Since introducing Brangus genetics into his Brahman-based herd in 2015, Calliope’s Steve McBride has seen a dramatic improvement in the cattle being produced through their commercial and stud operations.
Steve, along with his fiancee Kelly A Lucey, and children Lachlan, Joseph and Kendall own the 610 acre Robuck Hills property, 20km west of Calliope, which is situated on undulating coastal Softwood scrub country and runs back into Ironbark ridges.
The property was originally used as a dairy cattle operation and a paw paw plantation before Steve purchased the property in 2003.
He also bought the nearby 910 acre property Landhurst in July 2017, which features undulating Ironbark and Bluegum forest country.
“We breed on both blocks, though our stud cattle including our embryo and AI calves are on Robuck Hills as the country is better, and we’ve had problems with dingoes at Landhurst, so we use that for our commercial operations,” he said.
The total herd consists of close to 150 Brahman breeders, 12 registered Brangus females, and their followers, with close to 60 of those on Robuck Hills with the rest at Landhurst.
“We’ll be looking at increasing the size of the herd once we complete more timber and lantana clearing.”
Steve initially decided to incorporate Brangus genetics into the herd because he wasn’t happy with the weight or temperament of their straight Brahman cattle.
“We bought our first Brangus bulls after Beef Week 2015 from the Woodard family, Bonox Brangus, Taroom and the Pearce family, Telpara Hills Brangus, Atherton.
“We use the Bonox bulls over our commercial breeders, and the Telpara Hills bulls are joined with our stud females.
“They’ve helped us produce an article which is a bit more marketable, they also cope with the ticks, flies and heat very well.
“The bulls have produced excellent results over the Brahman cows, and wiped the horn off our cattle in one go; I haven’t had to dehorn since I made the decision to use black cattle.”
While Steve’s main aim was to get rid of the horns, he said the Brangus have also flattened the back out in the progeny, which are now coming through with much better temperaments.
During the same time period, Steve also purchased registered females to produce for their own use and to sell the surplus from the Quinn family, Voewood Brangus, Calliope, the Roberts family, Alkoomie Brangus, South Yaamba, the Hansen family, Oaklands Brangus, Kalapa, and Telpara Hills.
Feeder steers are sold through CQLX or through private sale at 350kg liveweight, along with similar weight cull heifers.
“We keep between 25 per cent to 30pc of our heifers on property as replacements.
“The cattle we’re producing now must be appealing to our buyers as they’re being sold through a number of markets, and in particular we’re getting strong demand for our cull heifers for use as replacements.”
He said they’re expecting their first AI calves in August or September this year which are out of their first crop of Brangus heifers since they started using Brangus bulls.
“They were AI’d using imported semen from the a North American bull that we purchased from Telpara Global Genetics.”
Steve said he’s seen a big improvement in the herd from where they were before introducing the Brangus.
“We should have a handful of herd bulls that we can use or sell-on in the near future, but we’re still a fair ways off from selling good bulls at the ABCA sales, it’ll probably be another two years or so before we are confident enough to enter cattle in those.
Steve said while they’ve only been going at it with the Brangus for a couple of years, he’s happy with the objectives that they’ve managed to completed to date.
