight gain.” Paul said the 12-month progress meant they better understood individual animals and ongoing breeding decisions to develop a more efficient herd.
“It’s a slow burn but even if we were to pick up as little as 1.5 per cent efficiency gain every year, in 10 years’ time we’re 15 per cent better off,” he said.
Paul said global protein demand would have a huge increase over the next 25 years, while feed was 70 per cent of the average farm production cost.
“If we can continue to breed using bulls and heifers with lower conversion rates we will continue to make ourselves and our customers more efficient,” he said.
He said they had now started testing the second lineage of animals and would test the impact of new breeding decisions in 18 months.
The Meade Agri Pty Ltd business includes Beechy Wagyu, Pelican Rise Limousin and a commercial cattle herd across 2000ha near Colac.
The commercial herd calved down 650 cows and heifers last year, which has grown to 800 calving down this year. Meanwhile, the Wagyu herd lifted to 250 full-blood cattle, which Paul expected to double within three years.
After a two-year drought, last spring delivered “phenomenal” results with 800 tonnes of silage turned to pit silage, 2000 rolls, and 3000 rolls of hay.
“South of the highway we certainly have had an autumn break, we’re much better off than we were last year,” Mr Meade said.
“Obviously there’s a lot of uncertainty around what’s happening with commodity prices, fuel and fertiliser, and the cost of doing everything on top of that. “At the end of the day we’re relying on the gods, if it rains.”