for quids, and there were plenty of them! There were enough successes to establish the Boran and Tuli breeds and even more importantly, for us, this event opened the door for the first importation of Bonsmaras in a joint venture organised by Swin Hudson, between Tremere Pastoral and Arthur de Villiers and Son, one of the leading Bonsmara breeders in
South Africa. The ambition has been completed. The surrogate dams commenced calving – Then another disaster! Pestivirus. A disease, which has not been a major problem in calving cattle in Central Qld previously, spread through many herds and many breeds. Calves premature through to full term twins were still born. It was totally unexpected and prompted
the development of a vaccine which we have today; but it reduced our numbers dramatically. The survivors were gratefully received and so the Bonsmara breed had arrived from Africa. More embryos entered from the USA, and the gene pool expanded. It was a final success which none of us would have missed for quids.
BONSMARA
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ABOUT BONSMARA CATTLE The Bonsmara Cattle Breed evolved in the 1930's from extensive comparison projects at Mara Research Station in South Africa.
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Bonsmara becoming the most popular beef cattle breed in South Africa today.
An initiative of the Department of Agriculture, the aim was to develop a stabilised breed that could adapt and produce efficiantly in the hot savannah areas of South Africa. Under the direction of Professor Jan Bonsma breeds trialed in the projects included: Africander, Hereford, Shorthorn, Sussex, Angus and Red Poll. These research projects commenced in 1937, resulting in findings that the optimal combination for efficiency and production was 5/8 Africander, 3/8 Exotic. With the outcome being an animal that was 5/8 Africander, 3/16 Hereford and 3/16 Shorthorn. Wanting to assess the breeds performance under broader commercial conditions the Department of Agriculture set up a bull loan scheme in 1951, which allowed greater access to the breed for South African cattleman. Resulting in the Bonsmara becoming the most popular beef cattle breed in South Africa today.
DID YOU KNOW... ■ Bonsmara are a tropically adapted Bos taurus breed. Performance recording is the cornerstone of their development. ■ They are the dominant breed in South Africa, where some 60,000 registered females are currently being performance recorded with the commercial and seedstock herds, adding to around 4 million head. ■ Some 400 Bonsmara embryos were first imported into Australia in 1998 from the Republic of South Africa, followed by semen from the USA. ■ The Bonsmara Cattle Breeders Society of Australia (BCBS of A) was formed in 2000, and there are now over 3000 Bonsmara infused cattle in the country.
Bonsmara are medium framed, smooth coated cattle. Coat colour can range from deep red to light brown. Like the Belmont the Bonsmara Bulls exhibit a small hump forward of the shoulder with a neat underline. Bonsmara embryos were imported into Australia in the 1980's and the breed continues to develop under Australian conditions
BEAUTIFUL COAT: BASKING BONSMARA PHOTO: KYM ELLEM
Tremere Pastoral
Over 42 years of Performance Recorded, Tropical Adapted, Bos taurus Cattle
Annual Bull Sale 11am Friday September 8th 2017
Swin & Kathy Hudson Ph. 0428973020 WWW.TREMEREPASTORAL.COM.AU
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