Set among the gentle hills on the outskirts of Yea, Victoria, LarnOO spans over close to 3,100ha of undulating pasture and native bushland offering an exceptional environment for growing grass-fed Angus beef for both local and international markets.

With the acquisition of two adjoining titles running both sides of the Goulburn River, property owner Matt Vaughan, and farm manager Jarrod McKay, made the decision to improve infrastructure across the entire operation.

Significant new fencing, laneways, irrigation and pumps have been upgraded, and a state-of-the-art, remote operation cattle handling facility, designed and built by ProWay Livestock Equipment, has been installed to improve management of their cattle breeding and backgrounding operation.

For Mr McKay, one of the initial challenges was to fit new facilities in an existing shed.

"ProWay's stock yard designer, came and measured the shed, the heights and the existing concrete fall. From there he worked with us to design something that best suited our operation." he said.

For Mr Vaughan, the key objectives were improving safety, animal welfare and efficiency as the existing facilities were deemed dangerous and unreliable.

"We run mobs of around 300 head, and with the new yards we can now comfortably handle these numbers with reduced labour. More importantly the new yards make it safer for the team and as easy as possible on the livestock," he said.

"Cattle move through the yards smoothly, we can get them in and out quickly, and get the jobs done without any fuss or stress. We also load out of this facility and can now load or unload B-Doubles in half the time."

One of the significant benefits of the facility is the pneumatic air-operated gates to safely process cattle with the press of a button, as well as the adjustable working race and raised personnel walkways.

"Stock flow is even better than we anticipated. Once we have the cattle in the lead up yard, we don't have to be in with them at all." Mr McKay said.

"Cattle walk through the race really well, and we can fit around 20 cows in it at full capacity. We're able to easily adjust the race width, which means working cows, weaners or even smaller calves is much easier."

Other air driven features include a remote operation pneumatic rotary force and four-way draft. Weights are collected in the crush and a draft decision can be made on live data with the remote control.

"In terms of efficiency, the pneumatic features mean we reduce labour costs as all of our stockwork is much quicker with the new yards."

Mr Vaughan said ProWay really understand how cattle instinctively want to walk and move through the yards.

"Proway completed the design, fabrication and installation to a high standard and they worked in with our breeding schedule. We worked out a construction schedule that had the least impact on our operations.

"We're big fans of the new yards, they have added real value to LarnOO, made us more efficient, and importantly made it a safer workplace for all the team. We think the cattle like them too."

The Wagga Wagga, New South Wales companys' director and stock yard designer, Joe Hoban who designed the LarnOO facilities, said ProWay's key objective in product development is problem solving with a focus on operator safety, animal welfare and product quality.

"We have a proud history of Australian manufacturing which is backed by our in house engineering team and we provide ongoing service for our customers across the entire country," he said.

Mr Hoban noted a push for safety and efficiency, which is becoming more prevalent across the industry.

"Many operators are looking at time saved, stress and WH&S in the yards more closely and how this relates to their businesses's bottom line."

For Mr Hoban, the technology being incorporated in modern yards offers significant gains in efficiency and data capture, which are allowing operators to make informed decisions in a timely manner.

"We build equipment that will last multiple generations, so it's important to factor in emerging technology and design facilities that are adaptive to future innovation in the industry."

When it comes to technology in the industry, Mr Hoban says pneumatic and hydraulic assistance in stock handling will play a pivotal role in years to come.

"We're working closely with many of Australia's progressive livestock enterprises to deliver some of the most advanced facilities in the world. The future of stock handling will see more and more technology introduced to improve husbandry operations so it's an exciting time to be in the industry."