Lowline 2017 magazine

Journal Of The Australian Lowline Cattle Association

www.lowlinecattleassoc.com.au

NO 29 | 2017

AUSTRALIAN

LOWLINE

SIRE: BRAMBLETYE PANCHO

DAM: TRAINGE J251

POLO SHIRTS

SLEEVELESS JACKET

BREED TIES

(RANGE OF COLOURS)

CHAMBRAY SHIRT

WOOLLEN SHOW VEST

$60.00 EACH

$33.00 EACH

$30.00 TO $40.00 EACH

$55.00 EACH

$60.00 EACH

PIN BADGE

TRAVEL MUG

CAP

KEY RING

STUBBY HOLDER

$5.50 EACH

$16.50 EACH

$16.50 EACH

$5.50 EACH

$6.60 EACH

CR120508AA

(E.T.) (A.I.) t t RotheRwood MeZMeRiZe Me ock padd the of out just old ths 9 mon

We have exceptional animals on the ground from our breeding program, which include ET (embryo transfer) Calves from the famous Trangie J251 and other highly regarded genetics. These animals will be proven by undergoing the “show circuit” in early 2017.

gOes A

Long WAy

MERCHANDISE

At Rotherwood Lowline Stud we have been undergoing an extensive breeding program over the past two years which include carefully selecting only the best embryos, semen and natural joinings with some of our best breeders and quality recipients.

BULL

A

LittLe

Contact Carole at ABRI Office to Order Merchandise Phone 02 6773 3295 or e-mail office@lowlinecattleassoc.com.au lowlinecattleassoc.com.au

ASHMORE LOWLINE STUD



ROYAL CANBERRA SHOW 2016

SUPREME EXHIBIT rotherwood glamour girl GRAND CHAMPION BULL Cann Valley Count Knock-Out (A.I) JUNIOR CHAMPION FEMALE RESERVE JUNIOR CHAMPION Cann Valley Lunar eclipse (A.I)

ROYAL SYDNEY EASTER SHOW 2016

BEST EXHIBIT rotherwood glamour girl JUNIOR CHAMPION BULL Cann Valley Count Knock-Out (A.I.)



RESERVE JUNIOR CHAMPION BULL Cann Valley Count Lucifer (A.I.)

“BreedIng AustrALIA’s Best”

ROYAL MELBOURNE SHOW 2016

Matt Cooney | mattcooney98@gmail.com 0434110634 | cannvalleylowlinestud.weebly.com

Consistency is our key...

Let us heLp yOu unLOCK sOMe dOOrs

Available for Sale 

StuD & CommErCiAl CAttlE liCENSED SEmEN tAilorED PACkAGES

Sound quality Lowline Cattle bred to perform in all environments

All ENquiriES WElComE

Gordon & Debbie Guthrie | Ashburton, New Zealand | Phone: +64 3 302 4964 | Email: gguthrie@xtra.co.nz www.ashmorelowlinestud.co.nz

contents A RURAL WEEKLY PUBLICATION

This magazine was designed and produced for Lowline Australia by Rural Weekly. Head Office 50 Albion Street Warwick QLD 4370.

4

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

5

Executive Officer’s report

6-7

VICTORIA’S OLDEST LOWLINE STUD

Printing by APN Print Warwick – 07 4660 4515 General Manager – Nick Inmon – 0746601302 nick.inmon@ruralweekly.com.au

8

Queensland’s newest LOWLINE stud

9-12

BULL SELECTION AnD MANAGEMENT

14-16

Marketing lowlines

17-18

MANAGING PRoductive breeders

20

our loWline journey

21-22

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE MUSTER & SHOW

Disclaimer and copyright – the contents of the 2017 Lowline journal are copyright and reproduction without permission is forbidden.

The view expressed by contributors and advertiser claims are not necessarily endorsed by the producers of this journal. Neither the producers nor the Australian Lowline Cattle Association takes any responsibility for the accuracy of the information’s contained nor the outcome of any action taken by readers based on information therein .

22

DO SMALL COWS MAKE MORE MONEY?

24-29

AROUND THE SHOW RINGS

30-33

PROMOTION GROUPS

34

THE HEAT IS ON

35-36

STUD PROFILES

37

LOWLINES ABroad

38

VIOLET THE SUPERMUM

PROMOTION GROUPS NEW ZEALAND NORTH ISLAND NZNI Promotion Group (NZNIPG) Sandy Moore - Chairperson 18A Castle Street, Eltham Taranaki 4322, New Zealand Email: norfolks@xtra.co.nz

NORTHERN QLD NTH QLD Lowline Promotion Group (NTHQLD Lowline PG) Sharon Coome - Secretary 65 Greens Road Alton Downs, QLD 4702 Phone: 0431 354 728 Email: Sharon.coome@bigpond.com.au

Judy Sainsbury - Secretary 16 Haunui Road Whangaehu RD 11 Wanganui, New Zealand Email: judy@casablanca.co.nz David Clee - Treasurer

NEW SOUTH WALES NSW Promotion Group (NSWPG) Michael Noel - Chairperson 42 Nutwood Lane, Windsor Downs NSW 2756 Ph:02 4574 3867 or 0410 514 480 Email: noeldr@bigpond.com

NEW ZEALAND SOUTH ISLAND NZSI Promotion Group (NZSIPG) Philip Worthington - Chairperson McIntosh’s Road RD1 Rangiora, New Zealand Ph: 03 313 6730 Email: woolstone@scorch.co.nz Debbie Guthrie - Secretary 729 Methven Hwy RD 6 Ashburton, New Zealand Ph: 03 302 4964 Email: gguthrie@xtra.co.nz Gordon Guthrie - Treasurer

Bill Brydon - Secretary P O Box 54 Marulan, NSW 2579 Ph: 02 9665 9214 or 0417 659 811 Email: wbrydon@bigpond.net.au VICTORIA Southern Region Promotion Group VIC (SRPG) Ken Lorains - Chairperson 235 Zeerust Rd Zeerust, Vic 3634 Ph: 03 5829 8294 Email: whitbyfarm235@bigpond.com

SOUTHERN QLD STH QLD Lowline Promotion Group (STHQLD Lowline PG) Colin Schiller - Chairperson PO Box 230 Cambooya QLD 4358 Ph: 0419.686.254 Email: colin.schiller@bigpond.com

Natarsha Canny - Secretary Green Hill Farm 4702 Goulburn Valley Highway Molesworth Vic 3718 Ph: 03 5797 6343 or 0407 327 603 Email: natarsha@yarrarangeslowline.com.au

Christina Schiller - Secretary PO Box 230 Cambooya QLD 4358Ph: 0448 856 257 Email: christina.schiller@uqconnect.com.au

Tonia Goodman - Treasurer

Colin Schiller - Treasurer

FEBRUARY 2017

SOUTH AUSTRALIA SA Promotion Group (SAPG) Sue Foureur - Chairperson PO Box 133 Glencoe, SA 5291 Ph: 0407 251 041 Email: glenlonny@hotmail.com AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 3

PRESIDENT’S REPORT

“The last 12 months have been both a busy and notable period for the Association.”

Implementation of a supplementary register for authenticated red coated Lowlines has been completed. Our herd book now includes registered red coated animals and for the first time both black and red coated Lowlines have been shown in the same show ring. This provides a great opportunity for the breed to move forward and grow with a unified membership.

Our fresh new look website is now fully operational. The website is not only the key marketing tool for the Lowline breed but a tremendous resource for members; to keep up to date on events and happenings, access to support services, downloadable forms and provides an opportunity to help you promote your own stud or Lowline beef.

I am pleased to report that the Association continues in good heart with a steady flow of new members joining the breed – welcome all.

A strong membership base and registration of calves is essential for the on-going funding and survival of the Association.

While ALCA’s strategic focus is to grow the commercial relevance of Certified Lowline Beef (CLB) we should not forget that behind the commercial activity is a need to retain a strong breed identity and sustainable breed Association. It is testament to the quality of our Lowline beef product to hear the continued reports from members who have successfully developed their local Lowline beef supply chains and recently with an Ardrossan Lowline steer taking out the Koallah Farm Eating Quality Award.

Council is mindful of maintaining costs that are acceptable to members whilst continuing to provide the support and services expected. As a result ALCA has moved, where possible, to emailing soft copies of documents and notices – hard copies will still be available on request.

Congratulations to Jeanette and Peter Stebbins on your Honorary Life Membership. This is a very deserving award to such long term ambassadors of the Lowline Breed.

Thank you to my fellow Councillors for their continued support and hard work and Carole in the ALCA office for enthusiastically managing the day-to-day member support function.

To all Lowline breeders I wish you a very successful and productive 2017.

Gordon Guthrie, ALCA President

ALCA COUNCIL 2015-2016 President Gordon Guthrie Phone: 03 3024 964 and (+64 3 3024 964 New Zealand) Fax: 03 3024 964 and +64 3 3024 964 Mobile: 0274 324 999 and +64 274 324 999 Email: gguthrie@xtra.co.nz Vice President Julie Knight Phone: 03 5828 6490 and +61 3 5828 6490 Mobile: 0427 539 795 and +61 427 539 795 Email: wanamara@westnet.com.au Secretary Philip Worthington Phone: 03 3136 730 and +64 3 3136 730 Email: woolstone@scorch.co.nz Treasurer Colin Schiller Phone: 07 4696 1549 and +64 7 4634 3047 Mobile: 0448 856 257 and +61 4 448 856 257 Email: colin.schiller@bigpond.com

Councillor Michele Molloy Phone: 07 4935 4033 and +61 7 4935 4033 Mobile: 0413 147 652 and +61 413 147 652 Email: mitchmay@bigpond.com Councillor Christian Grieves Phone: 0467 592 443 Email: christiangrieves@gmail.com Councillor Lucy Kuipers Phone : 0406 023 569 Email : ellekaystud@hotmail.com Councillor Klaus Emmerich Phone: 08 8734 4452 or 0402 146 211 Email: jokem62@active8.net.au Co-opted Assistant to Council Ku Lacey Phone : 0407 952 372 Email : kulacey@gmail.com

The year letter for 2017 is ‘N’ 4 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

Executive Officer’s report

It is with great pleasure that I present you with the Australian Lowline Cattle Association Executive Officer report for 2016 ‘2016 has been a very progressive and exciting year for the Australian Lowline Cattle Association.’

We have seen some very positive changes come to Association this year, and our membership continues to grow with 40 new members joined from 1.1.2016 to 30.11.2016.The highlights of our year have been : 2016 Calendar We printed our first Lowline Calendar for 2016 after running a Photograph Competition in 2015 with the winners of each section being published in the Calendar. We received a good number of outstanding photographs and the judges had a very difficult task awarding the winners.

Database Conversion and introduction of the Red Register and Deemed Registrations.

We have finalised our conversion from our old database to the new database ILR2 and the inclusion of the “Red Register” for the registration of red coated Australian Lowline Cattle.

This very important change is now very streamlined, and we have a number of red coated animals registered on our database with further registrations arriving regularly.

We also established the new Deemed Registration Register for animals whose pedigree could be proved to be an Australian Lowline, but the line of registration for these animals had been broken.

The Deemed Registration of these animals allows their progeny to be fully registered in the Australian Lowline Cattle Herdbook.

Amnesty on the Late Registration of animals At our AGM in October 2016 in Sydney the members approved an amnesty on the payment of late registration fees for all animals (black and red) for the period between the 2016 AGM on 2.10.2016 to the 2017 AGM when the decision will be reviewed. We had an amnesty on late registration fees last year from the introduction of the red register in October 2015 to March 2016 and we saw an increase in registrations from 314 from 1.7.14 to 30.6.15 2015 to 448 from 1.7.2015 to 30.6.2016. We are hoping that we will see an even larger increase in registrations this year with the amnesty being for the full 12 months.

Commercial Memberships A decision was made by our members at the AGM in October 2016 to waive the joining fee for Commercial Memberships to encourage more Commercial members to join. If a new Commercial member joins, and commences stud breeding and registration of stud cattle, they can be easily upgraded to a Full Membership by paying the difference between the two memberships.

New GOOP Website Our new Website designed by GOOP went live in early May 2016, and is a fresh and very informative marketing tool for the Association.

Congratulations to the Website team headed by Bill Belton and his team members Denise Moloney, Julie Knight and Michele Molloy.

They have all worked tirelessly to achieve a great website for the Association.

Wholly Cow Month held in Rockhampton Qld Our North Queensland Promotional Group participated in the Wholly Cow Month in Rockhampton. This was a paddock to plate food extravaganza based around beef from the local area. There was a range of events such as restaurant menus focused on preparing different cuts of beef and new and innovative recipes, recipe cards, tours and more. Our North Qld Promotion Group actively participated in the extravaganza focused on getting the excellent eating quality of the Lowline beef out into the marketplace.

