WIDE Bay Burnett cattle producers Glen and Mandy Ballin are on their way to establishing a successful beef cattle business but they don’t own a single beast.
The couple own the 500 hectare property, Tudor Springs at Branch Creek, outside Gayndah, and spent the last five years refining a nutrition, land management and artificial insemination program to produce guaranteed high pregnancy results.
It has led them to create the business Heiferland, allowing producers to send their empty heifers to the property for up to two synchronisations to a bull of their choice.
Not only are the heifers likely to get in calf in a smaller time frame but the two synchronisations allow the producer to quickly identify the fertile breeders and establish their herd accordingly.
Artificial insemination is nothing new in the stud game but the Ballin family are focusing their business at commercial producers and can build them a fertile herd through synchronisation or allow them to sell their weaner heifers and purchase pregnant replacement heifers of the desired breed and semen.
Last year Heiferland produced conception rates of 80 per cent but won’t let out their secrets for combating the affects that seasonal conditions often play on conception rates.
Heifers are booked into the Ballin’s monthly programs with their country rested between April and September.
Already 220 head are booked in for September and Mr Ballin said they expect at full capacity they could see up to 1200 heifers visiting the property.
“We believe it could be in four states in Australia,” he said.
“It is a huge answer for the cattle industry.
“I think with the price of bulls and the ability to be able to give your whole mob the chance to go in calf the day you would normally put your bulls out really enhances a lot of management issues like weaning.”
Heiferland aims to have a maximum joining period of 60 days with research showing for every cycle it takes a heifer to become pregnant, it’s 20 kilograms less in weaner weight.
Ms Ballin said in Argentina and Brazil up to 12 million females each year were artificially inseminated and it was something that Australia’s commercial breeders could learn from.
“Their growth in synchronization happened over just a few short years,” she said.
“Once they got the handle on it and they applied it, suddenly it was not just stud producers suddenly it got into the realm of the commercial industry and commercial breeders could really benefit from it.
“Now they are calving virtually their entire herd down in six weeks.
“I’ve always thought if they can do it there, and they have got high percentage Brahman cows, we have got high percentage Brahman cows so we have got to be able to do it here.”
She said there were endless benefits to synchronization.
“The majority of Bos indicus infused females, they can be non-cycling for 70 to 120 days after calving and so without the help of synchronization it’s just not possible for them to have a calf every year,” she said.
“It’s above just infusing good genetics.”
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.
