Darren and Melanie Hamblin part of three-state effort to breed poll Wagyu

The couple, together with the Hammond family from Robbins Island in Tasmania and the de Bruin family from Millicent, South Australia have been using the momentum of combined breeding herds in a joint venture to produce Wagyus minus horns but retaining the eating quality attributes the breed is renowned for.

Making use of the genetics of a heterozygous polled bull belonging to prominent US breeder Dr Jerry Reeves, the Hammonds began focusing on the trait in 2013, implanting polled embryos into de Bruin recipient cows the following year.

It was in 2015 that the Hamblins, who operate a 6000-head herd across acreage at Sarina, Middlemount and on the Darling Downs, joined the venture.

In the last five years the trio has amassed a huge amount of data.

"Working together gave us more genetics and more kill data," Mr Hamblin said.

That came off the back of 20 years of commercial Wagyu breeding, which had already given them plenty of information on genetics and carcases.

"I guess the other thing (working together) gives you...you don't want to let the other one down so you put a bit more into it," he said. "There's a fair bit of momentum in it now."

Their desire to be part of the Wagyu evolution came from a belief that horned cattle will be phased out of production across the breed spectrum in the not-too-distant future.

"We just consider that's where we have to be in the future," Mr Hamblin said.

"One day, through law or just social licence, people will stop wanting horned cattle.

"The only difference between the poll and horned cattle, in my herd, is that one gene, so I can manage that easily."

The trick has been to breed not only polls but polled cattle that give the carcase qualities they want in Wagyus.

"You've got to be careful you don't get a bit carried away and just breed polls," Mr Hamblin said.

However, he said there was nothing better than not having to dehorn as part of their annual program.

"And not just the ease on the animal but also the performance of that animal after that, it's much better production-wise," he said.

The majority of the male calves bred from the Hamblin's AI program will be killed for their carcase data to continue making decisions about genetic advancements.

Fertility was the main driver behind the Hamblins moving away from breeding Charbray and Brangus bullocks from Brahman cows 20 years ago

"I couldn't make financial sense of the other ones," Mr Hamblin said. "Eating quality is where you end up, but when most people start, it would be the price that they think they can get that will draw them."

One of the key profit selectors in the Hamblin's herd is that a cow has to have a calf every year, one of the reasons behind their preference for artificial insemination over embryo flushing.

"To me, they've got to tick all the boxes and the first one you know about is fertility," Mr Hamblin said.

"The carcase traits, you don't find out that until five years.

"To me fertility is one trait that we can't afford to let go."

Artificial joining took place on all properties at the same time in the last fortnight so all are aligned, in time with a complex system of juggling homozygous and heterozygous genetics between the three states.