JOHN Patience is not the kind of man to shy away from a challenge.
The owner of the historic Glengarry station, along with two other properties and a trucking company in the Geraldton area, decided to extend his resum? to include Angus breeders just last year.
The decision to expand into the cattle industry was one John made to broaden his scope of income, as he believes the key to modern farming is diversification.
"You have got to be diversified to survive," Mr Patience said.
And diversified the Patiences are.
John and wife Nola still own their 640 hectare Fairview property, which has been operated by four generations of the Patience family but have lived in Geraldton for the past 12 years.
Then in 2006 when the neighbouring 3960ha Glengarry station came up for sale, they jumped at the chance to purchase the exceptional property, which was part of an important chapter of WA settlement history.
Heritage listed buildings still stand on the property in good condition, including the original stables and the upstanding homestead, which claims the privilege of being the birthplace of Edith Cowan.
A newer addition to the Glengarry station is the feedlot, which will be registered within the month to hold up to 2800 head.
It will also be used to background cattle from station country on pellet rations to be sent directly to the Geraldton port.
John said it made sense from a business point of view, as the feedlot is in the ideal position for station producers to cost-effectively condition their cattle before exporting from Geraldton.
He added they won't put any of their own cattle into the feedlot any time soon, as the costs associated with feedlotting are not viable while they only have a small number of their own cattle.
Glengarry station currently runs 100 Angus cows and 105 mixed breed station cattle, with a further 140 Angus cows on their newest acquisition - the 1210ha Caloola property, purchased at the beginning of 2009.
The Patience family is currently working to add nitrogen to the sandy soil by mulching and spreading lupin stubble.
"We are baling all our lupin stubble, mulching then spreading it on Caloola to see what it does," John said.
"If nitrogen fixing occurs then it will be a cheap way to improve the soil as there isn't a huge cost involved."
Farm manager Geoff Hillman joined the Patience enterprise in April this year, and got straight down to the busy business of running Glengarry station.
Geoff and his wife Jane, seven-year-old daughter Prue and four and a half-year-old son Cameron live in the charming historic homestead built in 1912 and are assisting with getting the cattle venture up and running.
The previous owners of Glengarry ran station cattle, but John decided to introduce the Angus breed as conditions suggested that they were in the highest demand in the market place.
He said another factor was the facilities already in place on Glengarry.
"It's more cattle country than sheep country up here," John said.
"I'm yet to be convinced about the Angus breed though, at this stage I would rather run the station cattle," he said.
"In saying that, Angus cattle do put the weight on quick which means a lot less costs associated with feed so we will weigh it up and see what happens."
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