For close to half a century the Santa Gertrudis breed has been intrinsic to the success of Bill and Gretchen Speed’s Brig-O-Doon Cattle Company based in Taroom.
The commercial cattle business consists of Brig-O-Doon, Kiah, Bridgecreek and Peek-A-Doo in Taroom and the recently acquired Mt Marlow in Yaraka, and in a partnership with his brother John, wife Margie and family also includes Tobermorey, Linda Downs and Tarlton Down in the NT and Qld.
Bill and John oversee the overall day-to-day operations, while their children and spouses work on the individual holdings including the annual muster on the partnership properties.
”I personally focus on the feedlot at Brig-O-Doon, while Gretchen balances the books, and helps me run the show,” Bill said.
“We have 200 Santa Gertrudis breeders here, and we also breed bulls for the northern properties.”
“We breed on the northern properties, muster and bring the steers and mickeys to the Taroom properties. To make the journey less stressful weaners are then processed including castration of the mickeys upon arrival.
“They generally come in at between 250-300kg which we grow out to 450kg in the feedlot, after which they’re sold to Kilcoy Pastoral Company as 100 day bullocks.
“We aim to be consistent with the product we’re selling. We don’t chop and change from one market to another, we solely produce mainstream export cattle.”
He said the prices they’ve been receiving recently are the “best they’ve ever been”.
“It has allowed us to put good infrastructure in, which has helped to improve the quality of our cattle.”
He said climatic conditions on-property in the west and north have also been helpful for them recently.
“We’re now at full stocking capacity, and the good conditions are helping us achieve weaning rates over 80 per cent.
“We’re very careful with fertility management. We try to get our cattle in-line at weaning time to allow females to cycle and go in calf at the optimum time of year.”
The Speed’s purchased their first Santa cows in 1969; which were fed through drought conditions that year.
“They did very well considering the circumstances, and since then we’ve been very happy with the results we get out of the breed.
“They perform well on grass or grain, and they’re always at a heavy mature weight at sale time.
Bill said they ensure they have a varied selection of high quality young bulls in the herd, which is a process made easier due to the excellent Santa Gertrudis stud breeders in the state.
“Over the years we’ve drawn on a wonderful selection of genetics from most of the state’s leading studs.”
Bill said “developing land to run cattle on and seeing them growing and performing well” is the main aspect of beef production he enjoys.