New Beef Marketing Kit – Certified Lowline Beef We have introduced a new Beef Marketing Kit aimed at prospective Commercial Lowline Beef Producers and which covers all areas of Commercial beef Marketing.

Over the past 12 months our Beef sales under the Certified Lowline Beef Trademark have continued to expand through our connection with our Geelong butcher Adam Trezise who is working closely with our local Lowline beef breeder Adam Gleeson supplying beef from his Lowline Stud “Drakes Lodge” at Drysdale, Victioria, and the sales of Certified Lowline beef at the Farmers Markets in Vic and SA. Our councillor Denise Moloney and her husband, Peter, have been very busy attending Farmers Markets in South Australia nearly every weekend, with their Certified Lowline beef from their farm “Yenolom”.

They have now expanded into a BBQ enterprise at these markets, spreading the word on how good the Lowline beef is to consume. We have been advised that they have a very large following of dedicated consumers, and frequently sell out of their Certified Lowline Beef with the demand for their product completely outstripping the supply availalble. Buyers are there early to ensure they do not miss out.

Congratulations to Denise and Peter for such a successful enterprise and for engaging the consumers with the BBQ Lowline beef which cements it as a premium beef product.

Victorian On Farm Challenge Southern Region Promotion Group held a very successful On Farm Challenge on 11th – 13th June 2016 with 75 animals being entered by 15 Victorian Lowline Studs.

It has been a busy and highly successful year for the Australian Lowline Cattle Association.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our wonderful Councillors that we have in our leadership team, and all the members of our Association who have such a positive attitude towards the Association and their cattle - it is a pleasure to work with you all.

Together we will continue to grow and expand in 2017.

Carole Johns, Executive Officer

FEBRUARY 2017

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 5

PROFILE

Victoria’s Oldest Lowline Stud

By Andrea Davy, Rural Weekly

In a bid to teach their teenage son about farming and business, Peter and Jeanette Stebbins started the foundations for Victoria’s first Lowline stud.

Jeanette freely admits her family had no serious farming background when they had a table discussion deciding if they should buy two incalf Lowline heifers.

The cattle were for their son, Chris, who had always wanted to be a farmer or a truck driver.

The family thought running the small herd across their 11 acres near Bendigo in Victoria would be a good first step into agriculture for their son, and they were right, as just a few years later Chris moved away to work on a grain property – leaving the cattle at home with mum and dad.

That was in the early 90s, and if you flash forward to today the Stebbins have moved with their robust cattle business, Ardrossan Lowline Stud, to the picturesque south-west coast of Victoria, running their herd on a former dairy property within the historic Heytesbury Settlement area.

Although they had a modest start to the industry in 1992 buying just two head, in the past 25 years they have pioneered Lowline embryo transfers and have now exported their top-quality genetics to China, NZ, Thailand, England, Ireland and throughout the USA and Canada.

Last year they were honoured with lifetime membership of the Australian Lowline Cattle Association for their dedication to the breed.

Receiving the top honour gave Jeanette the chance to reflect on their stud’s incredible journey.

While her stud has had much success, she believes there is more work to be done in terms of promoting the breed in Australia.

driven from another problem – they had buyers wanting to purchase cattle, but didn’t have enough stock to sell.

To keep a steady supply available for the demand the family opted to sell recipient cows that were implanted with Lowline embryos.

“In those days they were jersey cows with the full blood Lowline embryo inside them,” she said.

“I was the first one to attempt this with Lowlines, so it was all very new, experimental and hit and miss – it was all of those things all at once.

“I wasn’t always successful, but I learnt along the way.

“I had wonderful ET vets who drove five hours to be at my place, and we would work out all the problems, learning about the dose rate, timing and observation and all of that together.”

Marketing Jeanette has a real knack for stud-cattle marketing.

Since the beginning she has always been able to attract new people to the breed because of her belief in the Lowline breed fitting into the market of small acreage farming.

She shrugs off she is anything of a marketing guru but simply describes herself as someone with “dogged determination”.

“When you believe in something you will go full pelt with promoting it,” she said.

“It’s not just the case of breeding animals, as I say to my clients, ‘look, don’t expect someone to come and knock on the door and want to buy your animals, you have to get out there and be seen extolling the breed’s virtues.”

“I would really like to see them utilized on a commercial basis, so they are not just seen as a hobby breed,” she said.

In the early days she would call the local newspaper when anything was happening with her embryo transfer ventures, and in later years she wrote diary entries for the US glossy magazine Farm and Ranch Living.

“In America, we have no trouble selling bulls to commercial cattlemen of any breed for ease of calving, moderating frame size and benefitting from the breed’s ability to finish on grass.

She first noticed the magazine, which has subscribers all around the world, when she was visiting one of her buyers in New Zealand.

“We have just had a commercial cattleman in Oklahoma buy our whole herd of females, and he had never had a Lowline before.”

Pioneering Embryo Transfers In the early days, the family’s perseverance with embryo transfers was

6 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

“I noticed in the magazine, farmers kept diaries as part of their stories… that’s what it was all about,” she said.

“So I wrote to the publisher and asked, ‘do you know about Lowline cattle?’ The Editor replied they had never heard about Lowline cattle and asked if I would be interested in keeping a monthly diary.

FEBRUARY 2017

“I kept a diary and hired a photographer, this was in October 2005 and it was meant to come out in the February-March, 2006 edition, but by January I had already had 180 enquires and 80 people wanting animals in America.

“We had always said that we wanted to do things properly, so my husband decided that we would go over to America and meet with these people. We flew over and visited 13 states in 18 days to see everyone who wanted to have a personal visit from us.”

US Market During their first trip to America the couple met Angus breeder Gary Gilbert, who later became their business partner.

“On meeting and staying with Gary, we just felt really comfortable with him and his family straight away,” she said.

“With Gary’s help we have set up our farm over there, called it Ausmerica Alliance Lowline Stud, and have tried to visit Gary and clients on a yearly basis. Together with Gary, we have consistently attended the National Western Stock Show in Denver, Colorado, one of the biggest cattle sales and exhibitions in America and put up some of our embryos in the auction, which can attract up to 500 attendees as well as more buyers on line.

“We have done very well with that, (buyers are interested) as the genetics are coming from Australia and provide a much needed injection of new genetics into the American herd.”

The US has remained one of Ardrossan’s biggest markets.

Jeanette describes the cattle as extremely adaptable.

“We have sent cattle over in our summer, and they landed in Minnesota’s winter,” she said.

“Minnesota has snow from October right through to May. I sent them over in calf, and they calved out beautifully. They haven’t looked back.”

When reflecting on their achievements Jeanette said she feels grateful for the opportunities the industry has given her.

“We go overseas every couple of years and have these wonderful friends everywhere. We sit on a plane and think, “gee, how did we get here?”

“Where would be if we didn’t have Lowlines?”

For more information about the Stebbins’ stud, visit Ardrossan Lowline on Facebook.

FEBRUARY 2017

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 7

PROFILE

Queensland’s Newest Lowline Stud

By Andrea Davy, Rural Weekly They are former “city” or “town people” but Paul and Sandy Burnell have found their stride as small-scale graziers.

The couple, who live on a 6-acre property in Habana, which is a rural area just outside of Mackay, are now the proud owners of five Lowline cattle.

They always had an interest in the rural lifestyle, so when the opportunity came up to purchase stock they were swift to act.

“We started with just buying two,” Paul said.

“That was our initial small herd, then we bought two more.”

Since doubling their herd, they decided to breed two of their registered cows, and in exciting news, have now seen the safe delivery of their first calf.

“We have called him Montee,” he said.

“We are pretty happy about it, especially being newbies.”

While Paul freely admitted he had more to learn about cattle management, he said it became obvious to him early on that Lowlines were the perfect breed for him.

Paul and Sandy Burnell with Montee’s mum (the little guy is underneath having a feed).

Their gentle temperament made them a stress-free mob.

“They are gentle and so easy to befriend.

“For example, after our cow gave birth I went up and distracted her with some feed and she let me pick the calf up so I could weigh him.

“Other cattle people are surprised we can do that.”

They have given each of their cows a paddock name (Rubee, Nancee, Rosee and Harmonee) and supplement their grass feed with lucerne and grain.

Since becoming a member of the Australian Lowline Cattle Association, the Burnells have received a wealth of support.

“We have been able to network with other breeders, they are all just so helpful,” he said.

The couple didn’t have far to travel when looking for top-quality lowline genetics to breed their cows with.

Paul and Sandy Burnell with Montee

Cloudbreak Lowlines, which is situated about an hour outside of Mackay at Eungella, were quick to offer their services.

“We met with Mandy and Kel Tennent… we have also been able to catch up with them at the Finch Hatton Show.”

Since becoming a farmer, albeit a small one, Paul said he had become much more conscious of his environmental surroundings.

“I was always aware of the weather, but now I am always waiting for rain,” he said.

The couple have divided the property into paddocks and rotate the mob once a week.

“I have a quad bike, but all I really have to do is open the gate and lift up a bucket,” he said.

Montee the calf.

8 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

d

Bull selection and management

By Matt Brown

Buying the right bull for your herd is a decision that should not be made lightly. Each bull that you purchase is driving the direction of your herd and your profitability for up to 15 years into the future (five matings and his daughters are retained for 10 years). A bull has the biggest genetic influence on your herd due to simple mathematics. A cow in your herd has the potential to give you six to eight calves in her lifetime, assuming that she has her first calf at two or three years of age and she is culled at 10 years of age. On the other hand, if you joined a bull to 30 cows with an 80% conception rate it equates to 24 calves per year. If that bull is used for five years, he has the potential to directly influence 120 calves. Hence the need to get it right when selecting a herd improver.

One of the first steps when selecting a bull for your herd is to actually come up with a purpose for his purchase. This can be termed as ‘breeding objectives’. Breeding objectives need to be written down.

Beef Cattle for the Future

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Just ordered some more.” Glenys Hughes

Peter and Denise Moloney Phone Peter 0447 399 273 or A/H 0439 891 624 Email yenolom61@gmail.com PO Box 1902 Mount Gambier SA 5290 FEBRUARY 2017

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 9

BULL heading SELECTION

Bull selection and management (continued from page 9)

Points to consider when creating your breeding objectives include:

• Current breed averages for each trait vary by breed, year and trait

• Current herd performance – fertility (calving and weaning percentages) and growth rates achieved by your herd. This includes what traits you are looking for in your new bull. The main points that you need to consider when selecting on traits are:

• Genetic progress shifts the average EBV for each trait each year

• Measurable – for example weight gains • Heritable – for example fertility • Trait with variation – do not select animals that are extreme in a trait e.g. extremely tall or extremely small • Be of economic importance – for example the calving intervals between calves that the bull’s mother has had throughout her life • Requirements of your customer - the general purpose of the bull e.g. seedstock or commercial cattle production.

• Environmental constraints of your property – are you breeding the right animal for your environment?

Bull Buying Tips Bull breeding analysis is a tool that can be used by cattle producers when purchasing bulls. This analysis was formally known as a VBBSE – Veterinary Bull Breeding Soundness Evaluation. It is now summarised as BULLCHECKTM, which is a comprehensive analysis of the bull performed by a vet.

A BULLCHECKTM analysis gives you peace of mind that the animal that you have purchased is able to perform the job that you have bought him for (siring of calves) with confidence. The analysis assesses all aspects of the animal’s structure, which is given a score out of 10.

This includes a score of the animal’s feet, legs, sheath, testicles and eyes.

There are two semen tests involved in the analysis. One test is conducted crush side which determines semen motility. This test looks at how the semen swirls. Semen morphology is also assessed to identify any defects that may be occurring that can affect the ability of the bull to get calves. When buying bulls with the BULLCHECKTM analysis, always ensure that the semen morphology has been conducted. When buying bulls you should only consider them if they had a minimum of 70% morphology in their analysis.

The complementary tool to BULLCHECKTM, Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs), should be used as an estimation of the genetic gain that the bull can offer to the herd. EBVs may be something that the Lowline Association can aspire to in the future, as it would enable a more comprehensive tool for bull selection.

EBVs have the following components: • Trait is expressed in the unit of measurement e.g. kg, cm, days • The EBV can be positive, negative or zero • The base (0) for a trait is set at a particular time

10FEBRUARY | AUSTRALIAN 2017 LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

• Each trait has an accuracy value (%).

More information about BULLCHECKTM and EBVs can be found on the FutureBeef website - www.futurebeef.com.

Another important aspect of buying bulls is checking the fertility of his mother. Use bulls out of dams that have at least three calves in a row naturally. Avoid bulls from dams that have missed at her first breed after calving. Also check out the calving intervals of the calves that the cow has had, and the age she was when she had her first calf. These traits can be highly heritable, you don’t want to be lowering the fertility of your herd by putting in bulls that are lacking fertility.

