rc Charolais/Brahman a Magic Mix in Old Graham and Roslyn Bauer believe in matching your cattle to your country and they say there could not be a better mix for their country than Gharolais bulls over Brahman females. Graham and Roslyn Bauer use Charolais cattle in their beef operation at "Greendale", Tambo in Central West Queensland. The family has been involved in breeding purebred Brahman cattle since 1955 as they were originally based in Queensland's coastal area. Graham said the lighter country complete with ticks and other parasites, made it necessary to use Brahman cattle to maximise returns. They registered their Brahman stud in 1960 and have carried on with the breed ever since.
"We try to keep a stud herd of about 300 cows and sell the Brahman and Charbray bulls we produce without grain feeding, straight to producers in our region and further
north," Graham said. The Bauers moved to "Wahroonga" in 1985 on the Darling Downs, an area which was tick free, so they decided to experiment with the Charolais breed. "Over the years we had shown cattle all over the country and had seen the early Charolais cattle as we travelled the shows," he said. "Our first Charolais bulls were purchased in 1986 and we have been using the breed in our operation ever since.
"Our program involves using Brahman cows after they have had one Brahman calf and mating them to Charolais bulls. The female first-cross progeny are retained for breeding and
joined to Santa Gertrudis bulls as terminal sires." The Santa progeny are sold directly off their Charbray mothers to a fattener in the Roma district or through Roma saleyards.
A percentage ofthe firstcross males are kept as
Charbray bulls and the rest of the steers sold. "The fatteners at Roma, John and Anne Martyn, keep accurate records of these cattle and it is their belief they get more weight from the first-cross cattle but the Santa-crosses are inclined to carry the fat
Charolais Australia July 2006 - Page 56
t@ Charolais/Brahman a Magic Mix in Gentral Old Commercial Herd (cont.) cover required at an early age." The steers they buy usually average around 280 to 300 kilograrns off their mothers and most dress at about 330
to 350kg in 12 to
14
months. "Over the years we have cemented our belief that in any breed of cattle you must stick as much as possible to the breed characteristics," Graham said.
"The early imports of French cattle impressed us with their length and softness of fleshing with a bit of hair on them as they are supposed to have. We have used a large number of the Cass family's bulls as we strongly believe they display the characteristics we desire," Graham said. "For the year 2005 we received a total of nine inches for the year and we have found the traditional French-type bulls
can handle this. The bulls from the Cass family have proven to be alert and active in the tough environment. "We fully understand there is a demand for different types ofcattle in any breed but on observation in this type of country the taller, clean-coated North American types don't seem to handle this country as well as the traditional French type of cattle." The Bauers run about 300 stud Brahman cows, 400 to 450 commercial Brahman cows and 400 to 450 firstcross Charolais/Brahman cows. "We've tried other breeds of cattle in our crossbreeding enterprise but we feel these three breeds have fitted with the type of country we have," Graham said.
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