The Underwoods move south to a different weather pattern

And over the past 12 months, the couple have changed their business direction according to their new location.  

"We have certainly had a massive change in our marketing strategy but our biggest decision of all was to just keep enough cattle to run a viable business," Mr Underwood said. 

Mr Underwood said they were also motivated to move by a desire to operate in a softer climate as well as being closer to family. 

It was in March 2012 when the rain stopped falling at their then home block, Eversleigh in the Hughenden district. The property was then carrying a combined 1800-head stud and commercial female Droughtmaster herd.

And in May the following year, the Underwoods made the gut-wrenching decision to sell all their dry cattle and trim down their breeding herd considerably.

"We sold all of our aged cows and trimmed our breeder numbers, but kept about 200 replacement weaner heifer calves to bring into the breeding herd," he said.

Then in 2014, with still no rain in sight, the couple moved their weaner steers and heifers to agistment at Thornhill, Barcaldine. The following year they were lucky enough to find more agistment just 40 kilometres from home.

In July 2014, Roger and Jenny Underwood bought Pine Hills in the Wallumbilla district, and took advantage of the available grass to stock it with dry cattle and some breeders.   

By November 2015, the couple had sold both their Hughenden district properties to neighbours, the Wearing family. Those properties consisted of the 24,000ha Eversleigh and the 6477ha Aireworth. 

Since their relocation to Wallumbilla, the Underwood family have downsized their numbers by more than half. 

They run 400 breeders on Pine Hills and the same number on nearby agistment country.

All breeders are managed under a continuous mating system, returning about a 90 per cent calving average.

Since moving to Pine Hills, the couple have moved from selling heavy feeder steers to selling weaner cattle straight into the nearby Roma Saleyards.

"We are finding the Roma Saleyards is the most efficient way to sell steers," Mr Underwood said.

"We also sell some heifers through Roma and have topped the market at 418c/kg to repeat restockers, while some heifers are sold on AuctionsPlus.

"We used to market 120 Droughtmaster bulls with the Eversleigh and Wallace Vale breeding prefix, both in paddock sales and at the Diamantina Droughtmaster sale at Winton.

"However, due to downsizing at Pine Hills, last year we sold 30 bulls mainly to new clients in the paddock and sold four bulls as new vendors at the Roma Tropical Bull sale for the first time.”

Mr Underwood said the cattle market was dictated by supply and demand and would always fluctuate.

“In the long term I would like to see a good stable market without the fluctuations, as it is best for everyone,” he said. 

The Underwoods have started renovating and nurturing their pasture on Pine Hills. 

They are deep ripping paddocks to release of available nitrogen to re-condition the buffel grass while maintaining moisture retention.

“This promotes more grass and allows us to be more sustainable and productive.” Mr Underwood said.