Research has also proven that bulls with bigger testicles produce females that are more fertile. Scrotal circumference at 12 months of age has a positive correlation with the age of puberty of their heifers. Bulls were also found to have a large influence of Postpartum Anoestrus in their daughters. If you are buying a registered bull, get onto the Lowline society breed database and check out the fertility of his father, mother and relations. Remember bulls aren’t an endangered species, so be prepared to shop around if need be to get the most value for money. Another idea for the Lowline society could be the collection of scrotal circumference of bulls at age intervals to create a comparison for the breed into the future.

Implementing a health management program Once you have purchased your new bull, you should consider the health status of the herd that he is entering. Does this animal have the potential to spread disease to his new harem, or does the harem have potential to spread disease to the new sire?

Vaccination of cattle can be compared to insurance cover. It can save producers huge economic returns in protection against diseases that decimate calving percentages and production gains.

Some producers vaccinate their cattle for a wide range of diseases, while others don’t vaccinate for any diseases. Vaccination protects herds who are naïve to disease. Different classes of cattle require different vaccines, the thing to remember is to establish the most relevant health management program for your herd.

Vaccinations for bulls are designed to protect them from reproductive diseases and other conditions that can affect their fertility. A list of common reproductive diseases is provided below.

• Leptospirosis - Leptospira hardjo infection can be responsible for abortions in pregnant cows and heifers. Transmission is direct.

The disease is spread by urine on pastures, feed and water. Rat & mice urine is also a common source. It prefers wet, humid, hot conditions. Symptoms include abortion, bloody urine, rough coat,

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION FEBRUARY JOURNAL 2017 | 10

heading

fever and death in young animals. Prevention includes bivalent vaccination (two separate shots) with two doses six to eight weeks apart and a yearly booster. Breeding females need to be vaccinated for this disease as well. Leptospirosis can be spread from cattle to humans, this is why all breeding stock should be vaccinated against this disease.

• Vibriosis – is a venereal disease that has the ability to affect maiden heifers the most when exposed to the bacteria. If it is already present in the herd, cows usually develop an immunity to the disease after initial exposure. Symptoms of the disease include embryonic deaths and abortions. Females continue to cycle during the breeding season, which leads to low calving rates. For prevention of this disease it is important to ensure that bulls have received this vaccine before the joining period. If the disease is already in the herd, heifers that are being joined for the first time may need to be vaccinated. This is a bivalent vaccine that needs a yearly booster.

• Vibriosis vaccine can sometimes leave a lump on the animal’s neck.

Bulls should be culled after they are seven years of age as the disease has the potential to live in their sheath. If you notice females that are continuously being bred by the bull but fail to deliver a calf, you should get a vet out to test them for the disease. Another important aspect of management is the separation of old bulls from young bulls to ensure that they do not contract the disease.

• Bovine Ephemeral Fever (three day sickness) – is a virus that is spread by biting insects. The virus is more likely to occur in warmer months when insect populations are more prevalent. Symptoms to the virus include fever, lameness (in the front leg), loss of appetite, excessive thirst and pregnant animals may abort.

The virus is very dangerous to bulls due to the high fever associated with it. Fevers can jeopardise the semen of the bull as it kills sperm, especially if the animal goes down and is laying on his testicles. Once the animal recovers, there may be a time period where he is infertile and in some cases he may never be fertile again. Prevention includes an initial vaccination with a second dose administered two to four weeks later. An annual booster is required.

Calves and weaners require a vaccination that can protect them from a range of diseases that are very deadly. The vaccine that they require is five or seven in one. Five in one covers a range of diseases and seven in one covers the same as five in one plus two strains of leptospirosis vaccine. The five diseases that are covered by the vaccine are clostridia bacteria that are wide spread in the environment and can be found in the soil and faeces. It is important to vaccinate calves if possible before branding and castration to prevent these diseases. If possible vaccinate four to six weeks before husbandry procedures are due to occur and again at the time of the procedure. The diseases that are covered by the disease are listed below.

• Tetanus – infection usually enters via a deep puncture wound or from dehorning and castration wounds. Castration using rings can also provide a perfect environment for tetanus to develop. Clinical signs of the disease include muscle stiffness and tremor, whole body rigidity, protrusion of the third eyelid, convulsion and death.

• Malignant oedema – usually caused by infection of a deep wound.

Clinical signs include swelling at the site of injection, fever, muscle tremor, weakness and death within 48 hours.

11 FEBRUARY | AUSTRALIAN 2017 LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

• Blackleg – usually affects young, fast growing cattle. The disease favours the biggest fattest calves in a mob. Bacteria may enter muscle through small wounds or after bruising. Clinical signs include fever with gassy swelling at the site of infection or sudden death.

The leg that is affected becomes black and bubbly to touch.

• Enterotoxaemia – usually affects calves when conditions in the gut favour rapid growth of the bacteria i.e. introduction of grain rations, it is often associated with bloat. Clinical signs include bellowing, diarrhoea, convulsions, paralysis, blindness or sudden death.

• Black disease – usually occurs in cattle with liver fluke. Clinical signs include severe liver disease which is highly fatal within one to two days.

The other disease that can have a big impact on your herd is pestivirus especially if your herd is naïve to the disease. The outcome of pestivirus is determined by the stage of the reproductive cycle when infection occurs. The table below describes the impact: If the disease enters the herd when females are in their first trimester of pregnancy, it can result in the production of a PI (i.e. a persistently infected) calf. What this means, is that this animal constantly sheds the virus to other animals which is highly contagious.

The scary thing about this virus is its ability to mutate. In the past a PI animal had a certain look about it. This meant they looked smaller, dull coated, scoured and ill thrift. They were destined to die at a young age, however PIs now are harder to identify and there have been cases of stud animal’s genetics being used all over the world before the animal was identified as a PI. As with the other diseases, the best protection for this disease is vaccination. Again it is a bivalent vaccine that needs a yearly booster.

The first step in diagnosis of the disease is a blood test of mature cows who were born on the property. If they have already been exposed to the disease they develop immunity, so vaccination may not be cost effective. If this is the case, maiden heifers need to be tested to determine their exposure to the disease and whether any animals are persistently infected.

If the herd is naïve to the disease, then vaccination is the best form of protection. If it already exists in the herd then the best form of protection is to vaccinate maiden heifers before they are joined to bulls. Vaccination must be continued throughout their lives so cattle do not lose immunity.

When buying bulls, it would be a good idea to vaccinate them for the virus before they are joined to females. Also, ask the stud if the bull has been tested to see if he is a PI, as a PI bull in your herd would be very bad.

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATIONFEBRUARY JOURNAL 2017 | 11

BULL SELECTION

Bull selection and management (continued from page 11)

Time of infection

Around time of mating

First trimester

Second trimester

Third trimester

Impact on animals

Disrupts ovulation and fertilisation

Production of PI calves

Abortions

Early embryonic losses

Late embryonic deaths, abortions, stillbirths

Late delivery of unviable or abnormal calves at full term

No reported problems associated with infection during this period

Eye defects

Central nervous system effects

Impact on herd performance

Increased returns to service Delayed conceptions Reduced pregnancy rates

More information about cattle diseases can be found on the FutureBeef website - www.futurebeef.com.

As Lowlines are a bos Taurus breed, they can be susceptible to internal and external parasites in the Australian environment.

Depending on your location, they may require regular treatment for these parasites. If in cattle tick areas, ensure that your treatment plan enables the tick cycle to be broken as heavy burdens of cattle ticks can really effect an animal’s performance. The same can be said about worms. However you treat your animals, ensure that you get the dose rate for treatment correct. If it is incorrect, it can lead to the parasite developing immunity to the treatment.

More information about cattle parasites can be found on the FutureBeef website -www.futurebeef.com.

Putting the bull to work The next important step in your breeding program is determining when you want your calves to be born. Controlled mating is a term that is used to describe a breeding period determined by the livestock manager. What this means is that the bulls are joined for a specific

Reduction in number of calves born and viability of calves

period, for example the bull enters the herd on 1st December and is removed from the cows on 31st of March the following year.

Controlled mating enables the livestock manager to control their herd and know the status of the breeding herd each month.

From a joining period of December to March, the manager would know that the calves would start to be born in September with the last calves born for the year in December. From January to April (when the calves are weaned from their mothers) the cows are going to be lactating. From May to August the manager knows that the cows are going to be dry and hopefully pregnant, with calving to begin again in September. The benefit of this is that the manager can base their husbandry procedures around the calendar and manage the nutrition of their herd accordingly.

This enables the manager to get calves to be born in the most favourable seasonal conditions to allow its mother to rear it and importantly reconceive. Cows require a rising plain of nutrition for them to go back into calf. The manager needs to determine when the pasture has the most benefit to cows achieving this and ensure that calves are born up to six weeks before that date. This enables the cow to get over the birth of her calf and reconceive for the next year.

It is a great tool to assist in pasture management and supplementary feeding. Controlled mating allows a more even calf drop to assist in management and marketing. It also enables an easy identification of non-reproductive cows that should be culled from the herd.

The best time to join your cows depends upon your location and management techniques.

Overall summary In summary, the main points to consider when buying bulls are: • Establish breeding objectives • Do your research on the animal before purchase • Get your health management plan sorted before joining • Determine the optimum time for the calves to be born • Cull the bull once he is over seven years of age and buy a new one.

If you have any questions about this article, please feel free to contact me.

Matt Brown, Beef Extension (FutureBeef), DAF Rockhampton P: 07 48432611 M: 0428104248 E: matt.brown@daf.qld.gov.au

12 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

Creating a line of genetically diverse red lowline cattle best suited to the tropical Queensland environment

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MARKETING

Marketing your Lowlines and sharing your story

By Mandy Tennent

Prior to 2015, I had no knowledge of marketing, websites, and particularly, social media. I didn’t do ‘Facebook’. I was impressed that I had a business card to hand out. Then I was involved in an Agritourism Business Development Program, and had my eyes opened and my knowledge of all-things marketing broadened.

We created a logo, which I learnt didn’t have to be complex, the simpler the better for people to recognize it in the seconds that they process visual things like that. Therefore, we went with a simple clover leaf, in our farm colours, significant because of our kikuyu and clover pastures.

One of the first messages from our facilitator was that marketing did not have to be expensive (phew!). Whilst I always try to promote local, it is a fact that on-line marketing tools are cheap. www. fiverr.com and similar sites can create a business card design for you from $5; they do logos, websites, jingles, etc. Cheap printing of business cards, flyers, etc can be sourced online from sites like www.vistaprint.com.au.

To improve your marketing, you need to think about your ‘origin story’ and know your ‘values’. From this you can draw out a ‘catchphrase’ which you can use for your marketing. As part of this, you need to have a ‘unique selling point’ (USP), basically something you have that your competitors don’t. Our catchphrase is ‘The highest quality sustainable beef cattle from our cool green hills at the top of the world’.

Now we had a logo and a catchphrase, and therefore our ‘brand’, we just needed to share it. Our story/brand needed ‘repetition’ at every point, and to be ‘short, sharp and shiny’.

We ended up going to a local company to have them build us a website. This cost more than the on-line choices, but as I knew absolutely nothing, I was comfortable with that. A bonus was that I sat down at a computer with our designer, and she taught me how to edit our own website, which is important. I am now confident with adding photos (use good images!), changing ads, doing blogs etc. Alternatively, get your kids to do it!

You need to take the time to update your website (I probably don’t), which is essential to keep it vibrant, keep people interested, and keep it at the forefront of the various search engines. Keeping ‘Google’ and other search engines engaged, and your ‘ranking’ high (ie where you appear on the search results page), I found, was very important. I learnt about the value of ‘linkages’ to other websites, and reciprocal linkages from theirs back to ours.

So, every time I mention an organisation eg ALCA on my website, I create a ‘hyperlink’ from the words to their website, so people reading my website can click on the words ‘ALCA’ and go directly to the ALCA website. A good hint is to set the hyperlink up to ‘open in a new window’ so that your website is still displayed as well. Set this hyperlink up for any logos you put up also.

‘Keywords’ are also essential for your website, and your website provider can let you know what applicable words are searched on

14 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

most regularly, ie some of ours were Lowline, Cattle, Grass-fed, so every-time I am writing something on the website, instead of just saying ‘heifer’ I would write ‘Lowline heifer’, to try and get those keywords appearing in there as much as you can and still make sense!

These repetitive keywords also add toward your ranking.

Up until this point, we had just advertised in the local ‘Pocket Trader’ to sell our Lowlines, the free fortnightly print adverts. We had reasonable success with this, but found it hard to get the prices we were asking. Once we had a website, however, it seemed to give us more ‘credibility’ and we got a lot more interest, and we got our prices. (We still find the free ‘Pocket Trader’ to be our best way of selling Lowlines locally, supported by everything else we do).

