Brahman breeders have called on industry leaders to step up and promote the breed.
It comes after conversations surrounding brand positioning were sparked at the Australian Brahman Breeders' Association second annual conference in Rockhampton last week, with producers and industry experts discussing the future of the breed within the marketplace.
Queensland Country Life reached out to a number of breed representatives and Brahman producers, both stud and commercial, and asked them what they thought could be done to promote the breed going forward. Here's what they said.
Sally Sweetland, Samari Plains, Roma.
"If you could start something up where people are testing for tenderness and could go down the path of buying cattle or producing cattle that are more suited to improving meat quality.
"So I think a branded Brahman beef product would be great, but at least have something in place that we can start competing with other breeds. I'd definitely love to be testing for it and having the market to sell it to."
Matthew Noakes, ABBA Senior Vice President, Mornish.
"We should be identifying ourself by our strengths as a breed, and for Brahmans that would be longevity, survivability and durability in poor conditions, and carcase yield, the things that we're good at, and that's what we should use as a Brahman brand.
"As a society we do try to find the positives and the good stories and the things that we can do to promote the breed.
"If it wasn't for Brahmans, half of Queensland wouldn't be viable. We can all make it work in thee good seasons and we can all make it work in good country."
Darren Humphreys, Darkwater Station, Mitchell.
"Brahman genetics are a huge part of, in particular, the northern cattle industry and there's a lot of them out there, so somebody needs to promote and market the breed as much as they can.
"The reason why we're using Brahmans in our operation is to get hybrid vigour from the first cross and one of the best things that comes out of that is, not only survivability but, it's how quickly they recover after a hard time, this what I really like about them.
"When the GeneSTAR product was available we were actively using that in our bull breeding herd to make selections for tenderness and feed efficiency, so up until they stopped offering that service , we were making some pretty good inroads into improving the tenderness and feed efficiency of our cattle, that's for sure.
"I liked that it was a science based test, for traits that are not only essential for beef production but are not detectable visually, it was absolute gold, I thought.
"It'll be good if there's some sort of industry leaders to step in and really promote the meat side of the breed."
