Tumbarumba beef producer on the road to electrifying her farm vehicles

When Felicity Anderson musters cattle by motorbike on her Tumbarumba property she hears the cattle and the wildlife, but not the usual obnoxious noise of an internal combustion engine.

Last year she invested in an electric motorbike and the quiet is just one of the advantages she’s found.

Mrs Anderson, from Sanderson Pastoral Company, a 1000-hectare operation of 1000 breeders, turning off black composites at 400-500kg for the feedlot market, said that electric was “a better way”.

“Farms are notorious for using many internal combustion engines and I wanted to get rid of as many of these as I could,” she said.

“I’ve always been very concerned about climate change and would like to try and do our bit.”

She started with an electric lawn mower in 2022 and in February 2023 took the leap to purchase a Volvo XC40 Recharge car.

“Electric cars are great, but it’s not like a direct substitute for an internal combustion engine. There are still a few sacrifices you make, range being one of them, and living rurally there are not enough chargers,” she said.

“It’s not a perfect system, but they’re still awesome.”

But, for Mrs Anderson, electrification is the perfect solution on farm, where the range is more than adequate and vehicles can be charged at home, often at no cost to farmers if they have solar-generated electricity, like she does.

Her motorbike, an UBCO, came with a charger, which plugs into a normal power point.

“It couldn’t be easier, you just plug it in. It’s easier than filling up with petrol,” she said.

It’s also attractive to her because of the savings - there is no longer consumable costs such as oil and air filters, nor are there any throwaway parts.

The electric motorbike looks different to other bikes, which Mrs Anderson said was because it didn’t need all the plastic bits “that flap around and break” because they’re not needed to cool an engine.

The motorbike still needs servicing, each wheel has a hub that operates it, giving all-wheel drive capabilities, and she does this in Wodonga, which is an hour and a half drive away.

Mrs Anderson was pleased to find electric motorbikes being stocked so close to home, after beginning her search for one a few years ago.

She tried at a local motorbike shop, but was told they didn’t exist, so it wasn’t until she found mention of UBCO in a magazine that she could see her solution.

The bikes were born in New Zealand, the brainchild of dairy farmers frustrated their motorbikes wouldn’t start on cold mornings.

She loves that her motor bike now starts first go, every time.

“All that garbage with the choke and throttle and trying to start it, isn’t a problem anymore,” she said.

Mrs Anderson has been farming at Tumbarumba for 10 years and said her business relied on data-driven decisions, which helped to maximise production and profitability.

She also hosts a lime demonstration site, which is so-far demonstrating that current recommended lime rates are not sufficient.

Mrs Anderson has identified some resistance to the idea of using an electric motorbike in the industry but wanted to share the message that they are available to anyone who is looking.

“They just make so much sense,” she said.

For her next electrification project, Mrs Anderson would like to replace the other motorbikes they’ve got across their properties.