I was then forced to the conclusion that we needed a Facebook presence. People these day (except me apparently) are technology savvy, they advocate for their favourite products and have significant influences in their peer groups, through social media. There are many other forms available such as Instagram, Twitter, etc, but as we live remote and have no mobile access, I found Facebook the most useful.

I discovered that social media should be used as a platform to take the reader elsewhere, ie to your website (and vice versa, I have a Facebook link on my website). I engaged my website designer to set up our Facebook page with the same brand theme; and to make sure that we had the right privacy settings. Do ensure though that others can ‘share’ or you are missing out on exposure.

It is essential that if you are setting up a Facebook page, you do it as a ‘business’ page, which will need to be linked to your ‘personal’ page, even though you don’t have to use that (my apologies to those who have sent me ‘friends requests’, I don’t use my personal page much!).

Don’t take the path of setting up a ‘personal’ page in the name of your business, as potentially Facebook can close it down if they find it is not a genuine ‘person’ although I don’t imagine they take the time to do this much. The bigger problem is that you can’t engage with other businesses, and you can’t get ‘likes’, ‘reviews’, shares, mentions; post ‘offers’ and ‘events’ and other business essentials.

FEBRUARY 2017

I have found using Facebook that ‘short, sharp and shiny’ is again important, I have tried posting info on pastures, bio-dynamics etc, and not got a lot of ‘likes’; but put a cute shot of a Lowline calf, and especially with a human baby and you will get heaps of ‘likes’.

understood this, he was quite supportive, and suggested we turn a negative perception into a positive by posting a video of our freeze branding process so customers had an awareness of what went on.

Don’t ever shy away from it.

Facebook needs to be used for ‘content’ rather than sales. Post good advice; post what you are doing around the farm ie fencing; post recipes with mouth-watering photos; post photos of your newborns but ask ‘who would like to take this one home?’ and then link to your website for your sales information. Get people to engage by asking who has recipes for your product ie I recently needed a corned tongue recipe, and got some good responses. Ask your customers to leave a review (which gives you heaps of brownie points with Google).

Keep your Facebook posts short, with a good quality picture. Words without pictures don’t engage people. If you have a lot to say, you can say ‘see recipe below in comments’; or ‘see www.websitename for further details’. Don’t do more than one post per day, and if the post is popular, leave it a few days to get maximum exposure.

Use other media such as YouTube to enhance your business. During our marketing course, it was interesting that our ‘worldbased facilitator’ thought it was cruel to brand cattle, but he didn’t realise that although the NLIS system exists, in many cases it is still a legal requirement to brand cattle. Once he

FEBRUARY 2017

Again, use as many ‘links’ as you can. When I am writing a post, I ‘link’ any other business relating to that post by typing the ‘@’ symbol followed by the business’s Facebook name. Facebook will find a list of businesses; you just choose which one it is. Sometimes you may have to leave out the spaces, or play with the name a bit, and some simply don’t appear. These linkages are marketing gold, as your post then shows on their feeds, and they can do a reciprocal ‘like’ or ‘comment’ and then their followers see the post as well.

Add some ‘hashtags’ to your post as well, eg #eungellaqld #lowlines #redlowlines #grassfedbeef, but don’t go overboard, one or two topical hashtags are better than many. Make sure you put them at the end of the post, not in the middle of a sentence. Hashtags are just another way of cross-social-media marketing, will show up in specific searches, and again give you an improved on-line presence.

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 15

marketing

(continued from page 15)

Marketing your Lowlines and sharing your story Facebook’s business is to keep people engaged, and this means that your business page needs to stay engaged with its ‘likes’. You need to take the time to check your ‘pages feed’, and interact ie ‘like’ their posts, comment on them, etc, otherwise they will drop off your pages feed, and you will miss opportunities. The only way to get them back is to physically go to their page, and ‘like’ several recent posts.

‘Share’ their posts to your business page, and make sure you make a comment on the share. If anyone ‘shares’ one of your posts, thank them for the share as a comment. And always respond quickly to any messages.

If you have an interesting post, you can pay Facebook to ‘boost’ the post, for around $27 you can choose a target audience applicable to your business, and Facebook will generate an ‘ad’. This is a great way to get a heap of ‘likes’ quickly. As an example, I ‘boosted’ a post about a farm tour we were holding, for $27 I reached 3636 people, got 78 likes/loves, 6 comments and 24 shares. Good value for money, I thought.

Another way to get your name out there is to engage with a popular site like our local www.facebook.com/mackayweather, and leave a comment and photo ie in winter I posted a comment with a photo of frost on our creek flats. Mackayweather then shared that, and our page ‘likes’ rocketed. Join ‘groups’; for example local business groups,

tell them about your farm and your cattle.

List your business on any Facebook page / website that you can, for example www.localfarmproduce. com.au. Share your newsworthy stories with ALCA to reach more like-minded people.

Basically, do anything you can to get your business name and the Lowline name out there - make yourself known to local council; state reps such as your State Development officer; invite your ABC / local rural newspaper journos to come to your farm, they are always looking for a story and cook them a piece of steak. Network with Landcare groups, find local champions of fresh produce. Look at who does local agricultural/food tours in your area - they may want to include you in their tour schedule. Attend as many agricultural shows, field days, etc as you can, you needn’t appear in the show ring, just have a trade show and take a friendly Lowline. At the very least, any marketing is good marketing, and all goes toward getting our wonderful Lowline breed recognized to a greater level.

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16 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

Managing Productive Breeders

By Matt Brown you to identify if there are any issues in the breeding herd such as poor conception rates or high foetal and calf loss from pregnancy test to weaning. Percentages should always be calculated from the number of cows that are presented to the bull. Treatment records of all health products used on the herd should also be recorded.

Production Records It is really important for cattle producers to know how their herd is performing, as this will help to identify if there are any management issues that need to be addressed. There is no perfect formula to keeping livestock records. Some people find that keeping clear notes in a diary works well for them, others use spreadsheets on their computers. Regardless of the method, it is important that all relevant management activities be accurately and clearly recorded. Accurate livestock records can help identify inefficiencies in the herd.

Breeder Body Condition Scores The body condition that a cow calves in has a major effect on her chances of conceiving at the next mating. Body condition scoring is a visual assessment of body condition. When scoring the cow, you are looking at their overall shape, coverage over ribs, backline, and muscle.

The most common scoring system uses scores from one to five – with one being poor condition and five being fat. The recommended body condition score at calving is 3-4. Cows in less than a three condition score have poor re-conception rates. Cows that calve in light condition have a much high mortality risk and are very vulnerable if the seasonal break is late.

Urila Lowlines

BODY SCORE 3

BODY SCORE 1

Data such as the number of cattle sold, purchased, branded and deaths are a good place to start. It is also important to calculate accurate pregnancy, branding and weaning percentages. This allows

BODY SCORE 2

Breeders are the heart of a herd. People are usually very proud of their breeders, which is why we need to maintain their body condition throughout the year to ensure good reproductive performance.

This article will review aspects of breeder management and the importance of maintaining their body condition.

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FEBRUARY 2017

t: 03 5989 8357 m: 0411 127 686 e: lowlines@beltons.com.au www.urila-lowlines.com.au f: Urila Lowline Stud i: urilalowlinestud

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 17

PRODUCTIVE BREEDERS

Managing Productive Breeders (continued from page 17)

BODY SCORE 4

Managing Breeder Body Condition Stocking rates are the most critical factor in managing body condition. With high stocking rates cattle struggle to eat to appetite and diet quality is lower as they have limited opportunity to select a better quality diet. Feed intake depends on pasture type, age, leafiness, protein and phosphorus content. When feed quality is high in the growing season cattle dry matter intake can be 2.5% of bodyweight. A 400 kg animal will consume 10 kg of dry matter per day. As feed hays off and pasture quality declines dry matter intake falls. On poor quality end of dry season feed intakes can fall to 1.5% of bodyweight or 6 kg for a 400 kg animal. Animals face a double challenge of lower intakes of poorer quality feed.

BODY SCORE 5

Lactating breeders’ nutritional requirements are nearly double those of a dry cow. This means that most dry season pastures do not meet the nutritional requirements of lactating cows. Breeders require adequate body reserves to handle this period and may also require supplements. Timing of calving is an important component of managing this period of poor nutrition. If cows calve too early and lactate for extended periods on low quality pastures they lose large amounts of body condition and conception rates suffer. The ideal time for cows to calve is 6-8 weeks before the date when a reliable seasonal break is expected. That is the date in 70% of years when a seasonal break is expected.

This limits the time cows are lactating on poor quality feed and aligns the high nutritional requirements of lactation with the time when feed quality should be at its highest.

After stocking rates weaning is the most important tool for managing breeder condition. The reduction in nutrient requirements following weaning enables cows to recover body condition. If weaning is too late cows are unable to recover enough body condition and will calve in light condition.

Key Points The key points to managing breeders are: • Know the reproductive history of your herd – identify if there are any issues that need to be fixed • Try to maintain the breeder’s body condition at three or above so they can handle harder periods of nutritional deficiency • Wean calves by the body condition score of their mothers • Mate cows so calving occurs 6-8 weeks before the date when a reliable seasonal break occurs.

More information on all these factors can be found at www.futurebeef.com.

If you have any questions about this article, please feel free to contact me.

Matt Brown, Beef Extension (FutureBeef), DAF Rockhampton P: 07 48432611 M: 0428104248 E: matt.brown@daf.qld.gov.au

18 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

BREEDERS OF QUALITY, RED & BLACK AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE

FEBRUARY 2017

Address

629 McIntosh Creek Road, Gympie Queensland 4570

Mobile

0423799007

Email

rednblacklowlinecattle@gmail.com

Web

www.mcintoshcreeklowlines.com.au AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 19

PROFILE

Our Lowline Journey

By Stephen O’Malley

18 year old cow Mignon Emily with new calf

My wife and I were both brought up in small farming communities in southern Tasmania and were exposed to various aspects of rural life from a young age.

My interest in breeding animals started at the age of 5 which was fostered by my grandmother when one day I asked how to breed more chickens. She simply advised that all I needed to do was collect their feathers and plant them in the garden… so I did. Needless to say my early attempts at breeding animals were not successful, however my love of poultry (and successful breeding) of show chickens and ducks has endured.

We had milking cows and pigs as children, and my wife Lorraine’s father ran beef animals throughout her childhood. Therefore, when we married, it was only natural that poultry and a few calves arrived soon after.

Back then we had less than 10 acres of pasture so we only ever had a few cattle but we did experiment with different breeds. In the late 1990s we purchased additional land taking our total pasture to 35 acres. It was at this point we decided to take our family’s growing interest in cattle more seriously.

After reflecting on our experience with different breeds, and much research, we were drawn to the Australian Lowline. We’d had good experiences with Angus animals in the past – they had a good temperament, were good ‘dooers’ and we liked the lean but well marbled meat they produced. In addition to these very desirable traits, the smaller size of the Australian Lowline was highly attractive.

Our fences and yards didn’t need to be excessively high and we could move animals between properties on a trailer with ease. This was more than enough to spark a keen interest in the breed but then looking at the outcomes of the 30-year research which set up the foundation of the breed, we were sold.

In 1998 we purchased two heifers and registered with the Association as Tastaraine Lowline Stud – a combination of ‘Tasmania’, my wife’s name ‘Lorraine’ and our daughter ‘Tara’ as it is very much a whole family interest including our two sons.

Following our initial purchase, we set out to learn as much as we could about the breed. Lorraine and I travelled to the Royal Melbourne Show three years running to meet other breeders. We found everyone most helpful and generous with tips and pointers – a real sense of community.

With just two breeding animals, we used artificial insemination (AI) for several years buying straws from The Glebe Woodstock and Ardrossan Findon bulls and slowly built a little herd.

After weighing the cost of AI and the tax on our time through the week, we started looking at buying our own bull in 2006. On our second ‘bull trip’ to Victoria visiting breeders, we found our first bull at The Clan. As we have named all of our animals after Australian trees, the Clan registered our bull as The Clan Waratah on our request. He was 9 months old at the time and we liked the idea of him growing up with our small herd with lots of contact from us. He had a wonderful temperament – equal to the most placid animal on our property. We leased him out a few times to other Lowline breeders on request 20 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

but he spent most of his 10-year life with our little herd and was very content. We unfortunately had to put him down last year which led us to start looking for a new bull.

With life only getting busier, we didn’t have time to travel to Victoria to look at bulls, so we contacted some breeders and they very generously took photos of available stock and sent them through to us. After looking at lots of photos, creating a shortlist and then getting additional photos of these bulls we finally made a decision with all family members having input – we selected a bull from Wanamara named Ironbark II. A few weeks later he arrived in Tasmania – he is everything we hoped he would be and more; he is quite a character!!

