COMMERCIAL HERD LINKAGE

Ten years ago we moved our commercial Angus herd to a fully performance recorded herd. We currently have over 600 HBR and APR females that are performance recorded on Breedplan and are subject to rigorous structural assessment by an independent evaluator.

The management of our commercial herd brings us, as stud breeders, again and again back to the realities of our industry. Our objective is to produce robust and practical cattle that are simple and economic to manage, produce and rear a calf each and every year without assistance, and to use genetics that provides us with the fullest range of marketing opportunities for both our steers and heifers.

Further, we see the commercial herd as a testing ground for the breeding direction of the stud herd and we work with co-operator herds for a similar purpose. The production data acts as a test bed for the performance of our sires and also allows us to emphasise high performance marbling sires. The whole program was set up under the Angus Society carcase evaluation programme and its Progeny Test Protocol.

FEED CONVERSION TRIALS

As a stud we remain committed to feeding efficiency. Our interest in this trait commenced in 2002 when we worked in conjunction with NSW Agriculture and Trangie Research Station with an on-farm trial of 20 of our yearling bulls. The trial involved placing the young bulls in a controlled feeding environment with automatic feeders and ID recorders. The results started us on the road to collecting and observing the Breedplan Net Feed (NFI) data on all our sire selections.

At the time we were also operating a domestic feedlot and saw very clearly the financial linkage between performance and efficient feed conversion. We all know people that can eat all day and never exchange weight – cattle are the same and whilst not a dominant trait to select for, it is an important ingredient not to be neglected particularly in the current cost environment for long fed cattle. One can only assume that for long fed cattle it has never been more important.

In a co-operative program with the NSW Agriculture and Trangie Research Station we have joined to test, in winter 2002, some 20 selected yearling bulls for their feed conversion performance and the development of an appropriate feed EBV.

ELITE ANGUS BULL PROGENY TRAIL

A joint venture between Meat and Livestock Australia, NSW Agriculture, the CRC for Cattle and Meat Quality and the Angus Society is to identify promising young sires.

The trial will collect data on both male and female offspring. The steer portion will be backgrounded at the Glenn Innes Research Station, finished in the Tullimba feedlot and full carcase data will then be collected by the CRC.

The female progeny will be run at Trangie Research Station where their maternal attributes will be benchmarked with the Trangie herd.

Kenny’s Creek was pleased to have selected two bulls for the successive rounds of the trail.

Kenny's Creek Tonkin T25