Chasing a top Angus performance at Guy Fawkes Station

Kylie Nicholls, The Land

Accessing high-performing Angus genetics and the latest breeding technologies is enabling New England beef operation, Guy Fawkes Station, to consistently produce a quality steer for the feeder market.

Based at Ebor, NSW, owners Fraser and Pam James, with help from assistant manager Gus Watters, will calve down 530 Angus cows this year and 125 Angus heifers, which were artificially inseminated, on their 960-hectare property. After purchasing the farm in 2004, the family spent the first six years fattening bullocks and backgrounder feeder steers, before making the change to an Angus breeding herd, buying a line of pregnancy-tested-in-calf Angus heifers in 2011. “It was always going to be Angus or Wagyu because they’re at the quality end of the market and if you are a small operator like us, you can only ever get so much scale, so you need to be maximising your revenue opportunities,” Mr James said. “I believe the Angus breed is more versatile, it has a broader market base, you get better weight gains, and with the right genetics there are Angus steers that will marble seven plus so they are easily up there with F1 Wagyus.” They are in the process of rebuilding herd numbers after selling 200 older cows in 2019, due to being hit with both drought and bushfires. The James’ plan to get up to 700 Angus breeders next year. Depending on seasonal conditions, they also buy in trade steers and are currently running 300 head, purchased during the past few months. The James family aims to breed sound, fertile and functional cows which will produce steers reaching 480 to 500 kilograms liveweight suitable for the Rangers Valley feedlot long-fed program. Mr James uses visual appraisal, estimated breeding values (EBVs) and specific sire lines to select bulls. Significant emphasis is placed on structural soundness, growth, and carcase traits such as eye muscle area and marbling. “We want the steers to have adequate growth without being elephants, they need to marble and they need to have good legs and feet to stand up in the feedlot for 270 days,” Mr James said. “In bulls I look for balance not extremes, I want +3 for marbling, 600-day growth around 120, mature cow weight around 400 days’ growth to cap cow size and rib and rump fat around zero to one per cent. “In terms of heifer bulls I look at proven sire lines. I like a birth weight under four and a short gestation length, and a nice smooth shoulder and head is important for ease of calving.” The cows are joined for eight weeks from early November to start calving in mid-August, maximising the spring flush of feed. A fixed time artificial insemination program is carried out with the heifers who all calve down in early July over a 12day period. The cows are pregnancy tested after weaning in March or April, with conception rates in the cows averaging 96pc this year while the heifers averaged 52 to 54pc to AI, with back up bulls going in 10 days post AI. “Having at least 80pc of your heifers calve over a one-week period is a fantastic management opportunity. You’ve got most of the calves on the ground in a block in terms of weight and the heifers have got a lot more time to start their recovery. “Having them all calve in July and out on a decent paddock as soon as possible gives them time to freshen up for their second joining.” Typically, about 240 heifers will be AI’d each year, with a joining weight of more than 350kg targeted. Half the heifers will be retained in the herd, while the remainder are marketed as PTIC heifers for future breeders. Selection technology Last year, the James family decided to introduce Angus Australia’s genomic selection tool HeiferSELECT to their breeding operation to help class replacement heifers. The HeiferSELECT tool provides genomic predictions for nine important maternal, growth and carcase traits as well as sire identification and a genetic prediction of a heifer’s breeding value. So far, all the heifers born in 2019, which are due to calve shortly, have been genomically tested and they have taken DNA samples from the 2020-drop heifers. “Because I don’t single sire mate, this allows me to identify heifer performance based on their sire and I can see which of my bulls are working well,” Mr James said. “The genetic data of your females will on average equal the genetic data of your steers given that they are the same cohort, so the information also provides me with genetic predictions for my steers. “Although it’s still early days in terms of accuracy, it’s more data than I have currently and gives me something I can now start tracking and utilise in my business. “You can’t produce good feeder steers without having really good cows to start with, so you have to make sure you don’t chase a trait on the steer side that is going to be detrimental to the cow side.”