Realising over the years that we didn’t intend showing our animals as we were simply too small a concern, we stopped registering animals as we couldn’t justify the expense and let our membership of the association slip. However we built a good relationship with Julie Knight of Wanamara through purchasing Ironbark II and she encouraged us to re-join the Association. This has come at a time when we had scaled down our already small herd to give us a chance to improve our pastures so we now only have 5 registered breeders – two cows, two heifers and the bull. Our oldest and favourite cow is Mignon Emily who was our original purchase. On the 26th of October this year she gave birth to a little bull (as pictured) and both are doing well. Our youngest son and his wife have just purchased an acreage of very good pasture where they live which now gives us plenty of feed to increase our little herd. This property is only 6 kilometres from ours so it is very easy to move the animals between as needed.

Our plan is to now increase our herd to 6-8 breeding cows, maybe purchase a heifer or two to bring in new bloodlines but this is as big as we want to get. We get great pleasure out of our animals, knowing them all really well individually. We are continually surprised in the interest we get from hobby farmers on small acreages (usually with children) who want small easy to handle lawn mowers with a good temperament. So we sell the odd animal to hobby farmers and small breeders like us and we keep the family in beef (as well as chicken and the odd duck). It’s nice to know where your food comes from and that the animal had a great life.

For us the Australian Lowline is the ultimate lifestyle breed in every respect and we would never be without them on our properties.

FEBRUARY 2017

Youth Council Activity

Australian Lowline Muster and Show All participants including the new and experienced participants to the industry learnt many new skills that they will be taking home to show their own cattle, while some participants will be able to create jobs from their outstanding performance.

The first day Thursday 5th January 2017 was simply a day for participants getting to know their allocated bovine and each other.

The juniors were able to meet their buddies, and then the fun began with team activities such as The Great Australian Lowline Scavenger Hunt. All participants were involved and worked as a team to collect the 55 different items on the list.

The inaugural Australian Lowline Cattle Muster and Show was held over 4 days at the Hawkesbury Showgrounds, Clarendon NSW. It was a camp that had a focus on teaching participants of all ages, leading, feeding and prepping cattle for show.

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Day 2 was a full day on learning new skills on how to prepare animals prior to show including the feeding aspect. All participants were keen on the hands on activities especially the allocated time for all to clip their own animal for the show, including the juniors.

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FEBRUARY 2017

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 21

Youth Council Activity

Australian Lowline Muster and Show (continued from page 21)

Day 3 was SHOW DAY. All animals were judged in cattle classes, where the judge was very impressed by the quality of animals presented on the day. Much to the disgust of many of the participants they were all encouraged to take part in Junior Judging.

All participants spoke extremely well, some with the confidence to talk on the loud speaker for all to hear. The highlight of the day was being able to head to dinner casually dressed instead of being in their “muck clothes” as it was the night the fundraising raffle was drawn. With first prize being a heifer, all who had purchased tickets were eager to find out who the winner would be. Thank you to Gill and Ken Lorrains from Whitby Farm Lowlines for donating the lovely heifer ‘Whitby Farm Heidi’.

A huge thank you to all our sponsors Whitby Farm Lowlines, ASC NextGen, Ashmore Lowlines, Elle Kay Lowlines, Wanamarra Farm Lowlines, Shadow Park Lowlines, Lach Lans Lowlines, Serena Downs Lowlines, Ardrossan Lowlines, MacDonald Lowlines, McIntosh Lowlines, Desire Red Lowlines Castlereagh Stockfeeds, The Cattleshop and to all breeders who supplied cattle for participants.

Day 4 was a shorter day with only having paraders on the agenda before packing up and having our presentation of all the different awards. Congratulations to Karina Britton for winning the participation award and to Brandon Beck for winning the most successful competitor who took out Grand Champion Parader and Grand Champion Judge.

Do small cows make more money?

Aug 3, 2016 by Alan Newport in BEEF Editors’ Blog For years, indeed decades, the argument over cow size has been bantered about by cattle producers.

Now, adding to the debate, research from Wyoming shows smaller cows can produce more beef per acre per ranch, and potentially produce more income.

The research report is available in the journal Rangelands and it shows, in the plainest terms, that 1,000-pound cows on the working university ranch in Wyoming are weaning more pounds of beef than any other category of cows up to 1,400 pounds. Because they can be run at higher stocking rate, this ends up being more total pounds of beef produced per acre and for the whole ranch.

The researchers divided the existing cows into five weight classes and then extrapolated each class to a whole-ranch stocking rate for comparison. The four-year study included the drought year of 2012, the wet year of 2014, and two years of approximately average rainfall.

In an article I wrote for Beef Producer, a sister publication to BEEF, I calculated from the pounds weaned in each scenario what the potential value of the calf crops would be in the drought year, the wet year, and over the four years as an average.I chose a price of $142 from the fall of 2012, which was about the middle of the price range for the years of the study (2011-2014), from a weekly futures price chart This is how the gross sales values calculated for the biggest-cow ranch versus the smallest-cow ranch, using the researcher’s records for calf production: The big-cow ranch had a four-year average of $139,024 gross calf income. In the wet year, they brought in $140,018 gross calf income.

In a drought year, they brought in $124,325.

The small-cow ranch had a four-year average of $173,753 gross calf income. In a wet year, they produced $204,592 gross calf income. In a 22 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

drought year, the cows produced $133,600 in gross calf income.

The management did not change change for cow size, so this suggests much higher profit potential for the smaller cows. A possibility I did not explore was whether or not the smaller calves of the smaller cows would actually fetch a lower or higher price per pound.This seems to be a constant worry for beef producers considering smaller cows.

The best comparison I could make was using the market data segment from BeefBasis.com. Because there wasn’t enough data in Wyoming for that time frame, I used Oklahoma City National Stockyards data.

First I chose steers, small and medium-framed, class 1-2, weighing 450-500 pounds, in 2011, which was the only year from the study actually in the database. This gave me a price of $150 per cwt. Since the smallest cows weaned calves with an average 205-day-adjusted weight of about 475 pounds, that seemed reasonable.

Next I chose medium- and large-framed steers, class 1-2, weighing 500-550, in 2011. This gave me a price of $142.95. With the largest cows weaning calves with 565 pounds average 205-day-adjusted weaning weights, that also seemed reasonable.

4-Year verage

Wet year

Drought year

Big cows

$139,024

$140,018

$124,325

Small cows

$173,753

$204,592

$133,600

The hole in my data is there were many more calves over 500 pounds than under in 2011. Nonetheless, these are the prices I have. You can see in this case the value of those slightly smaller calves, even with smaller frames, is actually a little higher.

I would like to see much better data on larger numbers of calves of varying weight classes across many auctions, but I couldn’t find it. I did locate a study from western Nebraska and eastern Wyoming that spanned the 1980s and 1990s and it consistently shows equal or better prices for lighter calves. http://beefmagazine.com/blog/do-small-cows-make-more-money FEBRUARY 2017

Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines

Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines

Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines

Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines Tarrawarra Lowlines

Tarrawarra LowLines Yarra VaLLeY

Visitors s y a w l A e m o c l e W FEBRUARY 2017

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ViCToria

Jacqui & richard Feagan 0409 384 077 www.tarrawarralowlines.com address: ‘Mathoura’ 47 school Lane, Tarrawarra

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 23

around the show rings

2016 Australian Lowline Champions 2016 Sydney Royal Easter Show Junior Champion Female Blue Jem Little Star – J & E Germany, Londonderry, NSW Reserve Junior Champion Female Serena Downs Kiss Me Kate – C & M Noel, Windsor Downs, NSW Senior Champion Female , Grand Champion Cow & Supreme Exhibit Rotherwood Glamour Girl – Matt Cooney, Cann River, Vic Reserve Senior Champion Cow Barrenjoey Fiorente – W & L Brydon, Marulan , NSW

Blue Jem Little Star - Junior Champion Heifer

Trungley Tungsten Senior Champion Bull | Grand Champion Bull

Junior Champion Bull Cann Valley Count Knockout – Matt Cooney, Cann River, Vic. Reserve Junior Champion Bull Wanamara Tom Collins– G & J Knight, Major Plains, Vic. Senior Champion Bull & Grand Champion Bull Trungley Tungsten – W & L Brydon, Marulan , NSW. Reserve Senior Champion Bull Serena Downs 007 – C & M Noel, Windsor Downs, NSW.

Rotherwood Glamour Girl - Senior Champion Cow | Grand Champion Female | Supreme Exhibit Cann Valley Count Knock-Out - Junior Champion Bull

2016 Royal Melbourne Show Junior Champion Heifer – Bayles Miss Black – Lucas Kallady, Bayles, Vic Reserve Junior Champion Female O’Hara Katie Scarlett W & T.Hall, Windsor, NSW Senior Champion Cow, Grand Champion Cow & Supreme Exhibit Ballarat Grammar Kate - Ballarat Grammar, Ballarat, Vic. Reserve Senior Champion Cow Wanamara Ruby Sunset - G & J Knight, Major Plains, Vic

O’Hara Sir Charles Senior Champion Bull | Grand Champion Bull

Bayles Miss Black Junior Champion Heifer

Ballarat Grammar Kate Senior Champion Cow, Grand Champion Female, Supreme Exhibit

Wanamara Cavalier Junior Champion Bull

Junior Champion Bull Wanamara Cavalier - G & J Knight, Major Plains,Vic Reserve Junior Champion Bull Cann Valley Count Lucifer – Matt Cooney, Cann River, Vic Senior Champion Bull & Grand Champion Bull O’Hara Sir Charles - W & T.Hall, Windsor, NSW Reserve Senior Champion Bull Ballarat Grammar Kelvinator Ballarat Grammar, Ballarat, Vic.

24 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

2016 Australian Lowline Champions 2016 Royal Canberra Show Junior Champion Bull & Grand Champion Bull Cann Valley Count Knockout – Matt Cooney, Cann River, Vic. Reserve Junior Champion Bull O’Hara Sir Charles – W & T Hall, Windsor, NSW Senior & Grand Champion Bull O’Hara Master Gerald – W & T Hall, Windsor, NSW Reserve Senior Champion Bull Wigram Roma – Angus Gorman, Orange, NSW Junior Champion Heifer Whitby Farm Vogue – K.& G Lorains, Zeerust, Vic.

Whitby Farm Vogue - Junior Champion Heifer

Cann Valley Count Knockout - Junior Champion Bull | Grand Champion Bull

Wigram Roma - Reserve Senior Champion Bull

Rotherwood Glamour Girl - Senior Champion | Grand Champion Cow | Supreme Exhibit

Reserve Junior Champion Heifer Cann Valley Lunar Eclipse – Matt Cooney, Cann River, Vic. Senior Champion , Grand Champion Cow & Supreme Exhibit Rotherwood Glamour Girl - Matt Cooney, Cann River, Vic. Reserve Senior Champion Cow Whitby Farm Scotch Finger – K & G Lorains, Zeerust, Vic.

LOWLINE STUD

Yarra Valley LOWLINE CATTLE STUD

Grow beef, not bone bEEf farms, Dairy farms, lifEsTylE bloCks David & Christina Clee, Warkworth, NZ T 0274 772 943 E cleedavid@gmail.com

www.lowlines.co.nz

FEBRUARY 2017

Offering an excellent range of quality cattle at realistic prices Jo Jackson Yarra Valley Victoria Ph. 0407 811 002 Email: jojack2@bigpond.com www.yarravalleylowline.com

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 25

around the show rings

2016 Australian Lowline Champions 2016 Royal Queensland Show - Ekka Junior Champion Heifer Tanview Lorikeet – K & T. Falkenhagen Boonah, Qld Reserve Junior Champion Heifer Tanview Lovebird – K & T.Falkenhagen Boonah, Qld Senior Champion Cow & Grand Champion Female Dakabin Infinity – Dakabin State High School, Dakabin, Qld Reserve Senior Champion Cow Tanview Jillaroo – K & T.Falkenhagen, Boonah, Qld Junior Champion Bull Tanview Kingdom – K & T. Falkenhagen, Boonah, Qld

Tanview Lorikeet Junior Champion Heifer

Tanview Jackaroo Senior Champion Bull | Grand Champion Bull

Reserve Junior Champion Bull Tanview Logan – K & T.Falkenhagen, Boonah, Qld Senior Champion Bull & Grand Champion Bull Tanview Jackaroo – K & T.Falkenhagen, Boonah, Qld Reserve Senior Champion Bull Tanview King Wally – K & T.Falkenhagen, Boonah, Qld

Tanview Kingdom Junior Champion Bull

Dakabin Infinity Senior Champion Cow | Grand Champion Female

2016 Royal AdelaideShow Junior Champion Heifer & Grand Champion Female Wanamara Firestorm – G & J Knight, Major Plains, Vic. Senior Champion Cow Glenlonny Kentucky Woman – Sue Foureur, Glencoe, SA. Junior Champion Bull, Grand Champion Bull & Supreme Exhibit Wanamara Cavalier –

G & J Knight, Major Plains, Vic. Senior Champion Bull Glenlonny Kalan Joey – Sue Foureur, Glencoe, SA.

