Although Greg Bray, and his partner, both have full-time jobs in Melbourne, they run a livestock enterprise which would be the envy of many full-time farmers on their 100 acre property at Tylden, just south of Kyneton on the road to Trentham, in north-central Victoria.

The Brays originally started out with red deer for venison and velvet; the high mesh fences throughout the property attest to their presence. Then they simultaneously ran store cattle for a while.

Three years ago they decided to get into Shorthorn cattle to further diversify their interests, and started by buying cows with calves at foot from Leigh Williamson’s ‘Gairnshiel’ Shorthorn Stud at Carisbrook.

“We liked the look of Shorthorn cattle;” says Greg. “Moderately framed with a good temperament - plus everybody else around here has Angus!” Other cattle from various bloodlines have been purchased along the way, including a bull from ‘Gairnshiel’ Shorthorn Stud. They now run 25 Shorthorns comprising bulls, cows and heifers, as well as retaining more than 100 deer.

The plan is to concentrate on high quality stock to build up their stud, which is called ‘Ambray’ Shorthorn Stud. Feeding the stock efficiently had constantly presented problems for Greg: “With the deer, we had always used small square bales, and although they were easy for us to handle, it was really inefficient through the winter. The winters here can be long, horrible and icy. “I thought that there has to be a better way than putting myself and the stock under pressure, every time we had to hand-feed.” During the 2002 drought, with the need for more efficient feeding, they changed to round bales. “It certainly was better, but the downside was the animals trampled, fouled and generally wasted the feed.

“The way the store cattle were wasting the hay, we were literally tossing dollars out,” explains Greg. “I thought there had to be a better way. I checked out the available round feeders and discovered two things with ‘Waste-Not’ stockfeeders; they were so much stronger; the cattle, including the bulls, weren’t going to be able to bend them, and portability was easy. We could simply unbolt the sections and move them to where we wanted them by hand.

“The animals were probably wasting about 40% of the hay that we were feeding out. We initially bought just one ‘Waste-Not’ unit - a round hay feeder - during late 2005, then a second one soon after.” Waste-Not hay feeders are manufactured in a number of sizes and shapes and are extremely robust to take the knocks and pressure put on them by hungry cattle.

Individual feeding spaces, between steel arches, act as a voluntary head bail, so that uneaten feed falls back into the feeder. Importantly, it largely eliminates bossing and bullying. Each animal gets its fair ration, and trampling or soiling of feed is eliminated.

The feeders are designed to ensure that all the feed is contained in the unit and eating takes place within the feeder. A skirt eliminates valuable leaf being blown away by wind or trampled into the mud or dust. The stock have access to all the valuable protein which enhances weight gain, and many farmers claim feed savings of up to 30 or 40%. The drought then forced us buy a decent-sized tractor, to handle large squares – 8 foot by 3 foot by 4 foot. As large square bales became more economical and easier to get, we bought a Waste-Not square feeder. Nowadays I think an oval feeder would be more practical, as you have the flexibility to be able to pull it apart and use it as a round feeder if required. So that will be our next one.

“There are lots of real benefits from the move to this type of feeding. We have more efficiency with what I feed out. I can manage my feed-out time much better and I reckon that there is now less than 10% wastage of the bales.

“There is less stress on the animals, because the shy animals get their share of the feed; the dominant ones have their go and walk away. I don’t see runty animals among the mob.

“Best of all, it stopped the bellowing! No longer are the cattle standing at the gate.

“With my method of feeding at the time, a lot of the smaller stock weren’t getting their quota. The dominant ones ate their fill, and then sat on the rest of the hay, hence the bellowing for more feed by the remainder!

I thought I was feeding the correct amount, which was the case with the round bales, but because of the wastage, the cattle were telling me otherwise.” “The Waste-Not hay feeders also work well with deer. Like cattle, the more dominant animals sat on their portion of hay and the shy animals dropped back in condition. However, with the feeder, they all get their turn at a station at some point. I have found the deer only waste 3% to 5% at the most.”

Greg says that when he feeds out oaten or lucerne hay, and from time to time he has used grass hay with a bit of clover, the animals eat the lot. “Last season all we could get in large squares was barley hay and they tended to leave a little bit of that. If you give them good quality hay, the cattle will push the feeder to get the last little bit in the middle.”

Greg is adamant that the feeding side of any operation must be efficient, in terms of costs and labour. “We no doubt get savings with the feeder, better quality animals of a result of its use, and more importantly, effective use of time.”

“I now feed out on a Sunday and the feeders are empty by Thursday or Friday. To avoid having to then immediately feed out another round bale out at night when we get home from work, I tend to throw some small squares bales into the feeders or supplement with heifer pellets or grain. This will take me through to Sunday again, when I can get the tractor out to fill them again. It is a far easier process now.”

“It’s been really hard to get a proper handle on how the operation compares with normal conditions, in terms of cost savings, because we’ve been in drought for the last 5 years. The price of feed has been at abnormal levels from year to year, so too, stock prices. Any comparisons at this stage are based on more efficient use of time and better quality animals.”

The future aim for the Bray’s is to reduce the deer numbers a little and increase the Shorthorns with greater turnover of stock within that. However, Greg says about moving forward: “The key to any operation, whether small or large enterprises - and this is nothing new - you have to lower the inputs of feed and labour, as well as ensuring that you maximise feed availability. As we go ahead, we’ll get more Waste-Not feeders, but the next one will be an oval feeder for greater flexibility.”