Agricultural
6 September, 2023
Leyburn feedlot application approved
Southern Downs Regional Council has approved a development application proposing to build a beef cattle feedlot on a property to the east of the Leyburn township.
The material change of use application was submitted in April by RDC Engineers on behalf of Darren William Hamblin, trustee for Hamblin Family Trust.
The Hamblin family owns and operates Strathdale Wagyu, a commercial and stud beef cattle business.
In addition to the 5723 Toowoomba - Karara Road ‘Struggle Downs’ property at Leyburn where the feedlot will be built, the family operates three properties Central Queensland.
Mr Hamblin said he was looking forward to being able to start construction of the feedlot, which will take a couple of years.
He said it will be built in three stages of roughly the same size, resulting in a 4,110 standard cattle unit feedlot on ‘Struggle Downs’.
The caretakers’ accommodation will be built as part of the first stage.
Mr Hamblin said he expects 10 to 20 tradespeople to be working on the feedlot construction, and once operational, four to five staff running the feedlot.
Strathdale Wagyu has a head count of 6,000.
Mr Hamblin said he would like to thank everyone involved in the development application process, which ran smoothly.
Strathdale Wagyu will be using the feedlot as part of its “diversification and value added strategy.”
“The feedlot will be unique in Queensland with a proposal to develop a heavily-automated covered housing lot feeding system which will be designed to facilitate robotic feeding technology and data capture and management for tracking performance and guiding selection decisions,” a report submitted as part of the application process said.
“Currently the supply chain includes breeding, weaning and backgrounding of cattle on their own properties with finishing undertaken at the Kerwee Feedlot at Jondaryan on the Darling Downs.
“All finished cattle are processed at the John Dee abattoir at Warwick.”
‘Struggle Downs’ consists of ten separate cadastral portions that total 716.73 hectares (1771 acres), a short distance east of Leyburn township.
Existing infrastructure at the site includes a hay shed, cattle yards, storage sheds and a shearing shed.