Glenlonny Kalan Joey - Senior Champion Bull

Wanamara Cavalier Junior Champion Bull | Grand Champion Bull | Supreme Exhibit

26 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Glenlonny Kentucky Woman - Senior Champion Cow

Wanamara Firestorm Junior Champion Heifer | Grand Champion Female

FEBRUARY 2017

2016 Canterbury A & P Show, New Zealand Champion Yearling Female & Grand Junior Lowline Edsal Poppy H & S Rhodes, Ashburton, NZ Reserve Champion Heifer Woolstone Park Freya - P & K.Worthington, Woolstone Park, Rangiora, NZ Champion Senior Female Woolstone Park Genoa P & K.Worthington, Woolstone Park, Rangiora, NZ Reserve Champion Senior Female Woolstone Park Vanilla

Edsal Poppy – P & K.Worthington, Woolstone Park, Rangiora, NZ Champion Yearling Female | Grand Junior Lowline Champion Junior Bull Woolstone Park Hercules P & K.Worthington, Woolstone Park, Rangiora, NZ Reserve Champion Junior Bull Woolstone Park Poseidon P & K.Worthington, Woolstone Park, Rangiora, NZ Champion Senior Bull, Grand Champion Senior Lowline & Supreme Champion Lowline

Woolstone Park Barker P & K.Worthington, Rangiora, NZ

Woolstone Park Barker Senior Champion Bull | Grand Champion Bull | Supreme Lowline Champion

Yarra Ranges Lowline Cattle Stud | Natarsha and John Canny, Yea, Victoria P: Natarsha 0407 327 603 E: natarsha@yarrarangeslowline.com.au

www.yarrarangeslowline.com.au FEBRUARY 2017

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 27

around the show rings

Three-day Canterbury Show at Christchurch NZ The Canterbury Show had 214 individual animals entered across 15 beef breeds. Lowlines staked their claim against the bigger breeds in the all-breeds classes with call-ups into the front line in three classes, for a fifth and two sevenths. That – and a good turnout in all the Lowline breed classes (20 head altogether) – made it a good show for the breed.

Riley Clancy, from Queensland, above, leads the reserve champion senior female, Woolstone Park Vanilla, in the cattle parade at Canterbury Show. She is following the senior champion female, Woolstone Park Genoa, led by Meggie Riethmuller, also from Queensland. Caitlin Rhodes is leading the calf, Woolstone Park Bombazine aka The Bomb.

Riley won her trip to Christchurch in New Zealand for the show in a stock judging competition at Toowoomba under the sponsorship of the South Queensland Lowline Promotion group. She is the tenth young Queenslander to have made the trip under the scheme, and to have been hosted by Woolstone Park for the show week.

Meggie also won the trip, in 2011. She has returned twice since to help Woolstone Park fit their team and mentor the young school handlers.

Through Queensland’s Pittsworth High School ag teacher, Jacqui Schiller, Pittsworth and the Woolstone stud have built up an exchange which has also seen four young Kiwis spend time showing with the Pittsworth team at Australian events. The latest is Georgia Rhodes, 17, who will join the Pittsworth crew at the Royal Queensland Show in Brisbane next August.

The South Queensland Lowline Promotion Group is the principal sponsor of her trip, helped by New Zealand’s South Island Lowline Promotion group and Woolstone Park stud.

Rangiora High School Cattle Team 2016 Seven RHS students were part of the cattle showing team which competed at the Rangiora Show at Labour Weekend and at the Canterbury Show from November 9-11.

The team helped break in and halter train Lowline cattle with the Woolstone Park stud from Fernside. From late August until mid

groups of similar-aged cattle, and speak about their reasons for placing them so.

The 2016 team leader was Georgia Rhodes (Year 12) with Courtney Winter, another Year 12 senior in the team. Both have been part of the RHS-Woolstone Park team before. Also back from previous teams were Emily Dugmore (Year 11) and Caitlin Rhodes and Lily Elvin (Year 10). New members this year were Emily Winter (Year 10) and Rana Kumeroa (Year 11).

At Rangiora Show Caitlin won the intermediate handlers class from Courtney, 2; Emily Dugmore, 3; Emily Winter 4. Georgia stepped up to compete in the senior handlers class and was second.

At Canterbury the girls competed in the Junior Herdsperson competition which comprised stock judging, handlers, contribution to the team and duties around the stalls during the show plus an interview about cattle, career prospects and general knowledge.

Rangiora High School. Green team: from left, Emily Winter, Lily Elvin and Caitlin Rhodes

November they spent at least two sessions a week getting to know the animals and working with them to have them leading well for the shows. Being in the team also includes stock judging competitions and the students worked on their skills to assess a good cattle beast,to rank

28 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

They were also up for a special Lowline trip to Australia next August for the Royal Queensland Show for about a week of competition, during which the winner will join the Pittsworth High School from Queensland. The winner of that trip is Georgia Rhodes.

Results from Canterbury Show Novice intermediate stock judging: Emily Winter 2, Rana Kumeroa 3. Intermediate stock judging: Courtney Winter 2, Caitlin Rhodes 4.

Novice intermediate paraders: Emily Winter 1, Rana Kumeroa 2.

Intermediate paraders: Georgia Rhodes 3. Overall junior herdsperson: Courtney Winter 2.

FEBRUARY 2017

Rangiora High School Cattle Team 2016

The students also led in the animal classes as well as their Youth Show events, with notable achievements topped by Georgia Rhodes leading the Supreme Champion Lowline, a three-year-old bull. She had also paraded him as the champion senior bull at Rangiora.

Other Canterbury champions were two-yearold cow and calf (Lily Elvin and Emily Winter); three- year-old cow and calf with Caitlin Rhodes leading the calf; yearling bull (Emily Dugmore); reserve champion yearling heifer (Courtney Winter).

The highlight for the RHS team was the schools team competition where Rangiora has an enviable record for several wins. This year the RHS Black team took out the sash for first in the secondary schools competition, with the RHS Green team, third. The Black team was Georgia Rhodes, Courtney Winter, Emily Dugmore and Rana Kumeroa; the green team was Caitlin Rhodes, Emily Winter and Lily Elvin.

Rangiora High School. Black team: from left, Georgia Rhodes, Rana Kumeroa, Emily Dugmore and Courtney Winter, with teacher Gillian Koster.

Quality stock

always available FEBRUARY 2017

Ag teacher Gillan Koster supported the teams on the Thursday and Friday at Canterbury.

Producers of quality cattle and great beef since 1992

Jeanette & Peter Stebbins Princetown, Victoria E stebbins@bigpond.com.au t 0438 542495 or 0429 030632

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 29

promotion groups North Queensland Promotion Group Report

Central Queensland District Our show season is just about over. There is 1 more this weekend at the Moura Coal and Country Show, which the Rockhampton Girls Grammar School are attending. Good luck girls. In August we had Mount Morgan Show, The Ekka and Wowan shows. Two studs were present at Mt Morgan with at least 11 kids helping with leading, parading and getting the cattle ready with lots of attention given to the cattle. Crimson Park Keigh was Champion Senior Male shown by Crimson Park Lowlines, Crimson Park Jazz was Champion Senior Female shown by Langley Park Lowlines.

Crimson Park Legacy and Crimson Park Lane were the Junior Champions.

In Junior Paraders under 13’s Lowlines were in the top 4 with Jordyn, Jai, Shakeeta and Nate parading.

The Rockhampton Girls Grammar and McIntosh Creek teamed up at the Ekka. Ku Lacey said that Red was their colour with seconds all round.

Well done - you all looked amazing!

At Wowan Show, Langley Park Lowlines received Supreme Champion with their Cow and Calf. Very happy team. Brandon, Bradalee, Sarah and Ta with Crimson Park Jazz and calf Maximillian.

On 21/08/16 the Central Queensland group put on a BBQ for the end of show season celebrations.

Congratulations to all the participants. Thanks to Sharon Coome, Michele Molloy and Ku Lacey for putting this all together.

Awards were given and received in the true spirit of showing.

Sharon Coome

Southern Queensland Promotion Group Report Our members this year have been very busy attending shows including; Lowood, Toowoomba Royal Show, Pine Rivers, Sunshine Coast Show, Brisbane Royal Show and many others. In 2016 we’ve welcomed new members from both our promotion group and the Central Queensland Lowline Promotion Group into showing within the Southern Queensland Show circuit.

Results for 2016 include; Interbreed Small Breed Bull at the Royal Queensland Show (Tanview Jackaroo), Grand Champion Female (Dakabin Infinity) and most noticeably Loc-Hi Lowlines did the double at Lowood winning both Grand Champion Bull (Loc-Hi Kid Cudi) and Grand Champion Lowline Female (Loc-Hi Gaga). Top honours went to Tanview Lowlines who won the Bayer Animal Health High Point Achiever Award for small breed stud cattle & hoof &hook competitions at this year’s EKKA. The Southern Qld Lowline Promotion Group is pleased to congratulate Dakabin State High School Lowline Youth Member Dhana Stokes who at this year’s Royal Queensland Show was the recipient of both the Walter B. Darker Memorial Prize for Judging competitions, and Runner Up Most Successful competitor in Stud Beef Cattle, Dairy Cattle & Prime Beef Cattle. Dhana this year has also been selected in the Queensland Team to represent the sector of Primary Industries at 30 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Nationals in Melbourne this October after winning Gold in the regional competition.

This competition features the best apprentices & trainees from 2015-2016 and is run by World Skills Australia and is run over 4 days. Dhana will showcase her talents in areas including; livestock management (processing), drenching, soil testing, tractor driving & fencing. We wish her all the very best.

Belinda Weber from Pittsworth State High School won the junior Lowline judging in September 2015 and won a trip to attend the Canterbury Show in New Zealand. Jamie Smith (Vern Park Lowlines) raised enough sponsorship to cover all the trip expenses, with Phillip and Kay Worthington providing all the support within New Zealand.

We owe all of these people a large debt of gratitude as this system is not covered by ALCA. Upcoming events: Junior Lowline Judging at Beef Expo in Toowoomba 30th August

FEBRUARY 2017

South Australia Promotion Group Report First of all I would like to thank Susan & Joanne for their help over the last year, a job well done by both. Also Alan for his help setting up the stalls at the showground yesterday.

In early February the Limestone Coast Beef Week Field Day Group in conjunction with the Victorian Beef Week saw three head of Lowlines for sale on display at the Mt Gambier Show Grounds.

The South East Cattle Handlers Workshop was help in early May where 55 students from the South East and Western Victoria came together to gained new skills in ringcraft, female selection, washing and drying, breeding technologies, structure pregnancy scanning, clipping and nutrition across the two days. Glenlonny Lowlines had two heifers and a bull on site which were used for lectures in the wash bay and also in ringcraft were some complete novices were impressed with their good behaviour.

Via Susan Yates “An encouraging sign is an apparent increase in interest in Lowline cattle on the Yorke Peninsular and the Eyre Peninsular over the gulfs to the west of Adelaide.

There have been a number of enquiries and sales of cattle to these areas over the past few years. The new owners are primarily broadacre croppers and sheep breeders but are looking to own some cattle for an interest and to diversify. Some of them have already had unfortunate experiences with larger breeds and they are seeking quiet, easy to handle animals which can be run in the homestead area and which do not require constant attention.

These sales have not yet resulted in new members, but the buyers have been provided with information about ALCA and in particular the opportunities of commercial membership and hopefully this will bear fruit in the future.”

Sue Foureur Chairperson SALPG

TONE LS

R PA

K

WOO

Burrungule Boutique Beef continues to gain momentum at the Mt Gambier Farmers Market and has received some excellent testimonials.

You can now follow them on Facebook to find out where they will be, as they are also at some Community events and Fundraisers. The next major event is the inaugural Drift Challenge to be held over three days in September at the Valley Lakes in Mt Gambier

Peter and Denise Moloney showed complete dedication when they loaded up the coolroom, and the BBQ, and drove across to Forster in NSW to help cater an event at Forster Keys. They wowed the locals with their gourmet sausages, who christened them the “Tent of Taste”.

LOWLINES Breeding cattle that are: • true to breed • easy to handle • early finishing • winners in the show ring.

For sale: bulls and heifers

Home of champions Cattle ad.indd 2 FEBRUARY

2017

Philip and Kay Worthington 173 McIntosh’s Rd, Fernside RD1, Rangiora New Zealand, 7471 E: woolstone@scorch.co.nz T: (+64) 03 313 6730 or (+64) 027 438 8260

21/12/16 AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 314:00 pm

promotion groups New South Wales Promotion Group Report NSW PG Website The NSW Lowline website was launched recently with positive feedback. Members can now access it at www.nswlowlines.com.au If you do have a show or field day that needs a little kick start contact the marketing team at nswalcpg@gmail.com, we would love to promote an event in your region and help out where we can.

