Oak Park Station Brahmans have to perform "in any circumstance"

That's according to Roland Everingham, who runs Oak Park Station with his parents, Roland Snr and Sally, and his younger brother, Jacob.

Mr Everingham said this philosophy applied whether it was a steer or bullock in a feedlot, or heifers that needed to perform at Oak Park which was quite harsh for most of the year.

"So we need them (the females) to be of a practical type of animal which can still rebreed and have a calf every year," he said.

"It's very much a multi-trait selection which we use Breedplan for and why we started breeding our own bulls, so we could make sure that what we're bringing in to our herd matches the criteria that we need."

Oak Park Station is 42,491 ha and has a carrying capacity for 5000 Brahman breeders.

Mr Everingham also runs Oak Park Brahman stud, which he started about six years ago, while the family has a manager on their other property, Lana Downs, just north of Winton.

Lana Downs is 72,843 ha, undulating, open downs country where young cattle are sent for finishing with most of the steers going to feedlots or to backgrounders to grow out to bullocks.

Mr Everingham said the enterprise mainly focused on breeding reds for the commercial herd, breeding grey stud cows to sell, and grey paddock bulls.

He said the Brahmans were on the property when his parents came to Oak Park 30 years ago and they have continued with them because of their ability to handle the northern conditions.

"It's quite tough up here, they're the most heat resistant, have durability and they are just the best breed for fertility up here," he said.

"We've now started breeding our own bulls with a strong emphasis on carcase.

"We're breeding an all-round type that can perform quite well with carcase, and we also breed a female that's early maturing and can re-breed."

Oak Park Brahman stud is part of the Frontier Genetics group whose mission is "to progress profitability through transparent, predictable and environmentally responsible beef genetics".

Mr Everingham said outside blood lines were sourced for their stud sires and would be a huge benefit for Frontier Genetics and producers which had the same philosophies as theirs.

He said the stud cattle were managed quite intensively, where a breeder gets a three-and-a-half month joining and any first or second calf heifer which was not preg-tested in calf was culled.

"We've got a very, very strict culling on the pregnancy rate," he said.

"(In the stud) there is no area that we do not cull for as far as mothers for temperament, structural and phenotype is very strict...and we probably have one of the earliest joinings in northern Queensland.

"The heifers will be joined at the first of October which will result in a July calf and that's simply to put pressure on those heifers so we can find the ones that truly perform - so they have to carry that calf through until the wet season breaks and sometimes until early January.

"And we leave the weaners on longer than anywhere else. We left the weaners until early May this year to keep those cows honest basically...around the paddocks, they were probably a 90 per cent rebreed, but they average 250 kg weaners. That's what we're really striving to get done."

In the commercial herd, Mr Everingham said the females were continuously joined, but were meticulously culled for type and non-performers.

"They are quite a productive herd," he said.

"Basically, in the stud, they are culled if they do not calve at frequent intervals. There's no room at all for cattle that don't perform."

Mr Everingham said the weaning rate in the stud last year was 85 per cent with a 93 per cent rebreed.

"I am quite happy with those figures," he said.

Mr Everingham said the stud's best performance had come in the last few years when he started selecting for those traits, such as fertility and early maturity which had lifted their pregnancy rate significantly and produced an animal with strong carcase traits.

He said involvement in Frontier Genetics would be the first offering of the stud's genetics to the public.

"Everything else prior to that had been retained for our own use in our commercial herds," he said.

"We have four bulls this year - three greys and one red bull...I am just hoping they sell well and are accepted by the industry.

"The three grey bulls are very commercial focused, fertility bulls, very maternal bulls and they will do a great job over heifers and breed very strong females.

"The red bull, I have retained semen for my own use in the stud."