News

News 2024

NEW IN 2024 - OUR FIRST ON-PROPERTY SALE - WEDNESDAY 2nd OCTOBER 2024
To be offered for sale: 24 bulls, 5 heifers and 5 cows with calves at foot
Helmsman Auction, interfaced with AuctionsPlus

13/12/2024

The season didn't get started It coughed and it farted The moisture deep down stopped the crops going brown The crops didn't fail And it's time for a Christmas ale So I'm having a beer and spreading some Christmas cheer Wishing you all a happy new year!

12/12/24 Upmarket

Introducing our new stud sire Bottlesford Up Market KPN U16. We are very grateful to Darren Koopman of Bottlesford Murray Greys for the opportunity to purchase this big stud and to Joe Wilton for the safe transport. Can't wait for the calves!!!

7/10/24 Joining

Yesterday we drafted out our joining groups and sent them off to their separate paddocks with their paramours. With a full team of proven home-bred bulls (Strzelecki, Skipper and Tony) and Cadfor Taurus, we won’t be doing any AI this year, for the first time that we can remember. It took a while to carefully draft each cow and triple check that calves were in the right groups but, yet again, the pens proved their worth and we were able to (mostly) work very calmly. So that’s 2024 joining all set up - thanks to Ted Davidson for all your help!

Sale report

The inaugural on-property sale at Mount Major Muray Greys on 2 October 2024 was a really lovely day, with a good turnout and well-supported with buyers travelling from Canberra, NSW, SA, Tasmania and Gippsland. A healthy crowd of supporters was generously catered for with complimentary (and extensive) morning tea and a sale day sausage provided by the local Lions Club. We’d like to thank everyone who supported today - the volunteers and helpers, the well-wishers and everyone who travelled to be with us on the day. Above all, thank-you to the successful bidders and under-bidders. Happy breeding to all purchasers, we look forwards to hearing how our Mount Major genetics perform for you.

Twenty yearling bulls were offered for sale, having passed bull breeding soundness exams, and scanning and assessment by Liam Cardile of BeefXcel, with 9 sold to an average of $4,722. Return buyer, Chris Hines of Greenhills Murray Greys purchased 4 bulls.

In addition, 5 cows with calves at foot and 6 unjoined yearling heifers were offered. Five out of 6 heifers sold to an average of $2,080 and a top price of $2,400. The top priced heifer, Mount Major Tarella U3 went to Rod Hoare and Helena Warren at Cadfor Murray Greys. Two cows with calves at foot were sold to an average of $4,000, one going to Stephen Robertson of Bennooka Park Murray Greys (pictured below) and the other to Rod Hoare and Helena Warren at Cadfor Murray Greys.

The top priced bull, Mount Major Ulysses U33 went to Charles & Janet Wallace at Woodbourn Murray Greys for $6,500. At 12 months old, Ulysses weighed 528 kg off pasture, with an EMA of 70 cm² and an IMF of 4.0 %. The thickest and heaviest bull in the draft, his growth EBVs were all in the top 10% of the breed. We look forwards to seeing how Ulysses performs at Woodbourn.

It was pleasing to see the number of repeat clients who returned to support our sale, despite the dry season across Victoria and Southern NSW. We hope that this sale marks the beginning of a tradition and look forward to seeing a good crowd next year.

	Mount Major Katrina P28 with calf Vernon V25, sold to Stephen Robertson of Bennooka Park Murray Greys
	Mount Major Murray Greys inaugural on-property sale was interfaced with AuctionsPlus. Sale lots were presented for physical inspection.

11/09/2024

Catalogue

To cap off a wonderful day of videography, look what turned up in our mailbox (our new sale catalogue, not the husband)!

11/09/2024

Videography

Whilst I really enjoy taking photos of the farm and bulls, we felt it would be best to get the professionals in for our first sale. Ruby from Mavstar Photography was recommended by everyone I spoke to and she did a marvellous job creating and loading the videos for AuctionsPlus.

2/09/2024

Scanning and vet checks

The usual scanning and assessment by Liam Cardile of Beef Xcel was carried out in early September as well as bull breeding soundness exams. We were especially keen to see the results with our upcoming sale. Liam has been coming to scan and assess our cows for over 10 years now and we've seen his taste in beer develop over time! We appreciate Liam's appraisal of our cattle - you can't beat having someone with a trained, impartial eye look over your cattle. If Liam says cull, we cull, however much we like the animal and its breeding - there's usually only one or two but this year it was pleasing that there weren't any.

Because we sell our bulls as yearlings, it is always a difficult balance to time the vet checks relative to selling. Too early and the young bulls just won't be mature enough but we can't leave it too late because our clients need to know whether the bull will be fit to work, or whether to look at other bulls. The first semen sampling can often yield poor quality samples and abnormalities that resolve when re-tested in 2-3 weeks time. The first test is a bit like cleaning the pipes out for some bulls but it does mean there's often a bit of a nervous wait between their first test and the re-test.

