supply chain
mer, 'Kyeamba Downs'
Patti and Wayne Bartholomew (far right) with their son, Sonney, his wife, Sharni, their daughter, Phoebe, and Wayne's father, Alan
Stuart, Joanna & John Tait, "Sunny Downs", Mandurama, with a run of their seven-year-old Angus cows and their dog, Wendy
CARCASE PERFORMANCE
BREEDING STRATEGY ON TRACK
Beef Spec Results:
Beef Spec Results:
Champion Carcase Performance Team, Reserve, Champion Riverine Premium Beef Champion Pen & 7th Place Team overall
Property:
‘Shepstone Park’, Bookham NSW
Enterprise:
450 Angus cows Owned by Sydney based Craig Turnbull, “Shepstone Park” was purchased 22 years ago, primarily as a farm holiday destination for his family. Now the farm and its beef enterprise, managed from the start by Claydon Butt, has grown to about 450 Angus cows. Angus sires used in their herd have been sourced over the years from Angus studs in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales. The feedlot trial was entered in the hope that the intensive feedback and scrutiny would sharpen their understanding of what feedlots want. “We were hoping we would do well in meat quality, we put a lot of (breeding) focus on that”, said Mr Turnbull. He said they aimed to sell cattle to feedlots and had been getting good feedback from customers.
FERTILITY FOCUS Beef Spec Results:
Reserve Champion Carcase Performance & 4th Place team overall
Property:
‘Sunny Downs’, Mandurama NSW, 2000 hectares
Enterprise:
550 Angus cows & 200-800 Angus weanerss Stuart Tait and his parents, John and Joanna, are striving for moderation across the board in their Angus cattle operation. For nine years, the family learned a lot about what was required to successfully market cattle to the feedlots after backgrounding cattle for Australian Meat Holdings, now JBS. Now, the family are running 550 Angus cows and also buy in between 200 and 800 weaners each year.
Champion Riverine Premium Beef Champion Pen & 3rd Place team overall
Property:
'Gunninguldrie Station‘, north west of Lake Cargelligo NSW, 4250 hectares & “Uranaway”, 35km further west, 2318ha
Enterprise:
400 Angus cows For Wayne and Patti Bartholemew the results from Beef Spectacular showed their breeding strategy was on track, with the challenge for them now to keep the herd at the top level. “We have got the length, style and leg in them, we have to keep them where they are,” he said. “We need cattle that can walk in our country, because of the larger paddocks,” Mr Bartholomew said. The Bartholomews run about 400 Angus cows and source their sires from Angus studs in New South Wales and were pleased to be able to track the performance of their cattle in the competition right through the feedlotting and the carcase phases.
The family is using feedback to refine the original breeding aims, with Angus bulls purchased from studs in Tasmania, Victoria and New South Wales over the years. “The three main things I look at today are low birth weights, very high 600-day weight and low to moderate mature cow weights. A moderate temperament is also key for John, who culls for this in weaners over any other trait. The Taits also put a high emphasis on fertility, carefully selecting the females with the best fertility traits to build the herd around. 70% of the Taits steers are sold direct to feedlot at 500kg liveweight, with the 30% who go heavier slaughtered. All steers are 100% grassfed and graze on wheat, annual ryegrass and a mix of perennial pastures. “It is very pleasing to receive feedback from a competition like this. What is working and what isn’t. We have been looking to improve our carcase traits so it is very exciting to see how they performed onBulletin grain,” Stuart2018 said. PAge 33 Angus — autumn