Playing for Big Stakes at Aronui

Right on Dalby’s doorstep, quiet achiever, Aronui Feedlot, has notched up some serious milestones and made a lasting impact on Australian history.

The Australian feedlot industry was piloted at Aronui, when in 1964 the Cameron family commenced an operation to grow weaner calves using green-chopped oats. This was followed in 1966 by the establishment of a 450-head feedlot to supply the restaurant trade with a product that was previously unknown in Australia – grain-fed beef.

By small increments Aronui Feedlot grew, with Dugald Cameron (now known as the Grandfather of the Australian Feedlot Industry) using initiative and daring as the business proceeded on its pioneering way. While Australians were slow to adopt the new concept, the Japanese, accustomed to grain-fed beef, proved to be an enthusiastic market. Then the Japanese closed their doors to imported beef from 1972 until 1976. This setback presented an opportunity born of necessity.  It became essential to establish a local market for grain-fed beef.

According to AAco Group Manager Wagyu and Feedlots Greg Gibbons, some smart marketing saw the supermarkets take up the grain-fed product. “Demand has grown to a point where Aronui supplies around 300 bodies each week to the domestic market,” says Greg.
Demand developed for custom feeding, when producers ‘finish cattle off’ with a stint in a feedlot. Once again Aronui was at the head of the pack with upgrades, expansion and efficiency to meet this new contingency. Greg says this growth led in turn to another issue.
“A need for greater responsibility by feedlots in general was brought home by a growing environmental awareness within the community at large. Feedlots had to come into line and they did, especially when licensing was legislated in 1992 by the Queensland Government.”

The huge Aronui point of difference, says Greg, was the introduction in 1997 of the Japanese beef breed, Wagyu, with their extraordinary flavour and tenderness, and innate suitability for feedlot conditions. Over the following years the number of Wagyu in the feedlot grew and today, Aronui has the greatest concentration of Wagyu cattle on feed in the world. Approximately 300 Wagyu carcasses are exported weekly from Aronui, in addition to the 300 beef breed cattle that support the domestic market.

AAco, to which Aronui now belongs, is Australia’s largest and most prestigious Wagyu producer.  Supplying the Japanese as well as a hungry Korean market, the Master Kobe brand from Aronui Feedlot is marketed globally to high end restaurants and clientele in Hong Kong, Dubai and New York - a far cry from its Dalby origins.

Today the feedlot is licensed for 15,000 head, with a list of industry awards to its credit including Animal Welfare Responsibility, Productivity and Efficiency, and Industry Stewardship.

Aronui provides work for 26 people locally. Between grain purchases and local employment about $10 million stays in the local community. It’s quite a story and a rich local legacy of endeavour and enterprise.