For close to half a century, the McConnel family has striven to best themselves in producing the best Droughtmaster article possible at Mt Brisbane on Somerset Dam in the Brisbane Valley.
Don McConnel represents the fifth generation of the family on Mt Brisbane, where he manages the day to day running of the business alongside his parents John and Carli, wife Andrea, and children Audrey and Stirling.
The 4500 hectare property was settled by the Bigge brothers in 1842, and in 1893 the McConnel family were appointed as managers, and later partners, before eventually purchasing the property outright in 1914.
The country at Mt Brisbane comprises fertile creek flats which run into heavily timbered forest country, with creeks, dams and bores dotting the property.
“Despite the dry we’ve been faring well water-wise, it’s actually frost which has knocked us around recently, blackening off a lot of our native pastures,” Don said.
The breeding of a purebred Droughtmaster herd began at Mt Brisbane began in 1970’s, after the family had initially used Santa Gertudis in a bullock fattening operation, before switching to breeding and fattening, with a Hereford/Shorthorn-cross.
“We switched to Droughties due to their natural tick resistance, high fertility rate and great maternal instincts of the females, and we can fatten tropical cattle a lot quicker then euro bullocks.”
Don said the market versatility of the breed is also of great benefit.
“Our steers are fattened to 280-350kg dressed, and are sold along with our speyed heifers to the MSA market through JBS at Dinmore, where we have been receiving good values for our product in recent times.”
In recent years the family has managed to lift the fertility rate of the herd to close to 90 per cent, through the use of varied high quality genetics, and by semen testing their bulls.
“We’ve also shifted to using more early maturing type cattle with the aim of taking a year off the maturing age of our steers.”
Don said their current objectives are to get more weight and fat on the cattle at a younger age, to make a more easy doing article, and to produce more poll cattle.
He said the family gained MSA certification soon after the program was created, with the premiums offered providing great incentive for the family to continue focussing on early maturing cattle.
“If we can sell when they’re are two tooth’s, that’s one less year we have to hold them.”
He said the current commercial herd consists of close to 2000 head, in which bulls are joined with close to 500 breeders from December to March, and the mating period for the maiden heifers starting slightly earlier.
In addition to their commercial breeding program, the McConnel’s also registered as a stud in 1985, in which they now have close to 60 stud females.
“We like to get a few different bloodlines into the females, we were previously using bulls from Trafalgar, and we’ve shifted to using bulls from Birch Droughtmasters lately. We sell the progeny on-property from the paddock.”
The majority of bulls used in Mt Brisbane’s stud and commercial operations are purchased through the Bunya Bull Sale, which the McConnel’s have been attending variously as vendors and buyers since it began.
“The bulls available there provide good value for money, and they aren’t overfed which is good for us as their isn’t a big letdown period when we take them home.”
“The sale also appeals to us because a lot of the bulls are bred locally so they’re used to the ticks, it’s easy to get the bulls home due to our close proximity to the sale, and you get to choose from a diverse selection of genetics.
“Temperament is a high priority for us when buying bulls, especially with the MSA grading, bloodlines are another thing we look at closely, we also like low humps, and soft easy doing cattle.”
In addition to their current use of Birch genetics, Don said the family have also had good results using bulls produced by Robert Webber, Tajana Droughtmasters, and several other breeders.
“We try bulls from a wide range of studs and then go back to those that mix well with our bloodlines.
“The commercial herd will start calving this week with their genetics, we also sold a mob of Birch-sired maiden heifers in one hit for $3000/head recently, which we were very pleased with.”
Don said even in their downtime the family are never far away from cattle, as they exhibit and are involved in the coordination of three local shows.
“We’re also looking forward to seeing some of the Droughties that we donated to Toogoolawah State High School being paraded by the students at Ekka this month.”
