Adapted Hereford genetics: more than just a pretty face

Central Queensland cattle producer Alice Marks freely admits her family likes a good-looking bull with tropical skin, eye pigment and a clean polled head, but she says sire selection is about more than just a pretty face.

Alice, husband Darren and eldest daughters Olivia and Natalie run Winvic Pastoral in the Kilcummin district near Clermont, joining 1000 commercial females annually on a Braford base and crossing Poll Hereford and Brahman genetics back in.

Key to their operation is the use of Tropical Composite BREEDPLAN to evaluate and compare sires and dams for docility, fertility, growth and carcase traits, such as intramuscular fat (IMF) and eye muscle area (EMA).

The herd is run across four properties of different land types totalling 10,074ha, with the majority of sale cattle finished on grass, 885ha of leucaena and forage crops, and turned off as Jap ox weight-for-age bullocks to JBS Rockhampton and Dinmore, or as cull heifers to the Teys Grasslands program.

The family started using Poll Hereford bulls 12 years ago, when the decision was made to establish a 100 per cent polled herd.

“We started buying Hereford bulls and they came with BREEDPLAN figures. Initially we only docile polls with big red goggles and good eye setting but our selection process has since evolved to utilise bulls with high ranking EBVs generated through BREEDPLAN,” Alice said.