To celebrate Father's Day, we visit Clayton's Organic Beef, where Jake and Harry Sargood are stepping further into the family business, learning by working alongside their dad.
Two hundred heifers are moving through the yards to be weighed at Tulloch Brae near Toowoomba on Queensland’s Darling Downs, and Clayton Sargood barely seems to need the scales. “See that little bubble of fat there near her tail?” he says.“ That’s what you’re looking for.”
The cattle are due to be trucked out the following morning, so today’s about figuring out which ones are ready for sale. The magic number is 480 kilograms.
Tulloch Brae is home to Clayton’s Organic, the family’s certified organic beef operation that sources cattle from out west before finishing them for domestic and export markets. Up to 12,000 head will pass through the yards in a year, some of them several times until Clayton decides they’re ready to go.
Now the next generation of Sargoods is stepping up. Clayton stands near the crush making the calls while sons Jake and Harry work the back yards, opening gates and keeping cattle moving.
“Working with family is the best thing in the world,” Clayton says. “If we didn’t have the two boys, we wouldn’t do what we do.”
Harry is a boilermaker by trade who came home 18 months ago. On the farm that makes him resident fixer. “Harry does 90 per cent of the fixing. Jake does 95 per cent of the breaking,” Clayton says. “More like 82 per cent,” Jake laughs.
Jake looks after the livestock side of the business—knowledge about whichhe’sdrawn from his dad.“The best piece of advice I’ve had from Dad is: if you really want to do something, you’ll find a way to make it work.”
“Working with Dad is very rewarding,” Jake says. “Satisfying at times and other times it can be very challenging. We butt heads, but at the end of the day we’re all family and we really enjoy working beside each other.”
Jackie Sargood says Clayton has always been close to the boys. “He’s a great friend to them, which can be challenging when you’re working together day in, day out. ”She says she’s the stricter parent. Clayton, she describes as “firm, but fair”.
“He just loves his family. Family is his world.”
The Sargoods have been producing certified organic beef for more than 20 years. The shift began after Clayton’s father became ill and the family started questioning the use of pesticides and chemicals. Today the operation uses certified organic feed and produces cattle without hormones or antibiotics.
“We’re trying to be very self-sufficient,” Jackie says. “Why? Because we believe in it. And we try to live that way.”
Back in the yards, another heifer comes through. Clayton looks across her rump, makes the call, and a gate swings open.
Kit Out The Crew
