And while the marketability of the Angus breed is a nobrainer, the Santa Gertrudis-Angus different marketing option, performing particularly well at the saleyards. “The Santa Angus cross calves look fantastic and sell really well, because they are nice, shiny and soft,” Mal said. The Santa Gertrudis- Angus cross calves are the result of the backup portion of the joining program at Kanangra, where the Angus bulls get first go at the breeders and the Santas go in as a backup later in the season. It means there are a few different lines of breed types when the weaners are ready at 9-10 months of age, but the quality of those lines is never in question, evidenced by the strong breeder demand for the Kanangra heifer drop as mentioned earlier. Sometimes the family offers PTIC heifers, but didn’t in 2017 in order to stock a new property, and the steers are usually bought by feeders and backgrounders. Mal believes the property is stocked on par with the district average at about one cow per 1.2 hectares. The family doesn’t crop at all except for the occasional paddock locked up for silage, and relies on a contract with a local hay producer to feed the cattle throughout the year. “We’ve chosen not to produce hay in favour of running more stock basically,” they said.
The Phillips family plans to just keep on blazing ahead, business as usual with their breeding herd going forward, working on continually pumping in quality bloodlines and pumping out quality calves.
The 2017 drop of Angus and Santa Gertrudis-Angus calves have grown out nicely at Kanangra
Angus Bulletin — autumn 2018
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