The hardiness and adaptability of the Brahman have proven ideal for the Shadforth family in their northern Queensland country.
Wayne and Joanne Shadforth, with their children Brendan, Amy, and Ryan, run their operation on Lincoln Springs, situated 230km north of Charters Towers and 120km west of Ingham.
Mr Shadforth has lived on Lincoln Springs since 1985, when his parents purchased the property, which consists of heavily timbered red soil tableland country, which is well-grassed with Seca. The other half of the property consists of rocky ridges and black soil flats.
Lincoln Springs has received 203mm of rain since January this year.
"This early rain combined with us burning parts of the property has helped to produce an abundance of grass. The cattle have picked up well and will hopefully continue to improve throughout the year," Mr Shadforth said.
It was when the Shadforths bought Lincoln Springs that Brahmans was introduced into their business.
"Brahmans are very intelligent and versatile, with the ability to withstand our terrain. They also have much better resistance to parasites than other breeds. When handled right they respond well to humans and become very affectionate."
To better suit today's market, the Shadforths have joined Charbray and Simmental bulls to a portion of their Brahman breeders.
"We're waiting to see if these breeds will adapt to the terrain on Lincoln Springs."
The Shadforths leave their bulls in the paddock on a year-round basis and achieve a 65 to 70 per cent fertility rate in their breeders.
The resulting progeny are sold as weaners at close to five-months-old at 180 to 200kg, mainly through the saleyards in Charters Towers, via our livestock agent Shaun Flanagan, QLD Rural.
"We only keep our replacement heifers on Lincoln Springs."
For 25 years, the family has seen consistently solid results in their herd through Brahman bulls purchased from Chris McCarthy's Stockman stud and Peter Tuxworth's Halgenaes stud.
"We have found these bulls to be very adaptable to the conditions of our country and they can handle drought well. We have a higher success rate with calving from these bulls and they are all-round well-tempered bulls."
The Shadforths are currently running 25 Stockman and Halganaes bulls and will be looking to purchase more of these bulls later this year and into the future.
"The benefit of purchasing from Chris and Peter is that they already understand what we look for in our bulls.
"We prefer the docile bulls to increase the probability that progeny will be quieter and have higher growth rates which we have seen in these particular studs."
