The Droughtmaster has been an ideal fit for the Hodgkinson family on Cairo, 60km north of Clermont.
Ryan and Chloe Hodgkinson (with their children Duke and Denbi) run the herd on Cairo, which Ryan's father, Geoff bought in 1987.
Cairo comprises a mix of brigalow melon hole country to Blackburn and box country, which was pulled and seeded to buffel in the 1990s.
"We've had a good season. We still have a good body of feed with a bit of green pick, and we've gotten through winter without a frost," Ryan Hodgkinson said.
It was Mr Hodgkinson's grandad Des, who first got into the breed by buying six bulls from Rex Goodsell, Enterprise Droughtmasters, in 1964.
"We've run with the breed ever since. The Droughtmaster ticks most boxes for us, including fertility, weight gain, temperament, bone and tropical coat to name a few," he said.
The breeding herd on Cairo mainly consists of Droughtmasters with a bit of Brahman or higher content Droughtmaster put back though them. They also join Angus bulls to their heifers from time to time.
"The Angus-cross progeny are culled, normally speyed and grown for the fat market. It's a really good cross. We also have a few Charolais bulls with some older cows. These progeny go to the fat marketas well," he said.
In addition to their commercial program, the Hodgkinsons also run a 150 stud cow herd under the banner of Cairo Droughtmasters.
"We sell bulls at the Clermont and Rockhampton Droughtmaster sales annually, and we also sell a few paddock bulls each year."
Their bulls are joined with the first calf heifers and stud cows for close to four months.
"We then take the bulls out and preg-test these females, with no second chances given if they're empty.
Their commercial breeders are in with the bulls all year round. They try to preg-test all dry cattle every muster, every five months, and are achieving a pregnancy rate of close to 85 per cent.
"The steers are grown out to heavy feeders, close to 470kg. Cull heifers are the same, sometimes I will grow them out for the works depending on the season."
The Hodgkinson family has been buying bulls off some of the studs involved in the upcoming Carnarvon Classic Droughtmaster sale for up to 3 generations.
"We'll be heading to Rolleston for a look in September. We've bought bulls and stud heifers from Medway, and plenty of paddock and sale bulls from Huntly. We recently purchased some really handy stud bulls from Oasis, including Oasis A Bushwacker - we have six of his sons going to the DN Sale.
"At the sale we'll be looking for bulls with bone, scale, fertility, a tropical coat, masculinity and the ability to walk out and cover the country."