NSW and commercial members are invited to advertise on the web, it’s a free service offered to members wishing to sell their cattle and/ or semen.

National members wishing to advertise on the NSW Lowlines website are welcome to advertise at a minimal fee.Get in touch with the NSW Marketing team at nswalcpg@gmail.com to discuss your needs.

Moss Vale Small Farms Field Days, February 4-5, 2017 Early February sees your promotion group attend the Moss Vale Small Farms Field Days for the first time.

Our livestock site will be ideally positioned; we look forward to attending and helping the general public have clear and concise understanding of the Lowline breed and the benefits for people on small holdings.

If you are interesting in lending a hand give Bill Brydon, our secretary a call, his phone number is located on the Contact Us page, and don’t forget to check out our website and/or face book pages for regular updates.

Lowlines in Canberra, February 24-26, 2017 Members are reminded the 2017 Royal Canberra Show online entries close January 4, 2017. It would be a wonderful gesture if members of the ACT and surrounding regions could support Lowline Breeders by kick starting the show season in several ways.

You could fill out an entry form and enter the Australian Lowline Cattle competition. If that’s not your bag BUT, you would love to reacquaint yourself with likeminded people, simply attend and make your presence known, you are very much a part of our membership group and we would love to see you.

As always The Canberra Royal is greatly supported by interstate members whom participate with enthusiasm, as always, we look forward to seeing those loyal exhibitors help us, help you, enjoy the show experience.

Tracey Hall, NSW PG Promotions

Southern Region Promotion Group (SRPG) This year started off without a chairperson. At our first meeting held in Diamond Creek I decided to have a go at the chair, not being computer savvy, the committee agreed to help as much as they could.

They soon got stuck into organising the On Farm Challenge (OFC).

This is a very big job & I don’t think anyone would realise the amount of work involved unless they were on the committee. The On Farm Challenge went off very well with fifteen studs entering 70 entries, which is more than previous years. A big ‘Thank You’ to all involved.

The Presentation for the OFC was held at Ballarat Grammar in Ballarat with judge, Larry Cutler presenting ribbons to the winning owners.

Thanks to Matt Dickinson for organising the venue. The catering was done by the SRPG committee headed by Tonia Goodman – well done to all.

This year was the 20th year of Lowlines showing at the Royal Melbourne Show. To advertise this we had editorials in the Victorian newspapers, the North Eastern Farmer & Southern Farmer.

Nine studs entered 35 entries. We had rosettes made up to celebrate the occasion and the exhibitors wore these in the ring during judging.

Owners of past Supreme Lowline Exhibit winners were invited to the Lowline judging & the celebrations after. Once again, the committee catered. Tonia Goodman, Sue Pace and Craig Davis were amazing with the food & drinks they organised.

We also welcomed new members to SRPG during the year. Getting new members involved with the Promotion Group is something I would encourage.

I would like to finish by thanking all the hard working committee and volunteers who made things run so smoothly this year.

Finally a special ‘Thank you’ to Sue Pace, who is standing down from the job of Secretary. She did an outstanding job, always with a big smile.

Ken Lorains, Chairman SRPG

South Island Promotion Group Report The South Island Lowline Promotion Group has had a quieter year with promotional activities, but it has been business as usual for some of our members who have been attending numerous shows around the South Island. Lowlines were exhibited at Canterbury, Ellesmere, Rangiora, Mackenzie, Oxford and Amberley.

Toowoomba, Australia. Belinda Weber from Pittsworth State High School won a sponsored trip to the Canterbury A & P Show in November. It was a very busy week for Belinda beginning with being an Associate Judge followed with Judging and Handling competitions as well as helping to prepare cattle and leading in cattle parades.

A wonderful result for Harvey and Sally Rhodes was winning the Canterbury Agricultural College Challenge Shield with Edsal Titus at the Ellesmere Show.

Our AGM was in Christchurch in September and members are looking forward to another year of showing, promoting and breeding good quality Lowlines.

Once again Philip and Kay Worthington hosted the winner of the Lowline Junior Judging competition at the Heritage Agshow in 32 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Debbie Guthrie, Secretary FEBRUARY 2017

North Island Promotion Group Report CHAIRPERSON’S REPORT 2015-16 There have been no group activities this year but rather a lot of investigation will be reported on at the forthcoming AGM and there have been interesting activities by individual members.

• The chairperson Sandy Moore (Triple M) and secretary Judy Sainsbury, (Casablanca) have been working on a proposal to involve commercial breeders in the promotion group with the objective of creating large enough pools of animals to develop local boutique outlets, either restaurant, butcher or short term supermarket promotions as pioneered by Coastal Spring Lamb.

• Compaq Black (Mike Harnett and Kath McDowell) reached the semi-finals of Beef+Lamb’s prestigious Steak of Origin, the most significant beef contest in the country. Fifteen meat processors around New Zealand supplied carefully identified vacuum packed whole sirloins to Carne Technologies in Cambridge for evaluation of tenderness, cooking loss, pH, colour, marbling and succulence. The semi-finalist sirloins went on to Auckland University of Technology where they were taste-tested by an expert panel. While it didn’t make the final, the Compaq Black sirloin, which came from a 30 month old 7/8th Lowline, 1/8th Jersey steer, was well up in the semi-finals and achieved a commendable 3.5 kgF (tenderness) when th equalification for the top rating “very tender” was <5.9 kgF. • Rancho Radiata, Christina and David Clee, the North Island’s top producers of quality Lowline-X meat with some magnificent crossbred animals to its credit, has decided to moveback from this market and concentrate entirely on Lowlines. Their objective is to breed aline of animals of a standard and weight that meets New Zealand’s very specific killing requirements.

• Sherwood, owned by John Burrill, a dairy farmer, is driving a move towards diversificationand dairy beef amongst dairy farmers affected by the current down turn. As well as setting up a Lowline stud for the future, Burrill has invested heavily in pedigree Lowline bulls to cover his own herds and those of other dairy farmers.

• Ngahere Lodge’s Steve Quinn, who splits his time between Lismore and Hunua (Auckland) spent the summer buying and selling Lowlines from all over the country and has bee nunable to meet the growing market. As a result of Steve’s efforts, ALCA has just announced a number of new members in the North Island.

• In the show ring, Lowlines were well represented by Triple M, Sandy and Katherine Moore, earning a string of successes. These included the cup for the Supreme Champion Lifestyle Animal at Horowhenua for the second time and a new cup for the Supreme ChampionLifestyle Animal at Dannevirke. They were competing against all breeds. Katherine has also now won Junior Herdsman (handler) three years in a row at the Stratford A & P show, right in the heart of cattle country.

WANAMARA FARM Consistantly breeding quality Over 20 years of breeding Wanamara genetics

Quality cattle at realistic prices.

Visitors Welcome

Windsor Park Lowline Stud

Breeding S tud and

Commercial Cattle

Since 1993

ROYAL

w Sydney Sho

Wattle Hills Road, Uranquinty NSW 2652

ROYAL

Adelaide Show

02 6928 5550 0428 285 550 bobsmith@activ8.net.au

FEBRUARY 2017

2016

2016

ROYAL

ow Melbourne Sh

2016

ReseRve JunioR Champion Bull JunioR Champion heifeR GRand Champion female JunioR Champion Bull GRand Champion Bull supReme lowline exhiBit ReseRve senioR Champion Cow JunioR Champion Bull

Julie & GReG KniGht major plains near dookie,victoria t 03 5828 6490 | m 0427 539 795 | e wanamara@westnet.com.au www.wanamaralowline.com.au AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 33

VET TALK

THE HEAT IS ON - 19 Tips on Heat Detection Artificial Insemination

17 A cow that has been riding all night while in heat may be tired by morning and be one of the few cows that will be lying down.

Artificial insemination is one of the best tools available today for a breeder wanting to increase the genetic merit and production of his or her herd.

18 Mucus will often be expelled as the insemination gun/tube is inserted if the cow has been in heat.

The cow herd must be on a rising plane of nutrition for an artificial breeding programme to be successful.

There are three stages of heat – Coming into Heat, Standing Heat & Coming off Heat.

Reproductive Cycle of a Cow Cows and heifers typically come into heat or oestrous every 17 to 24 days (average is 21 days). Once calved a cow will usually return to heat 4 to 8 weeks after calving, depending on their body condition and the availability of feed (the cow must be on a rising plane of nutrition).

Early Signs – before the female is in standing heat 1 A small string of mucus dripping out of a reclining cow is not too common but should not be confused with the more copious mucus seen when the cow is in heat.

2 Bawling when all other herd mates are quiet. This sign is observed quite often among heifers, but not often among cows.

3 The cow is more alert and observant.

This can be usually determined by watching their activity for a few minutes. If you do not see the other signs of heat in the riding cow, she is probably not in heat.

19 A string of blood on the side of the tail or rump indicates the cow was in heat two or three days ago. If you did not detect heat this time, check her again in 15 + days.

Timing for Artificial Insemination (AI)

The key component to timing AI is frequent and accurate observation periods to determine the onset of Standing Heat (oestrous). If possible, check every couple of hours and write down your observations. These observations will help your AI Technician to determine the best time to inseminate your cow.

Research has found that the best time to inseminate a cow is between 6 and 24 hours after Standing Heat has been observed and before ovulation.

Ovulation (the release of an egg into the fallopian tube) usually occurs approximately 24 to 32 hours after Standing Heat (oestrous). Optimal fertility of the ova (egg) is thought to be between 6 and 12 hours after ovulation. The viable lifespan of sperm in the reproductive tract is estimated at 24 to 34 hours, but this may depend on the fertility of the sperm.

This guideline suggests that cows in heat during a.m hours should be inseminated in the p.m, and cows in heat in the p.m should be inseminated in the following a.m.

This won’t necessarily work with all cows but your AI Technician or Vet will give you further advice to prepare your cow for a successful insemination and your observations will assist any decisions made.

If still in doubt about the status for the individual, move her over with the other cows in heat. If she is in some stage of heat she will stay close to them, if she is not, she will not show a continuous interest in them.

9 She gives signs so watch closely. She will place her head on the rump of another cow, and when she rides another cow, copious strings of mucus will be expelled from her vulva.

10 Mucus can often be seen on the side of the tail or rump.

11 Cows in heat will group together and stand closer to each other than they usually do.

12 Bull calves will follow a cow in heat and attempt to ride her. She will often stand for the calf.

4 She walks in a rapid business-like way & is unsettled.

5 She is standing when all other herd mates are lying down, looking alert.

6 A cow may walk through her herd mates sniffing as a bull might do when he checks his cows.

7 She will attempt to ride other cows not in heat.

Standing Heat

Signs that a cow has just gone off heat

8 Standing is the primary sign of oestrous.

The cow stands still when other cows mount her. This is the most obvious sign and it is identified as ‘Standing Heat’.

If there are a number of cows in heat in a herd, there will probably be more than one cluster of cows riding each other.

A cow in heat may also ride other cows in heat, so how do you tell if the cow doing the riding is in heat or not?

Standing heat usually lasts for 10 to 24 hours, but some cows may be shorter.

With short heat cycles cows are easy to miss when in heat, especially if it occurred during the night. Signs to look for in the morning -

13 Wet or matted hair, especially over the top of the shoulders.

14 Hair on the tail or rump may be sticking up or slightly matted where mucus has dried.

15 Mud on the hips or hair rubbed off the hips or tail head where the cows have ridden.

16 The vulva of a cow in heat increases in size & will appear pinkish and swollen.

34 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

FEBRUARY 2017

PROFILE

Shadow Park, Orange NSW We moved to Spring Terrace (near Orange) NSW in 2013, after living our entire lives in the Hawkesbury region of New South Wales.

We moved to Orange after career changes for my parents, and with big plans for our horses, we needed more space. The property we now live on is 56 acres, with a permanent creek and beautiful rich soils which means we are yet to run out of feed!

The first Lowlines we purchased were Wigram Fifi and her heifer calf Florence, from Wigram Stud in Mulgoa. followed by four more cattle; Trungley Alexandrite and her bull calf Wigram Roma, who is now our standing sire, and Wigram Shiraz, with heifer calf Palermo at foot. Through the friendship and help of the Kuipers, my brother began showing Roma, to great success at both Royal and agricultural shows.

As of today, we are running 25 head of cattle (and my two horses!), and we have paddocks full of feed due to a very wet winter and now long warm dry spells.

As part of our movement to the ‘country’ we’ve started eating our own beef; something

we are very proud of. When we first started with the Lowlines we were told that they were ‘small enough to fit in the freezer’. We now know that means a BIG freezer! As the first steer we slaughtered weighed 180kg over the hooks and filled our 1.8m long freezer to 75% capacity!

