The Lethbridge family’s dedicated dual purpose loading and unloading facility on Amber Station, which acts like a series of small yards that cattle move up as they are going into the truck.

A FIELD day to be held in North Queensland this September is set to unveil a new cattle loading facility recently installed by the Lethbridge family.

The field day at Amber station, Mount Surprise, will cover a range of topics including low-stress stock handling, fit-to-load cattle and how the production and transport industry can better improve the movements of cattle.

Russell Lethbridge, who owns Amber and sits on the board of Meat & Livestock Australia, has been pushing for improved standards in cattle loading and transport across the industry.

Russell Lethbridge

He has been working with the organisation on the formation of MLA’s transport hub and investing in the new loading facilities on the family’s properties across Queensland.

The loading facilities are based off the ramp at the Blackall Saleyards, which has moved away from the single file loading and uses a series of pens the width of a trailer to bring cattle onto the trailer.

A full demonstration of the ramps will be given at the field day by Russell and John Lethbridge who have been behind the development of the new ramps.

Speaking to Beef Central earlier this year, Russell said the ramps have completely shifted the paradigm on cattle loading.

“Cattle are more comfortable going up this than they are in a single-file race, because they are happy to travel up together, rather than being isolated in single file,” he said.

“Rather than thinking of it as a ramp, it is more a like a series of pens that they keep moving up, like they do when they are moving through cross-loading stock trailers. You do need to have a ramp that is long enough to accommodate for that.

“It is a big investment, but these things will be here for 100 years.”

• The day will be held on Monday September 8