Broome the gateway to the West Kimberley
Host: Dr. Bryce Mooring
Written by Dr. Bryce Mooring – Co-owner, Broome Cattle Vets.
Flying in over Roebuck Bay for the first time you are instantly dazzled by the different colours of soil and water! This is a feeling that you constantly associate with Broome being home and It does not matter how many times you leave and come back, this feeling doesn’t change. My first introduction to Broome and the Kimberley cattle industry was through their local veterinarian, whom I have not only joined in business, but whom has become a mentor and a genuine friend. Dave Morrell is a true representation of the West Kimberley’s and heightened my desire to be involved in the industry.
Many mornings start at 1 or 2 am with a quick coffee and jumping in the car to be at a station by day break, often because the luxury of travelling there the evening before is impeded due to the late finish of the previous job. The beauty of this early rise and what truly makes you appreciate the West Kimberley is seeing the sun rising often over the yards you are set to spend the next few days or through the boabs which scatter the sides of the roads you travel. Travel is something that is a given, something you just do, but it provides a wonderful time to think about your next job, what is that station trying to achieve, what can you do to help them with their goals, how you could have better explained ideal calving dates and why pregnancy testing is important for this.
My second home.
Often the process of pregnancy testing to determine what stage of pregnancy a breeder is and if she is calving out in the ideal calving period can be a monotonous and boring job. As is spaying or webbing cull heifers or cows to ensure that they don’t get in calf again and are then able to be sold the following season. But thankfully the ringers ensure that this is never the case with conversations varying drastically from rodeo conquests to in-depth discussion on beef production. It never ceases to amaze me the backgrounds of the ringers I get to work with, some are from stations themselves, some were engineers and decide to give it a go and some are city folk whom have been lured to bush. I love that on stations so far from any major town centre you will constantly meet so many interesting people all with a story of their own, this is something that will never get old to me.
Broome is fortunate to have two very well run export facilities which hold cattle from the West Kimberley and Pilbara stations in preparation for export to South East Asia. I find myself constantly at both these facilities, pregnancy testing to ensure all animals for export are not in calf and following protocol which often includes administration of veterinary vaccines against disease, collection of bloods which are then sent to interstate laboratories for testing of diseases (as requested by importing countries), correlation of animal and sample data and to visualise the overall health of those animals being prepared for export. The management and staff of these facilities are constantly developing rations, monitoring, and improving movement of livestock within the facility and working with producers to deliver the best possible product onto the ships for export.
I constantly work with exporters and on board veterinarians to ensure that the way cattle are prepared by me and the advice given by me in the export facility allows healthy, happy cattle ready to travel and that are set up (prepared) health-wise to thrive in their overseas feedlots.