We had 6 heifers and 5 bull calves born this year, and a long list of family and friends interested in buying carcases from us when the time comes to send them to the abattoir.

Further to this, as a journalism student with a keen interest in Public Relations and social media, I’ve started an Instagram account to promote the stud and the breed as a whole.

The Lowlines have been and are continuing to be a rewarding investment, if not through the money we’ve saved in beef, then through the experience of growing your own food, and managing all the elements of the farm, even if it hardly qualifies in size!

The next twelve months will see a lot of change for Shadow Park; my brother, Angus who was the whole reason we began with the lowlines, will be completing year 12. Instead,

By Mollie Gorman I’ve offered to take the cattle to shows, and take over a lot of the admin work included in the management – which could be interesting, given my very limited showing experience and cattle knowledge! I’ve also been honoured to be asked to join the Association’s Youth Committee, so even if my ability to show cows isn’t great I hope my ability to talk and write will be an asset to the breed!

We will hopefully be launching a website soon, and long term we hope to promote the Lowline beef breed and solidify our breeding cows with heritage genetics and produce high quality beef and cattle that hobbyists and small-farmers like ourselves find appealing and useful. We hope to create more interest especially in the Central West of NSW, which is very Angus and Shorthorn-intensive. And of course, hopefully continue to add ribbons to the cabinet!

Peter, Rebecca, Mollie & Angus Gorman (Gorman family) Contact: shadowpark@shawman.com.au | 0450 907 610 Instagram: @shadowparkstud

Shadow Park Breeding quality, safe, quiet and beautiful Lowlines since 2013

Pro udly WIgram roma standing at reserve Champion Bull Canberra royal 2016; stud

Champion Bull royal Bathurst Show 2016

WIgram roma 2015/2016 progeny noW avaIlaBle

FEBRUARY 2017

SHADOW PARK Spring Terrace (via Orange) NSW 2798 shadowpark@shawman.com.au T 0450 907 610 Find us on Instagram @shadowparkstud

AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 35

PROFILE

Wessex Lowlines – The Story So Far...

by Sam Maughan, Wessex Lowlines

Wessex Lowlines, situated in rural Dorset in the South West of England is home to the largest Lowline herd in Europe.

The herd was set up by Geoff Roper & Nick Weber and is run by farm manager David Maughan and his family – Wife Sam and children Logan 14yrs & Charlotte 8yrs. Running the farm It is a true family affair with the whole family involved in caring for and showing the cattle.

The size and temperament of the cattle are great for the children to be around. They are able to help with day to day activities when out of school and both children help show the animals.

After initially hearing about the Lowline breed the more they researched they quickly realised the Lowline suited their requirements – with only limited acreage available they became excited about their prospects. They then began trying to source stock.... at this time there was just 1 very small herd of Lowlines in the UK originating from embryos imported from Australia. Because of the limited animals available in the UK a decision was made to source live animals from overseas rather than go down the embryo route due to the need to have a recipient animal, plus of course with embryos you then have to get a viable pregnancy of which there will be a percentage of bull calves – wanting to set up a breeding herd we felt importing live females would enable us to establish our herd quicker and with less risk. Much research was done with visits to Australia & New Zealand to look at herds and speak with breeders. Unfortunately there is no protocol to import live animals from Australia or New Zealand into Europe and so eventually a breeder in Canada was found who could supply our foundation stock and in 2010 the first crate of 10 heifers – the first live cattle import into the UK in over a decade – made the long journey from Big Island Lowlines in Alberta to Dorset England.

We have subsequently had 2 further imports and have travelled to Canada where we visited Farmfair International and met other Lowline breeders and saw some great cattle. We also were able to buy a bull derived from an Australian embryo from another UK breeder. He was sired by Trangie M206 Midshipman.

To help keep our gene pool as wide as possible and give us more bloodlines we also imported semen from several Australian bulls. David spends many hours researching bloodlines and pedigrees to select the right bull for each cow. Our herd now includes Big Island, Alta, High Point & MRG Rusty genetics from Canada, Colombo Park, Elandra Park, Vitulus, & Ardrossan from Australia and also Muddy Creek in USA. Awareness of the breed is growing – we travel around the country every summer to agricultural shows to enable people to see the cattle in the flesh and have had great success in the show ring winning several championships, reserve champions and many rosettes. We currently only have Lowline classes on at 2 shows in the UK so far so normally we are in an ‘Any other Pure beef breed’ or ‘Pure Beef Breed of Native

36 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

Origin’ class where we can be showing against breeds such as Murray Grey, Longhorn, shorthorn, Ruby Devon, Herefords, Speckled Park, Dexter’s, Lincoln Red, Belted Galloway, South Devon’s and Highlands – at some shows we are even up against the big continental breeds such as Charolais & Belgian Blue. We have also featured in editorial in many farming / smallholder magazines which all helps spread the word and widen knowledge of the Breed. We use social media – Facebook, twitter etc and we also recently made a video which enables people to see what the herd looks like and what we are doing which is viewable on our website, Facebook page & YouTube and has proved very popular! We normally hold an open day every year to enable interested people to visit and see the whole herd and ask any questions.

Our herd now numbers just over 100 head. An important aspect for us was to establish a high health status in fact holding an Elite health Status accredited free from IBR, BVD, Lepto, Johnnes & Neospora.

We have also established an embryo transfer program to enable us to grow our herd and develop our breeding program. We use Highland cattle which are an economical recipient that like the Lowlines can out winter and do not require concentrate feed.

We are able to graze the cattle here at a ratio of 2.7 cows plus calves at foot per acre.

We have set up several small starter herds across the UK plus we have arranged exports to Ireland, Switzerland and will shortly be sending a number of animals to Germany. We have a lot of interest from people interested in establishing a pedigree herd for themselves but also from people wanting to benefit from using a Lowline bull as a terminal sire for crossbreeding programs.

This year we also started retailing beef from the farm. We are very strict about only keeping the best of the male calves as breeding bulls in order to keep the quality of animals as high as possible so anything that doesn’t make the grade is castrated and finished for beef. We take them to approx 450kg – then hang the carcass for 28-30 days and have been getting around 77% meat to bone ratio.

We always welcome visitors to the farm. We have had a couple of visits all the way from Australia & New Zealand from fellow breeders.

It is always good to talk cattle with likeminded people.

We are passionate about the Lowline breed and getting it established in the UK and across Europe. We believe Lowlines have a big part to play in the future of the beef industry due to their hardiness, easy handling, temperament and the ability to finish on grass.

See our website www.wessexlowlines.com or facebook page for more information.

FEBRUARY 2017

INTERNATIONAL

Lowlines Abroad

By Bill Brydon – Barrenjoey Lowline Stud

It was a cold wet and dark English morning as I left the comfort of my hotel in Woodstock, in Oxfordshire, to commence my journey to the town of Frome in Somerset. Frome was the host on Saturday, 10th September 2016 to the annual District Agricultural and Cheese show.

My interest at this show was the parading of Lowline cattle, being one of only a few agricultural shows to have such a stand-alone class.

With my borrowed navigation device leading the way, I traversed along A roads, B roads and motorways over the two and a half hour trip before arriving in the township of Frome. The one day show commenced at 8.30am so I was anxious to arrive early so not to miss the judging. As I pulled into a field that doubled as a car park the rain continued to bucket down. It soon became apparent that wellington boots and a sturdy ‘dry as a bone’ jacket were the order of the day. I had neither.

A quick scurry from the car park to the show entrance soon deposited me into a massive marquee that housed the cheese exhibits. Large numbers of hard and soft cheese were on display for the consideration of the judges. Notwithstanding the wonderful aroma and desire to break open some crackers I reminded myself why I was there, to see the Lowlines of course.

Despite the rain I finally located the tented cattle pavilion where I found our distinctive and familiar breed. Unfortunately only two breeders, Glamorgan Lowlines and Enkangala Lowlines, were presenting their cattle to the scrutiny of the Judge, Mr Murray Skippen from Alberta, Canada. Six cattle were exhibited over 4 single entry classes. The competition remained close particularly in the Cow or Calved heifer class.

The judging ring was shared between a number of breeds, with each breed intermingling their classes. After some time, the final honour of

GLENLONNY LOWLINES

1800 Kangaroo Flat Road, Glencoe SA Phone Sue 0407 251 041

Stud & Commercial Stock available FEBRUARY 2017

Champion Lowline was awarded to Enkangala Lowines’ Enkangala Aria, a heifer in the 12 to 24 month class. A nice heifer she was too.

Between classes I was able to catch up with two breeders, Steve Lakin from Glamorgan Lowlines and David Maughan from Wessex Lowline. Steve Lakin started his herd of Lowlines in February 2016, at Garn Farm, Wenvoe, in the Vale of Glamorgan in Wales. Steve was introduced to the breed following an open day visit to the home of Wessex Lowlines at Dairy Farm Barns, Stubhampton in Dorset. As Steve explained, for his 60 acre property, the Lowline breed ticked all the boxes in what he was looking towards in cattle production.

David Maughan attended the Frome show in support of the Lowline exhibitors and to observe a number of the Wessex Lowline progeny on display. He and Wessex Lowlines are clearly leading the way in showcasing the breed in the UK and Europe. The farm first imported 10 heifers from Edmonton, Canada in 2010 and is now exporting their progeny to countries around Europe. Apart from establishing new Lowline breeders in England and Wales, cattle exports have been made to Northern Ireland, Ireland, Switzerland and most recently to Germany. I was impressed with the energy and enthusiasm that both breeders had for the breed and with the quality of the cattle on display.

This was the second show in 2016 where Lowlines have had their own class, with the other being the Dorset County show, which was held the previous weekend. At the Dorset show, three Lowline exhibitors attended. Enkargala Aria was again awarded the champion exhibit.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the Frome Show almost immediately after judging was completed due to other personal commitments.

I really enjoyed the feel of the large country style show and the fact that Lowline cattle were receiving the recognition that they deserve.

Not even the dampness of the weather and the sodden grounds could remove my smile as I left the showground.

Goin’ West? Goin’ Country?

Goan Lowlines

MarGaret Wood • traNGIe 02 6888 7026 • 0413 699 520 AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL | 37

Violet the SUPERMUM

By Ken & Gill Lorains, Whitby Farm Lowlines After losing two cows to grass tetany, the herd was brought in to the yard.

Our pet dog ran through the yards, and Violet instantly mothered the two orphans.

Violet (a second calver, pictured right) and the three calves were left in the yards over night.

To our great delight, all three were drinking from her, what a SUPER MUM1 She certainly has saved us lot of time and effort !

Breeding Easily-handled Small Block Beef Cattle Lik Lik LowLine STud

The Lik Lik Lowline Stud was established in 2003 and is re-known for producing quiet animals that are easily led, with high quality genetics, winning many Grand Champion Ribbons both here in Australia and America.

38 | AUSTRALIAN LOWLINE CATTLE ASSOCIATION JOURNAL

PO Box 230 Cambooya Queensland 4358

T 07 4696 1549 M 0419 686 254 e colin.schiller@bigpond.com www.likliklowlines.com.au FEBRUARY 2017

AUSTRALIAN

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SIRE: BRAMBLETYE PANCHO

DAM: TRAINGE J251

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We have exceptional animals on the ground from our breeding program, which include ET (embryo transfer) Calves from the famous Trangie J251 and other highly regarded genetics. These animals will be proven by undergoing the “show circuit” in early 2017.

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MERCHANDISE

At Rotherwood Lowline Stud we have been undergoing an extensive breeding program over the past two years which include carefully selecting only the best embryos, semen and natural joinings with some of our best breeders and quality recipients.

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Contact Carole at ABRI Office to Order Merchandise Phone 02 6773 3295 or e-mail office@lowlinecattleassoc.com.au lowlinecattleassoc.com.au

ASHMORE LOWLINE STUD

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SUPREME EXHIBIT rotherwood glamour girl GRAND CHAMPION BULL Cann Valley Count Knock-Out (A.I) JUNIOR CHAMPION FEMALE RESERVE JUNIOR CHAMPION Cann Valley Lunar eclipse (A.I)

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BEST EXHIBIT rotherwood glamour girl JUNIOR CHAMPION BULL Cann Valley Count Knock-Out (A.I.)

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“BreedIng AustrALIA’s Best”

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Matt Cooney | mattcooney98@gmail.com 0434110634 | cannvalleylowlinestud.weebly.com

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All ENquiriES WElComE

Gordon & Debbie Guthrie | Ashburton, New Zealand | Phone: +64 3 302 4964 | Email: gguthrie@xtra.co.nz www.ashmorelowlinestud.co.nz

Journal Of The Australian Lowline Cattle Association

www.lowlinecattleassoc.com.au

NO 29 | 2017