5/08/24

Re-veg planting

With the help of our friends, Luke & Jewels, we've planted a couple of hundred trees and understorey shrubs to fill in gaps and spaces along our exsiting treelines. We put out some wattles along the front fence to make it look pretty and hopefully the all the understorey we planted will encourage some more of the little birds, like thornbills, wrens, finches and robins.

21/08/24

Lot stickers

Butt stickers!!! We wanted to try an idea from UK cattle sales which should make it much easier to inspect the animals at our sale and our friends Daniel and Alison Derooey at Spectrum Screen Printing Studios produced these vinyl stickers which have come up a treat! It took a little trial and error to work out how to get them to stick - the self-adhesive backing was completely defeated by the bulls' woolly coats but we found the Kamar glue worked really well and the stickers show up really well on grey and silver coats.

8/07/24

Sale catalogue selections

We have been finalising the sale catalogue for our inaugural on-property sale which involved poring over cow lists and Breedplan figures and then getting all the cows, bulls and heifers into the yards for a visual inspection. We sell our bulls as yearlings, shortly after scanning & assessment and veterinary bull breeding soundness exams. Any bulls that fail these tests will not be included in the sale, so to ensure a top quality selection of 20 bulls in the sale, we have picked out 24 for the catalogue. We also aim to offer 5 heifers (6 selected for the catalogue) and 5 cows with calves at foot. Females will be unjoined. I am pleased to be offering some females that I wouldn't normally sell, giving people access to our top quality genetics - but that has meant some very hard decisions for me in the yards!   

2/07/24

Dry season

We've had an extremely dry autumn and winter so far. I think it's the first time I've been feeding all mobs up to the point of calving and I'm not 100% confident the cows will be going onto grazing height feed after calving, the way things are going. We had some rain after ANZAC Day which is when we can usually reliably expect our autumn break but it wasn't enough to get full germination and sustained growth and the next rain didn't come until mid-June. With such a late break, even though the paddocks are green, they aren't jumping away as they normally would due to the cold temperatures. I've made a commitment to myself that I'll provide bulls that will give our clients the best experience and I believe that pasture and hay is the best way to do that so I've had to purchase some extra protein hay to keep the young bulls moving forwards for the sale.

23/06/24

Visit to Rogialyn and Cadfor

Last weekend Davo and I had a little road trip to NSW. David and Roger at Rogialyn have very kindly given us the chance to select a number of their elite females to bring back to Mount Major Murray Greys. Davo’s very excited about the new bloodlines he has chosen. It was also a terrific opportunity to swing by Cadfor and catch up with Rod and Helena, and see the dam of our newest herd sire, Cadfor Taurus T126. We are very grateful to everyone at Rogialyn and Cadfor for their wonderful hospitality - we had a fantastic weekend!

4/05/24

Sowing has gone quite well and we’re just waiting for a bit of rain now. I have re-sown Front Bush after the flooding. Smaller paddocks around the house and at West’s have gone into six species mix to provide a bit extra summer feed. I’ve also put in 50 ac to oats and had a really good clean up of those paddocks after the summer flooding – it’s been good to get on top of those weeds. There’s plenty of sub-soil moisture so we don’t need much rain for germination and the pastures will jump away.

Unfortunately, after passing all the hurdles for blood testing and qualification for export we found that Tony was one of those bulls whose semen doesn’t survive the freezing and thawing process. His fresh semen quality and quantity was excellent crush side. It’s not known why some bulls don’t freeze and thaw but he’s one of them. We will try and collect him later and see if this improves as he matures, which is possible. Next time we’ll be doing an on-farm collection to test for freeze-thaw ability before sending off to the export collection centre.

30/03/24

Weaning

We weaned the calves this Easter weekend and gave a second vaccine booster shot. Any bulls that are potential candidates for semen collection for export were given a 5-in-1 because the 7-in-1 includes leptospirosis. NZ has brought in an antibody-free test that does not distinguish between vaccinated and exposed animals. The new bull pens are working extremely well. They keep the animals contained but they still have room to move, with feed, water and shade. The weaned calves are really loving the sub hay they’ve got on offer, which is a big step up from the canola hay they’ve been eating to date. It’s good to be able to separate the bulls and heifers as well, so you can get a better view of the quality. The day after weaning we had a quiet walk around the pens - it’s going to be difficult to pick the top 20 bulls for our first on-property sale in October! Bulls that are looking good at the moment are Union (looks sensational – he’s a calf and a half that bull), Umpire and Ulysses. The heifers are a really good even line – they’ve got the softness and the shape that I’m after. I will be picking out 5 for our sale which is going to take some thought. The real standout among the heifer calves is Delvene U30, Strzelecki’s full sister, but there are some really good Josies and Lucys in there as well.

