My family owned a small cattle property in the Gulf of Carpentaria and I grew up learning the life of the land. My father, Rowan, was a vet and he was very conscious of the benefit of quality genetics and nutrition. He developed a Droughtmaster stud, a cross breed which had the fattening qualities of the shorthorn and the survival attributes of the brahmans for the tropical environment. When I drew Huntly, an ideal fattening property, Dad had the chance to see his Droughtmaster cattle finished. Huntly fattened the northern bullocks for 22 years, turning off 400 fat bullocks a year. It was a great partnership.
In 2005 I bought myself my first mob of brangus cows and a big angus bull. They were beautiful. To day they have breed up to a herd of 350. I really enjoy breeding my own cattle and seeing them through to the finished article. I particularly love the breeding cows. They are so wise and determined. There is no greater love than that for their baby calves and they will reprimand me until they are safely together.
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One hot day I had mustered the cows, but some of the small calves that collapsed hot and exhausted in the lane way before we arrived the yards. I was quite disturbed by this as I wanted to move the herd to a new paddock and would not be passing down that laneway again.
When the cows were in their new paddock there was a mob of mothers at the far gate, bellowing out for the lost calves. I let 5 cows go up the lane way and half an hour later, one cow had gathered up all the motherless calves and brought them back to their bellowing mothers. There were tears in my eyes. That cow was very aware of the situation and solved it.
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I also love the weaning process when we take the calves off their mothers. The poor things, teenagers now (in cow years), bellow for a couple of days, but as we work them around the yards and feed them out on horses they gradually forget their mums and gain our trust. They get to know that I am the bearer of great things, the only really important thing . . . food!
This is the foundation of my cattle management. As I rotate the cattle around the paddocks, they know that when they see me on my quad bike, that its time to move to greener pastures. They make so much noise, the whole paddock hears and they come galloping for fear of missing out. They basically muster themselves!!
This is the foundation of my cattle management. As I rotate the cattle around the paddocks, they know that when they see me on my quad bike, that its time to move to greener pastures. They make so much noise, the whole paddock hears and they come galloping for fear of missing out. They basically muster themselves!!
I now buy Brangus bulls, their fine hair helps them adjust to the Queensland heat and I can buy them locally and acclimatised. It is always a daunting task going to the bull sale and being confronted with so many big fat bulls. I am a great believer in dowsing and carry my crystal with me always. My friend Veronika helps me at the sale. After we have sized up all the bulls visually, we then run
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the crystal over them asking of things we can not see. One year, all our chosen bulls went for very high prices, a verification that our method and assessment were very good, but we still had not bought any bulls in our price range. We caused great hilarity as we assessed every new bull into the arena with the crystal. Veronika would call out in her heavy german accent, "No, not that one" or "Yes, the crystal likes him!". So much for all the EBVs and other figures! Our method works very well!