THEY may have been the loosing bidders on the $160,000 record price Simmental bull earlier this year but Jan and Doug Bradshaw, Blue Dog Simmentals, Wandoan are seeing much greater value in a different Woonallee sire.
The couple had set their sights on purchasing Woonallee Los Angeles from Tom and Lizzy Baker, Woonallee Simmentals, South Australia at their on-property sale in February but were outbid by Brett Nobbs, Nobbs Cattle Co, Duaringa.
While they weren’t able to secure the top selling genetics, the couple are seeing impressive returns from Woonallee Justified, a sire they purchased for $45,000 in 2015.
Six of their 24 bulls on offer at the Emerald Aggrow Sale on July 7 are the first calves sired by Justified with a pair of them winning the Champion Pair of Bulls at the Mitchell Show in May for the second consecutive year.
The couple operate a 6879 hectare property, Red Range, where they have 250 stud breeders along with a commercial herd which now includes Simbrah genetics after rebuilding their base.
They made their first stud purchase in 2005 after breeding bulls for their own purposes.
“We started off just breeding bulls for ourselves because we couldn't buy bulls that we were after,” Ms Bradshaw said.
“They had heaps of things that we didn't really want to buy but had to buy so we decided to breed our own bulls and they (my children) kept telling me, ‘Mum you need a stud’.
“It’s a lot of work but it’s so interesting.
“We hadn’t been able to find a bull for years and then Tom (Baker’s) sale came up and we said that’s the bull (Justified).”
While they received 80mm from Cyclone Debbie earlier this year, Red Range is in desperate need of a drink and the couple have been offloading cattle.
“We sold 176 cows heavy in calf the other day in Dalby and a fella up at Bluff brought the lot,” she said.
“We use all our Blue Dog Simmental bulls in our commercial herd which is really good because it...gives us a good base of judgment to know that our bulls are doing the job so we can send our bulls out with confidence.”
Ms Bradshaw said she looked forward to seeing what Mr Nobbs would do with the record price bull and the promotion it would bring to the Simmental breed.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
