STRONG bloodlines transcend international boundaries in the cattle game, as one of Australia’s the leading ladies in the Brahman industry discovered during a recent trip to Thailand.
Australian Brahman Breeders' Association manager Anastasia Fanning was invited to Thailand last month as the only international judge at a renowned cattle show, based at a university 80km west of the capital Bangkok.
Ms Fanning attended the Kamphaeng Saen beef cattle show held at Kasetsart University as a guest of the Beef Cattle Association of Thailand.
She was involved judging the Brahman cattle and was interested to discover that Grand Champion male was sired by SRS Troubadour 933, the same bull to sire the top selling red Brahman at Brahman Week 2018 in Gracemere.
Len Gibbs and family, Muan Brahmans, Biggenden achieved a top price of $95,000 for Muan A Sundown (P) at the October event, after breeding the bull with semen improved from the United States bull Troubador.
“There was some very good quality there, they are well structured and some have a lot of height to them due to American bloodlines, they have access to some American bulls that we don’t in Australia,” Ms Fanning said.
“The Grand Champion was via the same sire of the top price red at Brahman Week that made $95,000, so he’s obviously doing a good job around the traps.
”Certainly they have quite a few of the breedings that we use here, there was a sprinkling of females from Australia, the imports continue to go over there and there are female lines from Australia.
”The champions had some good muscling, they were well structured cattle, which was good to see.”
Ms Fanning said the competition attracted a crowd of over 30,000 people over the two days, with 100 females and 70 bulls judged.
“Each year someone goes over from Australia to judge and I was very pleased the board asked me to do that,” she said.
She said the competition itself was fairly Americanised yet professional, with those involved taking the competition seriously.
“There’s a lot of people that have quite big herds there, the Grand Champion bull travelled 700km to be at the show, so they take it all very seriously.
”There was a big showing in Brahmans.
Ms Fanning said while other breeds of cattle including Charolais were included in the show, Brahmans seemed to be the breed of choice for many.
“It is a fairly large industry and certainly a lot of cattle raised there are Brahmans, they have really stepped up as a major breed to handle the tropical environment and the pests such as ticks and flies.”
Ms Fanning said sharing knowledge and building international relations was beneficial to the entire industry.
“I think it is very important, we are all aiming to breed good cattle and it is very important to have that shared that knowledge and networking.”