THE McBean family, Bonalbo Station, has recently implemented cell grazing at their live export backgrounding property, located in the Douglas Daly region of the Northern Territory.
Bonalbo Station owner Ian McBean said he was new to cell grazing but believed it was working well.
"My daughter Fiona has put 3500 hectares under a cell grazing regime," Mr McBean said.
"We have gone from having 15 paddocks to having 50, all made with a single 2.5mm HT wire with electric tape gates.
"It seems very good at the present time. These cattle are highly educated and the electric wire doesn't even have to be hot half the time."
Mr McBean said the change in farming practice is looking very promising for Bonalbo Station.
"It looks like it will increase our beef production per hectare," he said.
The 2009 dry season was disputably one of the longest dry seasons on record, but was definitely the longest in the 14 years the McBean family has been in the area.
"It stopped raining on March 15 and we got our first decent storm on December 12," Mr McBean said.
It was so dry that the McBean family had to buy feed to keep purchased cattle going until it rained. Since that first downpour, there has now been 889mm of rain at Bonalbo, and cattle purchased for the export trade at the end of 2009 are now flourishing.
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