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The Godfrey family, Namoona Trig Senepols, will be returning to Beef Australia for their fourth time as exhibitors to showcase their cattle, including bulls that will be offered at their 10th annual sale on Monday, June 28, 2021.
Colin Godfrey and Janelle Godfrey run their operations, with their son Blair Godfrey, his wife Ashleigh, and their children Ned and Ellie, on the rich basalt ridges of their 96ha property Namoona Trig (purchased in 2006), at Fairy Hill just north of Casino, and on 1335ha of lower lying forest country at Ellangowan (purchased in 2003), 20km south of Casino.
The family run their young cattle on Namoona Trig, while their breeders are positioned on Ellangowan.
Blair Godfrey said they established their stud program in November 2006, with the purchase of a small number of females and three bulls from the AACo Senepol dispersal sale.
"We've since purchased females at auction and via private treaty from studs including: 5 Star, Carribean, Eaglehawk, Hazeldean, Carlowrie Park, and Pinnacle Pocket," Mr Godfrey said.
"We now run over 300 purebred Senepol females and 100 Senegus females," he said.
The Godfreys' 2021 NT Senepol Sale will be an online-only affair, from 10am on June 28, via the AuctionsPlus selling platform, bidding will also be facilitated at the Emerald Saleyards on sale day with the agents and the Godfrey Family present on site, with buyers expected from across Queensland and down into north eastern NSW.
Mr Godfrey said 46 lots have been selected for the 2021 sale, comprising 40 registered purebred Senepols and six registered Senegus.
"Namoona Mitchell Pearce GODM60020 has a tremendous run of bulls in this years catalogue, we only used him for one joining before selling him on and the results are outstanding.
"His sons have excellent yearling scrotals, weight for age and conformation. He has sired one of the most consistently high quality lines of Senepol bulls that we've seen. We've retained two of his sons as stud sires."
Invited vendor, Silverleigh Senepols, Oakey, Qld, will again be presenting a small draft of purebred Senepol bulls at the sale.
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"Bulls catalogued for the sale will be available for viewing on farm at Namoona Trig until the week prior to the sale. At this time they'll be transported to Emerald where they'll be available for viewing at the Emerald Saleyards. We're offering free delivery to saleyards within 500kms by road from Emerald and 500km by road from Casino."
The Godfreys attended Beef for the first time as visitors in 2009, and have exhibited there since 2012.
"It's a good social event that enables us to catch up with other breeders, clients and to meet other people in the cattle industry.
"Beef puts our cattle in front of people who otherwise may not go out of their way to discover Senepols, while providing us with a great opportunity to dispel some of the negative myths that are out there about the breed."
He said there are a number of attributes possessed by the Senepol that makes the breed a great addition to any crossbreeding program:
"They're tropically adapted without detracting from meat quality. They're homozygous polled (meaning they should throw 100 per cent polled calves regardless of the horn status of the cow herd), therefore providing massive benefits in regards to animal welfare and labour cost efficiency. And their temperament is second to none, I think people probably underestimate the temperament improvement gained from adding Senepol sires to their program."
In their operation, Mr Godfrey said carcass attributes and structural soundness is their number one breeding focus, as the early imported Senepols lacked a bit of muscle.
"Ensuring resistance to buffalo fly is another priority in our selection. We don't treat any of our breeders against buffalo fly, which is virtually unheard of on the New South Wales north coast. With a heavy buffalo fly load and intensive stocking rates, we cull any animals that react significantly to them."
He said fertility is key.
"Any animals that don't rebreed are culled from the herd and bulls are culled if they don't meet minimum scrotal sizes."
The family has no major operational changes planned for the near future.
"We'll just continue to improve on the Senepols we produce and keep developing our purebred black Senepols.
The latter program was bolstered two years ago when the Godfreys purchased a run of 45 Senegus cows and 29 commercial Angus cows from Hazeldean, for use in their Black Senepol program.
"We aim to have significant runs of purebred Black Senepol bulls on the market in the next five years. In the meantime we'll continue to offer black and red Senegus in our sale draft."
Mr Godfrey said the NT Senepol sale catalogue will be available from the Namoona Trig Senepols' trade fair site at Beef.
"We can mail it to prospective buyers via request, and it will also be online. We're expecting it to be available from the week before Beef begins."
- For enquiries call Savage Barker & Backhouse Rockhampton selling agents Bill Beck, 0417 762 438, Josh Heck, 0409 732 676, or Georgie Connor, 0428 347 550, or Colin Godfrey, 0427 524 755, or Blair Godfrey, 0431 815 831, and visit the Namoona Trig Senepol website