Phil and Annette Howie
This month’s Coffee With is taking us 4,263 km away from Albany – to Maneroo Station, 3 hours south of Darwin, the home of cattle farmers Phil and Annette Howie.
Phil and Annette became Lincolns clients many many years ago (approx 38 we think) when they were farming in Manypeaks. At that time, they were running a sheep and cattle farm with Phil’s brother and needed to expand to accommodate “growing children” who also wanted to be farmers. Land in Manypeaks was tightly held so when an opportunity came up to move north to Douglas Daily in the Northern Territory to manage Maneroo Station they decided to make the move.
Can you tell us about the early days when you first came to Maneroo Station?
Our job was to prepare 1,100 cattle at a time for export sale. The cattle would come from anywhere (Queensland , NT and NW Western Australia) including many that had not had much handling. At one stage we had 1500 “mickey” bulls to fatten and process (this is slang for a young bull, which should have been branded and castrated but has been missed in previous musters). This was an interesting experience. Over a 12-month period we prepped approximately 30,000 cattle for export which was a bit of a change from the 350 cattle we were used to dealing with when farming in Manypeaks.
At first we did not have any good horses or dogs to assist with handling so many differently educated cattle. A few times in the wet season we would have to drive the cattle 40 km on horseback to some portable yards in order to make the boat at Darwin port.
Did you feel like you had to learn a completely new way of farming or could you use any of your past farming experience from down south?
The basic principles of farming are the same. Some adjustments to stock types and plant varieties needed to be made. A couple of innovations from down south - We would cut the hay up here when it was green, and people around here thought we were crazy. We also did a lot of fencing to make the paddocks smaller, that way the cattle always had close access to water.
Phil and Annette have since won several awards for their successful farm and business strategies and were early adopters of cell grazing in the Northern Territory.
What is the main difference between farming in Manypeaks compared to Northern Territory?
The scale – everything is bigger. And as soon as it rains it is like spring all the time, you can’t stop growing things.
And the Pythons? (I ask this as I’m looking at the pipes that are next to the chook pen – finding out they are the python traps)
“Yes they are around,” Phil answers. “One day I heard this noise from the goat pen and when I got out there, a python had wrapped itself around one of the baby goats. It looked dead.
I managed to get the python off the goat and decided to give the goat mouth-to-mouth to see if I could save it. It worked and the goat was completely fine after that. But maybe I shouldn’t have saved this goat, it turned out to be the most annoying thing…..”
“Another time, while saving a dog, the 3m python that I was holding by the head started to wrap itself around my arm and squeezing so Annette to get a knife so we could cut it’s head off.”
After a few years of managing Maneroo Phil and Annette had the opportunity to purchase part of the station and eventually becoming the sole owner.
From there, they were able to purchase more land in the area that is now being farmed by their sons and their families.
“We don’t think we would have been able to expand our farming business the way we have done if we had stayed in Manypeaks”
What then have you learned?
Succession Planning – plan what you are going to do with your land (or any assets!) as soon as you buy it. Talk to your kids early and have open conversations about the future.
Never stop learning.
Phil: Take a personality test - When we met with a succession facilitator, she had us doing a personality test. This was something I wish we had done sooner as it made me understand myself and others better.
