Bridge Creek Station, a masterclass in cattle infrastructure development

Don and Kelly White, with Rabobank’s Barry Gerschwitz

Efficient infrastructure, a happy and productive staff culture, and a diverse business is, perhaps, every property owners dream.

For the Northern Territory’s Don and Kelly White, who seem to have conquered this holy grail, success is underpinned by a humble ambition of “doing what you say you’re going to do.”

“Whether it’s assuring our export clients that we’re going to look after their cattle, or to our staff that we have a safe and enjoyable workplace – even guaranteeing our bank that we’ll meet our repayments – everything we do is in the interest of keeping our word, and to do that we need to optimise efficiencies,” Don says.

With a business that entails 10,000 cattle over three properties, including a breeder block in the Roper River, and an export depot on their Adelaide River home block, Bridge Creek Station, it’s a simple, yet effective business strategy.

The Whites are renowned industry-wide for their state-of-the art facilities and management, yet as a young family purchasing Bridge Creek Station in 2001, Kelly admits that their focus on efficiency was due to necessity.

“We bought the block bare, so everything had been built from scratch,” she explains. “It was just Don and I and the kids handling trade cattle back then, so it was all hands on deck and we needed really efficient infrastructure to make the job easier.”

Starting from bare also afforded them the opportunity to ‘do it once, and do it properly’ not often possible with legacy infrastructure.

“Our motto is, if you have to spend $105, there’s no point haggling over the last $5 to get the job over the line – trying to save on infrastructure costs you in the long run,” Don says.
 

Don’s yards get the thumbs up.

From their initial, and highly considered, set of cattle yards, developed with walk ways above cattle in high pressure areas, and a hydraulic cattle crush for safe and efficient processing of cattle, their on-farm development expanded rapidly.

The Bridge Creek depot yard developed in 2014 as part of business reconstruction in the wake of the suspension of live exports in 2011, and having managed his father’s export depot on a neighbouring property, it was a business opportunity they knew well.

The depot, out of Darwin, is considered one of the Territory’s most comprehensive, and in keeping with their business philosophy, were built with staff, clients and animal welfare front of mind.

“We want to build facilities that are functional for our customers, so we can give them the results they expect,” Don explains.

“Our team handles a large number of cattle on any given day, and we also want to make sure our people are still enjoying what they do every day.”

Incorporating a raft of technology and innovation within the yard, Don suggests that the use of CCTV has been the greatest game changer.
 

The Whites' impressive development, built for efficiency

“Having cameras in the yard complements compliance, and again reinforces our word when it comes to animal welfare.”

“It also cuts down on labour, if our numbers are wrong all we have to do is play the tape back and recount, rather than repeating the process in the yard.”

From staff accommodation, fodder storage, loading and unloading support, workplace health and safety procedures, to cattle handling systems – every detail on Bridge Creek Station revolves around ensuring the best result for the animal, customer and team.

“We didn’t set out to develop this business the way we have, it’s the sum of all parts, we’re tried to create a business that’s functional and efficient at every step, which has led us to where we are today.”

And with an additional six hectares of feed pens currently in development, they’re not done yet.

“We’re still going full stick,” Don laughs. “The only thing slowing us down is hours in the day.”
 

Kelly and Don take a quick smoko before they’re back at it

Further re-energising the business is their three children – 22-year-old Jack runs the Roper River property, 20-year-old Georgia is contributing at Bridge Creek Station, and 17-year-old Nash is currently completing an electrical apprenticeship – and Don said they’re always looking to expand if it complements their existing business.

“When you start out, you always want to grow, I guess it just depends on your appetite. We’ll have a go at whatever is the best idea at the time – we’ve got trucks, dozers, excavators, fodder production – we don’t like standing still!”

Consistency key to strong relationship

Further complementing their business, they believe, is their Rabobank rural manager Barry Gerschwitz, based in the Darwin branch.

“Barry’s been our manager since 2005, so he’s hitting 20 years of dealing with us which is probably why he’s gone grey in that time!” Don says with a laugh.

“We’ve had a great relationship with Barry, and Rabobank, it’s a bank that is always consistent with process and policy – rates come and go, but we need consistency to run our business and we know what processes Rabobank needs to get a deal done, we don’t have to rewrite the rule book every time, and that’s hugely assuring.”

Even when Barry is out of office on the road, Don said there’s always a great team behind him able to step in at any given time, ensuring timeliness when things need to move fast.
 

Barry Gerschwitz has been on the ground during the entirety of the Whites' business growth – and has watched their children grow into adults.

NTCA Conference for a strong industry

Don is the Deputy Chair of the Northern Territory Cattlemen’s Association (NTCA) and both he and Kelly are vocal advocates for the local industry.

With the NTCA Conference being held this week in Darwin, they’re looking forward to the annual event. 

Don laughs that exporters tend to love booking in during events, public holidays and overnight, making planning difficult – but this event was one they’re always hesitant to miss.

 “It’s a great catch up, particularly out here where the distances are vast and we don’t have many opportunities to get face-to-face as an industry.”

Kelly said the opportunity to hear from different speakers provided a valuable global industry perspective.

“It’s always good to keep a gauge on what’s happening locally, and globally, and it really is a great opportunity to get together with old friends, and new.”
 

Kelly with her sister Mariah, who is the depot manager. Kelly believes there’s no one in the industry better at managing stock numbers – “she can sense when an animal is missing a tag or has two tags!”.