Since the 1960's, the McKay family have tried a few breeds over the years in their commercial crossbreeding program though none have proven to be a better fit than the Santa Gertrudis, which they predominantly now purely breed.
Ashley and Doris McKay run the business from Torres Park, Augathella, which they purchased in 1984, from the family partnership, and where Mr McKay has lived all his life. The McKays have recently completed a succession plan involving their "defacto grandchildren" Keiran Delforce and Rebecca McKeering, who manage Torres Park and run their own herd on, Carella, which was once part of Torres Park.
"Keiran is from my side of the family and Rebecca is from Doris's. They love the life and the cattle like we do," Mr McKay said.
"They came here 17 years ago and they're still helping to run the show, they tell us what to do now," he said jokingly.
Run under the banner of Torres Park Grazing Company, the combined 22,055ha of formerly partial cropping country, situated on the foothills of the Great Dividing Range, has since been cleared, with improved pastures established on both.
"Torres Park is utilised primarily for breeding purposes, while backgrounding and/or fattening activities are carried out on Cherry Hills," Mr McKay said.
The McKay family originally ran a Shorthorn herd on Torres Park, before gradually making the shift over to Santa Gertrudis seven decades ago.
"The Santas have the ability to thrive in our area. They're reliable performers, which allow us to meet market requirements.
"Before the seven-year drought we were running 5000 mixed cattle across both properties.
"We're now running close to 95 per cent pure bred Santas, with close to 1100 head at Torres Park and another 800 at Cherry Hills.
"We also have close to 100 roan Santa x Shorthorn cows. We cull very heavily. We only keep about a third of our heifers, dry cows and heifers are sold on."
Mr McKay said they used to fatten for the EU Grassfed and Grainfed markets, but they've since moved with the direction of the market.
"We supply the feedlots with 400kg steers at well under two years old, mainly at milk-tooth and some at two-tooth. We fatten our cull heifers to the same weight and turn off at the same age for the free range market."
He said the prices they've received have been "excellent" over the last 12 months.
To enhance the Santa Gertrudis genetics running through the herd, the McKays purchased their first bull from Watson family, Watasanta stud, 12 years ago, and will this year be attending the Watsons' on-property sale for the fifth year in a row.
"At their sale there are a lot of quiet bulls to choose from, they have a really good temperament. Their marbling is also as good or better than any I've seen for Bos Indicus cattle.
"To help us supply into our markets and the weight and age we are, we require big, long-bodied bulls, with no less than 40cm of scrotum, a daily weight gain of no less than 1kg per day and at least 10mm at the P8 site.
"The Watasanta bulls tick all these boxes for us."
He said before they started purchasing from Watasanta, they were mainly buying bulls from the Robenlea and Moongana studs, which also provided them with "terrific progeny."
Mr McKay said to further improve the marbling of their progeny, they currently trialling Speckle Park bulls over their Santa Gertrudis females.
"Anything that is going to give us a better quality of meat is going to be a benefit down the track, however we won't start seeing the results of that cross until a long way into the future
"We're firm believers in the notion that the quest for herd improvement is something that should never end."
