It has been close to 10 years since the Roberts family of Callistemon introduced Angus into their Santa Gertrudis breeding program and they haven't looked back since.
Bruce and Trudy Roberts run Broken-Dray (5058 hectares) and their fourth generation son, Troy and his wife Erryn Roberts operate neighbouring property Callistemon (11,128 ha), west of Springsure in buffle country.
Both properties trade under the same banner, Callistemon Cattle Co.
With 5000 head of cattle, including 1500 breeders, the herd is predominantly made up of 50-50 Angus and Santa Gertrudis cattle.
In the past, they've bought in Droughtmaster bulls.
"We've always run Santa Gertrudis cattle, mainly because of the weight they can carry and how they handle the conditions here in central Queensland," Mr Roberts said.
"In the past 10 years, our operation has begun moving towards black cattle, the Angus breed in particular.
"Some of the Angus heifers do lack a bit of bone, which you do pick up out of the Santa cattle.
"I think in the next three years, you'll be lucky if there is a red weaner on our property."
They're also running 350-400 replacement heifers and depending on the season, Mr Roberts said they buy in between 300-500 steers to fatten or trade.
"It's dependent on the season whether we grow all them out as bullocks or sell some as feeder steers," Mr Roberts said.
"We purchase a fair few weaner steers from my sister Carmel and her partner Jono Tibbles at Westlyn, Orion, each year, because they run good cattle."
An emphasis on growing fertility in their herd, the Roberts say they've experienced great calving rates since moving to Angus cattle.
"Chasing for fertility is mainly why we brought in the Angus cattle, which was probably 10 years ago," Mr Roberts said.
"Since then, our fertility rates have improved definitely.
"They also seem to handle the ticks well, which a lot of people in this region have been concerned about."
In July 2022, the Queensland Country Life caught up with Trudy and Bruce Roberts of Broken-Dray, who offloaded an impressive draft of 163 head of Santa x Angus cattle at the Emerald cattle sales.
They sold 93 No. 9 steers to average 435c/kg, whilst 22 heavy Santa cows sold to 407c/kg or $2588/hd. They also sold 42 heifers to average 458c.
They're also running 350-400 replacement heifers and depending on the season, Mr Roberts said they buy in between 300-500 steers to fatten or trade.
They're also running 350-400 replacement heifers and depending on the season, Mr Roberts said they buy in between 300-500 steers to fatten or trade.
In 2022, Callistemon ran their first fixed-time AI program, using 150 of their best Angus heifers using commercially available semen from Angus bulls, Millarmarra Paratrooper and Millarmarra Rocket Man.
"We wanted to get the best that we could get using AI, and the best you can get, you can go buy a dear bull but he's not proven, so with AI you can use a bull, whose been proven," Mr Roberts said.
"We haven't got calves yet and but we expect they'll be on the ground from October.
"Of the 150 heifers we put through our AI program, we got 51 per cent in calf.
"For a fixed-time AI, anything over 50 pc is good."
Mr Roberts said from their newest crop of weaner heifers, their black Angus heifers will enter their fixed-time AI program in October, while their red (Santa) heifers will be joined to Angus bulls, they breed on their properties.
"We breed most of our Angus bulls on the property and we might buy two or three bulls a year from Santa Hat and a couple from Coffin Creek in the last couple of years in New South Wales," he said.
"I'm not particularly phased by estimated breeding values (EBV) data, as I just look at the bull that's standing in front of me and mostly the bulls scrotal size."
Normally the Roberts' cull cattle are sent to Teys Biloela or Rockhampton, and sometimes down to South Australia.
"We don't generally market feeder cattle unless their is good money getting paid for them," Mr Roberts said.
"Anything that doesn't fall straight into calf will get spayed and grown out to our ideal slaughter weight, around 275-300 kilograms.
"While our bullocks are usually offloaded at around 350-360kg."
Mr Roberts said they aim to have bulls going in early November until late April.
"People have said to shorten the joining up, but I believe in central Queensland, you can get years where it doesn't rain till February and if you try and shorten it up, you'll loose that opportunity to get more calves on the ground," he said.
"The cattle have just done so well, in terms of weigh because they had such a good year last year right through to now and this is the first time that grass has died off in 18 months."
Mr Roberts said it was important their beef business remained viable in volatile market conditions.
"We're not locked into any one market. If you think you can buy something you can make money of it, do it, as long as you've got a way out for it," he said.
"I believe its about having cattle that you can sell off into any market which offers a premium price.
"That's why we don't really care if we do buy in Brahman steers, because if live export is no good, you can just grow them out to a grass fed bullock or offload them into the live export market when it opens up.
"Where as if you have flat back steers and it gets dryer in Queensland and New South Wales, it gets harder to shift them some times."
Ben Harden
Queensland Country Life reporter based in Emerald. I report on agriculture and rural news in the central Queensland region. Got a story? Get in touch: 0437528907 or email ben.harden@austcommunitymedia.com.au
Queensland Country Life reporter based in Emerald. I report on agriculture and rural news in the central Queensland region. Got a story? Get in touch: 0437528907 or email ben.harden@austcommunitymedia.com.au
