The Brahman is the best option to strengthen any herd across the country but especially in the north with its ability to move across large tracks of land to feed and forage while achieving excellent weight gains said Australian Brahman Breeders Association (ABBA) general manager Anastasia Fanning.
"The Brahmans ability to put on weight in country with less than favorable seasons has been proven over many decades," Mrs Fanning said.
"The breed is parasite and disease resistance, has high heat tolerance, improves yield and has proven feed efficiency off grass and grain," she said.
Mrs Fanning said breeding cows for country is of high importance for productivity in the breed.
"The Brahman female will go out and work the country while producing calves. Purebred commercials finish quickly and are ready to be turned off in very good timeframes. Should a crossbred bull be put with those purebred cows tremendous hybrid vigor is achieved. A further benefit and option for commercial breeders."
STRONG SALE RESULTS CONTINUE
Mrs Fanning said on the stud sale front the year started very strongly in February with an excellent result recorded at the Big Country Sale, where bulls topped at $130,000 to average an eye-opening $15,069.
This was followed with a record top for bulls of $42,500 and a near record for the females of $19,000 for the Brahman section at the February All Breeds Sale.
The Rocky All Stars Elite Female Sale in March topped at $32,000 with a strong average of $7472 achieved.
"A major highlight in 2021 was a record top price of $50,000 being reached at the Gympie Female Sale closely followed by further females making in the $30,000's and $20,000's with the sale averaging $9434."
She said these results, while very impressive, couldn't top the sale mid-July of the internationally industry recorded female reduction sale of the Elrose Stud.
"The sale saw 924 fully recorded (including Breedplan figured) females average $6920 over three days. A sale like this, while incredibly rare due to its size and recording confirms without a doubt the strength of the Brahman breed in the Australian beef industry.
"This breed performs in the stud and commercial industries and continues to thrive 75 years on since the formation of ABBA."
Mrs Fanning said the stud sale figures continue to be backed by the performance of the breed in the commercial arena.
"The breed couldn't continue to survive and thrive without the backing of the commercial market.
"This is being shown in the record prices being achieved daily in store sales for both the restocking of properties with the purchase of highly valued commercial females to the easy doing commercial steers and bullocks."
CRUCIAL DATA
The ABBA managed BIN Projects continue with informative results coming through from a new batch of sires with the resent weighing and scanning of the Number 0's, which consists of more than 400 head.
"This information is providing tremendous data with these steers.
"The data is more reliable than ever due to the current season and the very good country they're currently running on at Taroom.
"All the weigh and scan data continues to be fed into the Breedplan figures for the three breeds: Brahman, Santa Gertrudis and Droughtmaster.
"The information is more important than ever with genomic data being an opportunity for breeders. However this data can only be as true as the physical data being entered on the breeding's required. This is without a doubt a very important part to projects like this resulting from the Repronomics project."
BREED EXCELLENCE ON DISPLAY
Mrs Fanning said although the show season has been affected again this year due to the cancellation of The Ekka due to a COVID outbreak only a day before the majority of cattle were to arrive, with quite a large number already there, it was a wonderful achievement to have Beef 2021 go ahead without a hitch.
"Anyone involved in putting an event together in these COVID times may have an understanding, but I can only imagine the work that occurred behind the scenes to make an event of this size, with this many people involved, happen. That very large team should be congratulated."
She said Beef 2021 was a tremendous success for the breed with 170 head nominated to be judged.
"An impressive display of the breed was presented for the judging with an equally impressive crowd watching on. The Grand Champion bull and females were very functionally, efficient examples of the breed. While the Grand Champion Bull was in second place in the Interbreed he was part of the Champion Interbreed Exhibitors Group. Brahmans continue their strong representation in these interbreed events."
Mrs Fanning said, in this, the 75th year since the formation of ABBA, the breed continues to shine in all areas of the beef industry.
"It's a credit to our breeders, stud and commercial, who continue to strive for better quality, highly functional cattle in structure and fertility."
