Tough seasonal conditions call for tough criteria.
Or at least they do in the opinion of Viv Hunt, Dellyvon Charbrays, Dululu.
Mr Hunt purchased top priced bull, Huntington Matador Max, for $28,000, at the Charbray stud’s inaugural on-property bull sale yesterday.
The 21-month-old polled sire weighed in at 888kg with impressive P8 and rib fat scans of 13 and 14 millimetres respectively.
An eye muscle area of 145 combined with a scrotal circumference of 42cm completed the package.
After offloading all weaners and his feeder steers and heifers, Mr Hunt had managed to retain a select group of replacement Charbray heifers and about 60 registered Charbray breeders despite receiving just four inches of rain in the last 12 months.
Dellyvon Charbrays began in 2012 with Mr Hunt’s purchase of three Huntington Charbray bulls.
He then returned to Huntington the following year where he bought 12 stud heifers, and Mr Hunt said transitioning into Charbrays was a very positive decision.
“I previously ran purebred Brahman and Droughtmaster cattle and their temperament was not something I appreciated,” he said.
“I had just four Charbray cows running among the mob and at the end of winter the Brahman and Droughtmaster breeders came in virtually as skin and bone, while the Charbray cows still held plenty of condition.
“It became obvious that there was something right about Charbray cattle so I gradually culled the other breeds over the years to now be a 100 per cent Charbray operation.”
The Dellyvon cattle run on about 650 acres of brigalow scrub country, which Mr Hunt works entirely himself.
“Charbrays are such easy doing, easy handling cattle,” he said.
“I can muster a paddock on the quad bike alone, I can draft in the yards alone and I don’t need to watch my back in the yards either, whereas I could never have done that with the other breeds.”
While this year has seen particularly dry conditions engulfing most of the state, rainfall records prove Australia’s status as an arid continent.
Mr Hunt said unfortunately this fact was non-negotiable and the “proof was in the pudding” with regard to Charbrays’ ability to withstand such seasonal pressures.
“Charbrays’ ease of calving is brilliant- they come out like little Blue Heelers and 20 months later after being in the paddock on grass they’ll grade MSA nine times out of ten,” he said.
“I sold 22-month-old steers straight to the meatworks recently that dressed out at 380kg, so now I’m selling them younger at 20 months old and they’re still dressing 300 odd kilograms.
“People go on saying you can’t get fat cover on a Charbray and I’d like that myth dispelled- I’ve got kill sheets showing I’ve never had any problem with fat cover on the cattle and when you’re paid 17 cents more for a Charbray than a Brahman there’s no argument against Charbrays.”
Mr Hunt said Huntington Matador Max would be introduced into a select group of his Charbray cows with polled genetics.
“I took three bulls up to the Charbray National sale, all were horned and I only sold one,” he said.
“On the other hand polled bulls sold well, so that was enough convincing to bite the bullet and have a go at producing some polled sires while maintaining their thickness and bone- all of which Matador Max possesses.”
Huntington sold 48 Charbray sires on Friday to gross $290,000 for a $6,052 average, clearing 69 per cent.
The second top priced bull, polled sire Huntington Matador, was sashed junior champion bull at the 2018 Brisbane Royal Show.
Matador sold to Tanya and Randall Ziesemer, Beaumont Grazing Company, Taroom, for $15,000.
The day’s standout volume buyer was Lawn Hill and Riversleigh Pastoral Holding Company, Doomagee, with the purchase of 11 head for a total of $42,500.
Huntington principle Matthew Welsh said the sale was a great vote of confidence with regard to the higher end bulls and the demand for polled genetics was dominant.
“I won’t harp on about the weather but we can’t expect better results than that with the way things are,” he said.
“As a breed we’ve taken big steps towards improving the consistency of the cattle in the last few years and the more people we can get coming and having a look at the cattle the better it is for the breed.
“For us, we’re trying to concentrate on the mum and dad producers and form relationships with them because the days of big volume buyers are all but over- they're all doing their own thing now.”
Mr Welsh said the demand for polled bulls was undeniable but concentrating on the polled status alone could lead people into “dangerous territory.”
“We’re not silly. If the market is taking us that way we’ll head along it but not at the detriment of the sort of beast we want to breed- the quality of the overall bull must come first.”
