Since the early 1990’s Brahman have formed the backbone of Tom and Sandra Hartley’s Mitchell-based breeding operation which they run with their son and partner Andrew, and in recent years they’ve benefited from crossing their females with Charolais, Angus and Simmental genetics.
The Hartley family run their 13,000 head herd across four properties, under their Hartley Grazing banner.
The 85,000-hectare property Crystalbrook, is a pure breeding block on forest country and lighter soils where they’re currently running close to 3500 cows.
Brigalow soils dominate on their 12,000 hectare home property, Coopermurra, which is adjoined by Southlands (14,800 hectares), where all weaners are grown and fattened for the feedlots and cull cows are fattened to 560kg live weight to be sent direct to the processors.
“We also have replacement heifers at Coopermurra, which are bred out and sent to Crystalbrook, and a herd of 500 breeders which stay on-property as they don’t have enough Brahman content to perform at Crystalbrook,” Mr Hartley said.
The Hartley’s other property Morwhena (6000 hectares) was purchased in March this year to be used as a trading operation, where close to 1000 weaners and young cattle are run.
In his estimation Mr Hartley said close to 70 per cent of their 4300-head breeding herd consists of Brahman or Brahman-type females.
He said they originally ran a Hereford-based herd but in the early 1990s they decided to introduce Brahman bulls, as their Hereford breeders were struggling to cope with the ongoing dry seasonal conditions at Crystalbrook at the time.
“We were also finding it difficult to source good quality Hereford bulls and thought a Brahman-based herd would suit our conditions and needs better, especially due to their doing ability,” he said.
“We began our Brahman push by purchasing 50 bulls at the Roma Tropical Breeds Bull Sale, which we put over the Hereford breeders, and from that point on we’ve gradually built up the Brahman numbers within the herd.”
He said it’s only been in the past seven or eight years, that they decided to start crossbreeding with their Brahman breeders.
“We reached a point where the herd was at around 80pc Brahman, and we wanted to soften our cows up a bit again; it was also a financial decision as the feedlots favour the cross.”
The Hartleys began by using Charolais and Angus bulls over the Brahman cows and more recently added Simmentals to the mix.
“We buy straights to get a better outcross, which allows us to smooth over the Brahmans, take off the hump and get hybrid vigour into them.”
The Hartley’s have mainly sold their cross feeder steers to Morgan Pastoral Company for the last five years, and they retain the heifers for breeding.
“They’ve been very good to deal with over the years, and they like our cattle, so they always get first go at what we produce.”
He said heavy feeders, cull heifers and anything else that doesn’t fit the feedlot specifications are fattened out and sold to the processors or through the Roma Fat Sale depending on the market.
“We’ve been getting pretty good money lately; we haven’t sold since April, but we received $3.20/kg for our heifers and steers then, and our cull cows returned 1200/head in the last financial year.
Within the operation, the Charolais, Angus and Simmental bulls are joined with the Brahman females from November up until April.
“We’re aren’t heavy into culling for in-calf and/or preg testing, we’re more into doing ability and conformation. Our calving rate is currently a bit above 80pc.”
He said Hartley Grazing is chiefly a family-run operation.
“Andrew runs Southlands, our daughter Michelle and son-in-law Dan McInnerney are in charge of Morwhena, and our other daughter Amanda and her husband Brett Slater, live and work at Crystalbrook, which has been managed for 20 years by Kelvin and Page Vidler, who’re like family to us.”
He said he’s happy with how the operation is running at present, and that looking ahead, they won’t be looking to make any big changes to their production activity.
“Though I’m interested to see how the trading operation at Morwhena goes, then compare the results against the breeding and fattening operation to see if it’s a direction we might look at moving towards further, or not.”
