Charbray passion runs deep for Ziesemer family

Randall and Tanya Ziesemer run the commercial breeding operation, with the assistance of their daughters Lucy and Jane, across two properties, Beaumont and Bentley Park, respectively situated 30km and 25km east of Taroom.

Beaumont (3000ha) was purchased by Mr Ziesemer's father, Glen and his grandfather Fred in 1962. Randall was handed the reins to the property in the early 1990's. With Tanya, they then purchased Bentley Park (2500ha) in 2008 to expand the business as additional breeder country was required.

Mr Ziesemer said the land on both properties primarily consists of cleared, undulating, brigalow and bottle vine scrub country. On Bentley Park, some of this country runs into lighter box wilga type soils.

"We predominantly have improved buffel grass pastures on both," he said.

Mr Ziesemer said when they began managing Beaumont themselves, they initially started out with a few hundred purebred Charolais cows.

"We were putting Red Brahman bulls over these cows which produced a beautiful F1 heifer, but the problem we had then was figuring out what breed to use over them. This was when we made the decision to put generational bred Charbray bulls over the F1's."

In the Ziesemer's operation all the F1 heifers are put on Bentley Park, where they spend the rest of their lives being joined to the Charbray bulls, while Beaumont is also used for breeding purposes and to grow out and finish their cattle.

"We're very happy with the way our program is working as we're breeding very handy heifers. We believe if done right, this cross consistently produces a very fast growing, soft and easy doing animal. We find that they fit into any market that we want to target."

As their operation is EU Accredited, the family target the top end of feed-on market with their steers, weighing 470 to 480kg at close to 18 months of age. Depending on seasonal conditions, cull heifers are finished on a small patch of leucaena at 280 to 320kg dressed, primarily as two-year-old's.

In all the Ziesemer's are currently running 900 breeders plus replacement heifers, and with followers factored in, close to 2000 head are being run across both properties at a ratio of one bull to 40 females.

"We put the bulls out with the cows on October 1 and we then try to remove them by late February. This gives us an early calving window between June and July. We've found that early calves are the best doing ones."

While they've bought Charbray bulls from various studs since commencing their program, the Ziesemer's have had a particularly lengthy arrangement with fellow Taroom locals the Welsh family, Huntington Charbrays.

"The Welsh's produce a consistent, quality article. We keep going back to them, as top shelf bulls are hard to find, in saying that, we aren't afraid to spend a bit of money on the bulls we want.

"We try to find outcross bulls with a diversity of genetics to keep a good variety of bloodlines in our herd."

When making their purchases, Mr Ziesemer said the number one priority is that the bull must have a good, masculine bully head.

"Temperament is also crucial, we want nothing to do with cattle that fly around and lift their head at you in the yards. The style of a beast is important to us as well, bulls we look at need to be long bodied and have depth of flank.

"We study scrotal measurements as fertility is an important issue. We consistently preg-test in the 90 to 95 per cent range. We believe that comes from our joining windows and by being strict on empty cows and culling."

The Ziesemer's cattle are well known throughout the area for their consistently high quality.

"We've been showing at the Taroom Show for many years where we've done well in collecting a room full of trophies and ribbons for our efforts.

"Other highlights have included winning our class at Beef 2012 in Rockhampton with a pen of grass fed EU steers and more recently at Beef 2018 were we placed second in our class with a pen of grain fed EU heifers."

He said while they've probably been on the lighter end of the rainfall since the start of the calendar year, the 180mm they've received has been enough to give them a good body of grass.

"This year we'll get enough feed to carry us through the winter months, providing we get another early spring break.

He said their current outlook is a far cry from 2019 when they had to start a program with their breeders to sell any empty or aged cows.

"We also had to start weaning a lot earlier than usual, and a lot of supplementary feeding was required to our herd going."

Mr Ziesemer said they're currently in the process of trying to expand onto an additional breeder block.

"It's just a matter of finding the right one to suit our requirements. The additional country will allow us to move most of the breeders away from our better country on Beaumont and Bentley Park, which we can then use to primarily grow out and finish on."

While her parents continue to focus on the commercial arm of the business, Lucy Ziesemer and her fiancee Bryce Moore, have established a stud operation, Trifecta Charbrays, from which their first offering of two-year-old bulls will go under the hammer at the National Charbray Bull and Female Sale in September at Gracemere.

She said the stud was named Trifecta due to its incorporation of three cow lines, consisting of the Ziesemer's Beaumont cows, cows from Carbene Grazing (Bryce's family-run operation), and those that the pair have produced under the Trifecta Beef banner.

"We're using some of our own bulls in the program, in addition to sires sourced from the Huntington, Wattlebray and Kandanga Valley studs," Ms Ziesemer said.

She said the decision to create the stud goes back to her parents selling bulls out of the paddock with solid success when she was much younger.

"They never went ahead and got registered as a stud, but Bryce and I are a bit obsessed with the breed and we have a keen interest in getting our genetics out there to offer something more to the beef scene, based off what mum and dad have built over the years."

Ms Ziesemer said their ambition is to offer a unique and complete, top end product.

"Being a relatively young breed, it's a bit of a battle to secure strong female genetics, so we're going down the road of producing pure generational Charbrays to help build the breeds' base and strength."