Regenerative Farming in the Beef Industry – Willowlee, near Narrandera

The Gooden family own a number of farm businesses in the Riverina area. Michael Gooden has a 400 hectare beef farm on which he grows Black Angus bulls to invigorate genetic characteristics of other farmers’ herds. Michael’s cattle are bred to maximise growth rates, consumer acceptability, calving safety and generally placid personality.

Trading under the name Old Man Creek Bulls, Michael’s pasture-fed cattle are moved onto fresh grass every one to three days, a farming pattern called “cell grazing”. Cell grazing means that no part of the farm is grazed more than a few times in a year, so the land is never over-grazed and has a chance to recover before the animals return. A small number of permanent paddocks on the farm are subdivided into smaller “cells” using portable electric fencing and Michael has developed an amazingly versatile quad bike that allows him to drive over fencing, to wind up or roll out electric fencing wire and to collect or distribute fencing posts. Heath Robinson would be proud of the machine!

Visitors from Sydney get acquainted with Michael’s very docile – and very tasty — herd

Michael thinks of himself as a “farmer of microbes”. Microbes in the soil assist with grass growth, moisture holding capacity and nutrient cycling. Microbes in the cattle contribute to the animals’ capacity to turn grass into high quality marbled meat favoured by consumers.
After experiencing farming during the millennial drought (2001 to 2010) Michael like many other farmers sought to develop farming methods that minimize the impacts of climate variability. It has taken him more than a decade to get his farm to its current mode of operations and he is committed to further operational changes as new information and technology become available. A recent innovation has been constant visual surveillance of his cattle using remote cameras connected to his mobile phone.

Agricultural Tours Riverina is grateful to progressive farmers like Michael Goodens who make themselves available to our clients wishing to better understand modern farming systems.