Through the support of family and friends, the Saunders family, of Central Queensland's Charlevue Brangus Stud, are slowly starting to see a light at the end of the tunnel after contending with dire drought conditions in recent years.
Charlevue (18,210 hectares), which backs along the Blackdown Tablelands National Park, slightly west of Dingo is run by Jamie and Jane Saunders with their children at home, Josh and Kaylee, helping out.
Their breeding herd of 1000 black, red and grey, registered and commercial Brangus, were severely impacted by the relentless dry weather, which saw Charlevue receive its lowest rainfall on record in 2019.
The cost of feeding cattle along with the business having to borrow more money has led them to offering their genetics for sale online.
Jamie and Jane said this will allow them to present cattle in a more cost efficient way which will in turn benefit their clients financially and personally.
The sale follows Charlevue's recent success at Beef Australia 2018 in the Brangus section, at which the stud won Champion Bull, Reserve Junior Champion, Breeders Group and Sire's Progeny Group, while taking home the title of most successful Brangus breeder at the event.
"This shows that we can produce quality stud animals for the modern show ring, while also infusing the commercial aspects of our cattle with actual kill sheets of brothers to bulls in the 2020 sale team," they said.
"This gives actual breeding values to the bulls, while giving us more accurate information to focus on breeding a better value carcase with our genetics."
The sale, on Tuesday, September 1, 2020 in Rockhampton, will be coordinated by Georgie Connor of SBB/GDL Rockhampton.
"It will be a live auction run from 1pm, which will be telecast over the internet on the day, where people can use any method they wish to make their purchases.
"We hope the format will take the stress out of the sale day while providing buyers with quality genetics."
Their will be an inspection day encompassing all sale lots on Saturday, August 1, at Charlevue, providing prospective buyers with a great opportunity to think about what qualities they're looking for from our offering in a relaxed environment. The day will include lunch and will be held from 8am to 4pm.
It was in December last year, that the family made the tough decision to wean most of their calves off their mothers with the goal of saving their breeding herd.
Jane said these calves ranged from two weeks to two days old.
"We ended with 580 calves in total, of which 350 were put on milk feeders."
She said the calves are doing well now, though ensuring this has been an expensive and highly labour intensive exercise with the calves costing $1000 per day.
"We will have the ongoing cost of feeding the calves for a few months still, but reducing our spending costs and offloading some of the less productive breeders will grant us the time we need to get the calves to weaner weights so they're salable."
Jane said without help from their family and local businesses, when the situation at Charlevue was at its worst, they wouldn't have been able to accomplish their goal successfully.
"Our parents Bill and Kay Geddes of Doonside Brangus, took all of our weaner heifers and a number of our breeders to their property.
"Rossmoya-based dairy farmers Ray and Alsa Clews, Clews Farming, visited to observe the calves. Their knowledge of raising young calves, and on how to take care of them financially was of great benefit to us.
"WIN Television detailed our situation, and while filming one of their hard working employees helped us with the calves and drought feeding on his days off.
"The owners of Blackwater business, Country Allure, helped us create a Facebook page to pay off the calves' milk powder, and assisted us with getting the calves to feed on the milk feeders.
"Volunteers from the Ramsay Pharmacy in Rockhampton also came out on weekends to assist with the feeding of the calves.
"Rabobank Rockhampton manager Rebecca Murray helped us with extending loans and services. She provided us with support financially, and with her personal care and assistance.
"Lastly, our accountant Peter Heaslop, gave us his time, at no extra cost to the business, to help us with the drought relief packages and applications to aid us in getting through this awful time."
Jane said the situation has improved slightly this year with a total of 190mm falling between January and February.
"This rain grew a large quantity of grass, but it is drying off quickly, so we'll likely be facing another year of feeding supplements to all cattle on pastures.
"We're working to improve the productivity of our country. We're growing fodder to store to save costs, thus moving towards drought proofing Charlevue."
Despite the turmoil, the family's goal of producing high quality Brangus cattle that work in both commercial and stud operations with excellent temperament, length, bone, topline, fat distribution and constitution, remains the same.
"Bulls should have a strong powerful head with good shoulders, and females should be attractive and have length through the neck.
"We strive for our breeders to be very fertile and cost efficient which allows them to be productive no matter how dry/hot it may be."
