A tribute to Bimbadeen Brangus - The "Brangus Ear"

Bob Davie has achieved excellent results with Brangus steers entered in steer trials throughout Eastern Australia. These results have caught the attention of a number of commercial cattlebreeders and feedlotters. The Brangus breeds climb to commercial success and recognition can largely be attributed to the Davie family of Bimbadeen Brangus, Phillip Island, Victoria. Below is a letter sent to Bob Davie from Kevin Roberts of Sandalwood, Queensland. Kevin was a former recipient of the Australian "Feedlotter of the Year"

Dear Bob,

I would like to congratulate you for the fine performance of your cattle in the Ausmeat trial for Grain Fed steers that were displayed at Beefex 92. Despite the fact you were eliminated due to exceeding the specifications of the trial you certainly exploded the many popular misconceptions held by Australian cattle breeders with regard to meat quality factors influenced by breed. I feel the Brangus Breed has a place through Australia but what an enormous contribution they could make in our northern regions of our continent. As a member of the organising committee, Future for Beef, I was committed to our theme "Markets will drive cattle production systems of the 90's". Our committee was dedicated to this theme two years ago and as each day goes by our beliefs are endorsed in the market place. As lot feeders we are the cutting edge of world markets, we must respond to our customers demands for "consistent quality" beef.

The cattle industry will perish if we continue to rely upon manufacturing markets such as the United States. It is my belief Brangus cattle can satisfy our needs to produce quality beef yet survive our difficult climatic conditions. The growth rates achieved by your cattle and the quality of the beef must surely demonstrate the ability to combine quality and survivability. Your breed society must be excited at future possibilities, to be part of a revolution. There are many progressive cattle producers taking an interest in your breed. As the demand for your cattle increases, hold firm on quality control standards. It has been the failure of some other potentially good breeds, to maintain high standards due to pressure to meet market demands. Good luck. l look forward to feeding lots of Brangus cattle in the future.

Regards,
Kevin M Roberts. Manager Sandalwood Feedlot.

Diary of a Cattle Breeder

The following article was sent to the editor of The "Brangus Ear" and appeared in the July 97 edition. It is from Stuart Barber, a commercial cattle producer and practicing veterinarian at Benalla, Victoria. Stuart runs a number of breeds of cattle under very strict commercial conditions.

Dear Editor,

I have been taking great interest in reading Lex Kunst's articles in the last few Brangus Ear magazines and agree wholeheartedly with his comments regarding minimising the overfattening of bulls. A lot of infertility that I see as a veterinarian has to do with bulls being overfattened for sale and first used when they are too old. It is a little difficult to extrapolate bull use in southern states versus Queensland as there is a markedly different level of stress put on bulls in the range of situations versus intensive grazing situations. However as a general rule I would prefer to see a bull start serving females relatively young but only starting on a small number.

The concept of using bulls when they have reached two years of age, I believe is a much outdated concept and it should be discouraged as it leads to great inefficiency in the bull selling arena. No stud breeder wishes to keep bulls longer than they need to and commercial producers certainly don't want to pay to feed these bulls extra when they are better out in the paddock mating cows. The data below shows how efficient a bull can be when utilised as a young bull and used over separate matings during the year.

Bimbadeen PI 92 - -Born February 1992 -Purchased May 1993

Bimbadeen 645 - -Born 29th January 1994 -Purchased September 1995

Bimbadeen 910 - -Born 17th January 1995 -Purchased June 1996

The table below shows the actual calves produced by the above three bulls. All of these bulls were used at 18 months or younger:

Season	Bimbadeen 92	Bimbadeen 645	Bimbadeen 910
Autumn 94	40	-	-
Spring 94	32	-	-
Autumn 95	57	-	-
Spring 95	35	-	-
Autumn 96	45	-	-
Spring 96	55	45	-
Autumn 97	43	35	23
Spring 97	66	54	37
Autumn 98 (Projected)	45	40	40
Total	418	174	100

When I turned to using Brangus genetics the main reasons for my change from traditional British breeds to Brangus were to:

• increase growth rate.
• improve carcase.
• eliminate eye cancer.
• ensure better bull utilisation.
• minimise calving difficulties.
• improve drought tolerance.

Every single objective has been met and exceeded. Growth rate: - on very short winter pasture last year Brangus cross steers on the property averaged 1.5kg gain/day from June to October. At best we would have expected 1 - 1.2 kg/day from a Hereford. Carcase: - Muscle score on Heifer Progeny is as good or better than their Dams from current bulls and is quite acceptable although we have yet to sell over the hook to get a true carcase score. Eye problems: - We still run a mixed herd with some Angus and Murry Grey Dams as well as Brangus cross Dams. We had up to 25% pinkeye in the British cattle this summer and only one Brangus cross had pinkeye out of more than 200 crossbreds. There has been no eye cancer either. Bull Utilisation: - I think the table above speaks for itself as far as bull utilisation goes. Three bulls on the property are more than capable of producing at least 100 calves per year which I believe is more than satisfactory! Their serving capacity is such that mostly we see at least 70% of cows calve in the first cycle. Calving difficulties: - Since using Brangus bulls we have pulled one calf from cows. Heifer dystocia rates using the Brangus bulls have averaged about 5%. However this year we have calved down 55 heifers without any assistance (180 heifers have calved in the last 18 months). Drought tolerance: - This summer has been very tough on the cattle in the Benalla district of Victoria as we did not get any useful rain from the last week in November till the first week in May. We had a lot of heifers with young calves on them over the summer and weaned the calves in February. The Brangus cross dams have not looked back and have gained weight whereas the other breeds at best maintained weight and look very skinny.

In essence I believe the Brangus breed has a tremendous amount to offer breeders in our area (and probably any area) as they are a low care, highly productive breed. It is however vital that production records (Breedplan) are maintained to assist in bull selection and to compete with breeds such as Angus where a huge data bank of information in growth and carcase is available. I believe the Brangus breed has a very bright future and would like to thank the people responsible for putting an advertisement in the "Weekly Times" four years ago with information on Brangus and resultant issues of The "Brangus Ear" being sent to me. Keep up the good work!

Yours sincerely,

Stuart Barber.