Kanda Pty Ltd bids on 40 bulls during Rockhampton Brangus Sale

However, the competitiveness of this year's Rockhampton Brangus Sale meant that Charlie Holzwart only walked away with two bulls during the live auction.

Searching for the right sires for his family's operation Kanda Pty Ltd, Mr Holzwart had several characteristics he was searching for, including muscling, size and doability.

Speaking to the success of the sale and quality of this year's offering, Kanda, which has properties north of Prairie and at Torrens Creek, secured two bulls within its budget.

"This year's sale was as solid as," Mr Holzwart said.

"In 2019, I bought a really good bull for $9000, whereas at this year's sale, I reckon that bull would have made anywhere from $30,000 to $40,000.

"I think a lot of that jump has got to do with people who weren't looking to buy any bulls during the dry period we had, but are now catching up again with their stocking rates and need more bulls.

"There was a lot of really good bulls there that I kept putting my hand up for, even though we only needed a couple, but the way the sale went I was able to come away with two really good bulls in our price range."

Read Also:

In total, the Holzwarts purchased two bulls at an average of $20,000, both of which will now be used with a herd of Brangus heifers.

"Our breeding country is at Torrens Creek, it's called Rangeside Station for the obvious reason that it is on the western side of the range," Mr Holzwart said.

"However, our country near Prarie is a little bit better at the moment, so we will send these couple of bulls there to go with the heifers."

The family has been breeding Brangus and Brangus-cross cattle for more than a decade and aim to sell herd bulls as well as commercial cattle.

"My philosophy was to get a British Breed into our cows, something that would be hearty enough to live in our climate but fertile enough to have a calf in our conditions and Brangus fit the bill," Mr Holzwart said.

"I think 2019 was the first time we bought from this sale, we bought our first Brangus bulls back in 2009, which was our first entry into the breed.

"Since we settled on breeding Brangus we have stuck to it and focused on buying some pretty decent bulls to try and upgrade our herd all the time.

"We sold a few bulls this year, just calves that we thought showed a bit of potential, and we took about six bulls to the beef expo at Charters Towers this year.

"After displaying them there, we went home with 20 bulls to sell and before too long we had none left."

Mr Holzwart said he admired the breed's durability as well as its flexibility when it comes to marketing.

"We have pretty tough country so we just try and breed really good bulls for the north," he said.

"We aim to sell into the southern feedlots but in saying that, 2019 was the last time we sold to the live export trade.

"One of the many good things about the Brangus breed is how flexible it is.

"You can put it on a truck and sell it a number of different ways domestically and you can still send it on a boat overseas as well.

"It allows you to have a foot in each camp and move with what the markets are doing."

Mr Holzwart said he was confident his operation would return to the Rockhampton sale in the future.

"We also use Brahman and Charolais bulls to continue to crossbreed," he said.

"The aim is to use Brangus as a base but to always crossbreed to keep that hybrid vigour up so the steers grow a lot better while not sacrificing your heifer numbers.

"To do that though you need to ensure you are buying quality bulls, which is why I think we will come back to this sale."