How Gyranda Station Uses Simple Data to Drive Performance
“I think the key to collecting and utilising data on-farm is to make it as simple as possible. If it is difficult for us farmers to do, then we simply won’t do it.”
Gyranda Station, located near Theodore, Queensland, is a mixed commercial and stud operation, home to Peter and Nikki Mahony’s renowned Santa Gertrudis stud.
Running 3,000 head of cattle, the Mahonys sell 250–300 bulls annually, alongside heavy feeders, bullocks, cull heifers, and fat cows. It’s a large-scale, performance-driven operation, and one where data has long played a role.
“We’ve always collected data in our operation, most of that involved your generation of EBVs, but really to sit down and try to get those decision points [from the data] is something that we weren’t really doing enough of,” Peter said.
Peter said Black Box will help streamline how he and his team analyse the data they’re already collecting on farm.
“Things like: are we hitting weight targets on time? If not, do we feed more or shift calving earlier? Are the cattle we’re sending to works actually performing for us?”
Ultimately, Peter sees simplicity as the biggest advantage.
“If you can make data collection simple, and the analysis even simpler, that’s a powerful tool. And in my view, that’s where Black Box is headed.”