WHEN Keith and Bev Lacey bought the property they had managed for 23 years in 1999, they realised they needed something to round out their Droughtmaster/Brahman herd.
Their 2266 hectares (5600 acres) of open downs country, which lies between Capella and Clermont in central Queensland, was used to grow out bought-in weaners for the Jap ox market.
"When we took over, we got breeders - mainly the Droughtmaster/Brahman type, but I was looking for something to open them out a bit in the back end," Mr Lacey said. "They were a bit tight."
After trialling with different breeds - Charbray, Charolais, Limousin, Gelbvieh and Angus-cross - he came across a breed that he hadn't seen before.
"My son and I went on to the website and we were looking around and we could only find one bull in Queensland, which Bev and I bought." That was 2006.
The Laceys bought some cows from Beaudesert to start a stud, but their son wanted a bull so he travelled to NSW to buy one.
"We couldn't wait for the nine months to go," he said. And it paid off when his cows dropped their calves. "It was just incredible the difference riding home and seeing the back ends of those calves."
Now, their business Grenada Bazadais runs 250 breeders, of which 60 are stud, about 180 dry cattle and 40 are crossbred and full-blood bulls.
The progeny are 50 per cent Bazadais, 40pc Droughtmaster and 10pc Brahman.
"We keep the first-cross cows and put them back to the Bazadais bulls and then get a second cross, which I think is the ideal butcher's beast," Mr Lacey said.
The second-cross result almost doubled the meat in the back end.
Mr Lacey pointed out that his stud herd, which has to be DNA and parent-verified in order to register with the Australian Bazadais Cattle Society, was not double muscled.
It was a common misconception that the breed was, but the couple had a test carried out on their cattle that indicated the herd did not carry the myostatin - or double muscling - gene.
Most of the Laceys' cattle go directly to a butcher in Mackay, and the relationship started through fellow stud owner John McFarlane of Greenmount Bazadais.
"John took a piece of topside to a butcher in Mackay and told them to try it. The butcher called him back and asked, 'What is that?' and that's how it all started."
A tender piece of topside was unheard of. Mr Lacey said he noticed a big difference in the first-cross cows he culled.
While his Droughtmaster/Brahman cows were dressing about the 300kg mark, his Bazadais-cross were doing 350kg.
"It is real, beefy meat. I explain it that they put extra meat where the meat is and the butchers say they get an extra cut or two of meat out of them."
This has resulted in the Laceys' motto for their herd: extra length, more beef.
Anything that gets too heavy for the butcher goes direct to the meatworks.
Carcase competitions have been an important tool to benchmark their herd against other cattle.
The Laceys began entering these competitions soon after establishing their stud and their first one was in 2009 in Rockhampton at Beef Australia. "We got rolled by 0.44 of a point by the champion carcase by people from Western Australia with their Gelbvieh." After that, they started entering the Dawson Callide competition, which they have won twice, and the Gympie competition which they won last year.
This year was the big surprise, Mr Lacey said, when they took out the top prize at the Royal Queensland Show -the champion carcase in paddock to palate. "We were over the moon." They also won the pen of six carcases - their only pen entered while other competitors put in several pens.
"This was our first time to win at the Ekka, but we have been in it for three years."
Mr Lacey sees these carcase competitions as an important part of the industry, and participation has grown with the Dawson Callide carcase competition breaking a record with 493 head enrolled this year. "I find the carcase comps a lot more useful than exhibiting your cattle at a show. It's only one person's opinion whereas with a carcase the figures have to add up."
Mr Lacey said he was surprised that
the Bazadais breed had not taken off more, considering its yield. "Our yields are big and we are getting up to 60-64 per cent in these carcase competitions and that's huge. It's about the dollars at the end."
When the Laceys first bought the property, almost half of it was under cultivation with wheat, sorghum and sunflower. Now just 40.5ha (100ac) is used for oats.
"Just Bev and I work the place and it was a bit too much," Mr Lacey said. "Crops were not worth that much with $100 a tonne, and with the money we were getting from our cattle, we were spending it on spraying and working the ground and not getting much back in return."
On top of that, gear needed replacing.
Now, the land has been put back to pasture - silk sorghum and butterfly pea - and the cattle enterprise has been kind enough to allow the Laceys to do "a fair bit of travel". "It's always nice to come home," Mr Lacey said.