200 day weights

I have been very pleased with our 200 day weights. After flooding earlier in the year and some damaged pastures, we've actually had some good rain around Christmas which has allowed the remaining lucerne to kick off and provided some nice green feed. But it's going to make it hard deciding which bull to keep this year, with such evenness across the line.

Tony off for semen collection

Mount Major Tony is currently at OvaSem, over at Kyabram, being collected for export for New Zealand. Tony's is my favourite Intensity son - he's a lovely, thick bull out of Mount Major Delvene Q37. He's got outstanding carcass attributes, a very big set of testicles, very good feet and just and excellent all round bull. Tony had some light work joining heifers so we'll get his first calves in the spring. We've retained some semen for our own use but he is certainly providing that softness and thickness that we're after. Photo credits to Andrew Cullen of Cullen Marketing for some terrific shots of Tony.

Josie H11

Josie H11 is Mount Major Kingswood's dam and my favourite cow. She has had more than 10 calves now and still going strong - super sound and breeding extremely well, despite being the second oldest cow in the herd. We're just about wean her 10th calf, Uluru.

Beef Week Grand Tour

We were open for Beef Week again this year, always a good opportunity to talk cows with new and old friends. But this year, Ted, myself and a local Hereford breeder decided to go on a tour and visit some other studs in Western Victoria and South Australia. We visited 14 studs in 4 days. It was not just Murray Greys and Herefords, we went to look at some Angus studs as well. It was good to chat to other breeders and interesting to see how other people do things. We picked up a few tips that we'll use in our sale, such as yard/pen layouts and how to present cattle. It was wonderful to see the professionalism of all the Murray Grey studs with good setups and well presented animals. Boonaroo Angus and Days Herefords were both impressive with their quality of livestock and presentation of animals. Thanks to everyone we visited for the warm welcome they gave us. Pictured here: Mount Major Ted comparing notes with Carrsview Ted

Biosecurity

Biosecurity is a high priority for us. Sometimes it doesn't take much to keep your herd safe. We are getting into the spirit of "Come clean, Go clean" and I like to ask visitors to either change their boots (we have a selection of gumboots on hand) or wash their boots. I have been impressed with a neat bit of kit produced by Shoof - a simple mat with water detergent. When you stand on the mat, the water and detergent goes up into the cracks in the soles of foot wear. It's a very simple and easy way for visitors to clean their boots, with no bending over required, and gives me great peace of mind.

Hot days

We've had a run of days around 40 degrees in March so heat management is at the forefront of our minds - making sure the cows have plenty of water, plenty of shade and easy access to feed. We keep an eye on the water troughs to make sure there are no problems there. We have installed some new, larger troughs in our Northside paddocks - triple the size. The older troughs didn't have the reserve to keep up with cow numbers and consequently the cows would crowd around the troughs waiting for them to refill, damaging pipes and floats. I'm hoping for a few less trough repairs now. The cows especially enjoyed being able to have a dip in the newly deepened dam in the Back Bush!

Troughs at West's

It was good to get the water on to the last of the paddocks round at the new block we bought last year. Having all the paddocks troughed makes it easier to manage paddock rotations. Big shout out to Noah Smith and his little digger. 

News 2023

Christmas 2023

Bellowing bulls Helpy Kelpies Pugged paddocks Happy cows All in calf now Hard work done Time for some fun Merry Christmas everyone!

11/09/2023
Scanning & assessment

Scanning went very well - we had beautiful weather and the new pens worked a treat. We really value Liam Cardile’s opinion of our bulls and it’s always good to welcome back our long term clients and catch up on their news. Toblerone was one of the heaviest bulls in the group and also scanned well with the equal second biggest EMA after King Tut alongside Titan. It was very pleasing to see the number of bulls that had very big eye muscles and very high IMF - to get both those traits in numerous young bulls was fantastic. 

1/08/2023
New water troughs

I'm currently in the process of upgrading some water troughs. The old troughs in our Northside paddocks are just a bit small and slow to re-fill for the size of the herd. The cows will crowd around while they wait for the trough to re-fill and inevitably damage the pipe and fittings, leading to frequent trough repairs being needed - sometimes in pretty awful weather. I have trialled these new troughs in some other paddocks and they are much more up to the job. The concrete hood over the float valve is fantastic to protect it from the cows.

July-August 2023
Calving

After last year's soggy experience, it was nice to have a more manageable calving season again this year and nicer weather. I've been very happy my Strzelecki and Skipper calves. Strzelecki went over the heifers and all of his calves have been born unassisted. In fact, I've only had to assist one cow this year, and that was because her calf was coming out backwards. Skipper calves have great shape and size and they are born full of beans - they just get up and get going straight away! I'm planning on using both bulls more widely this season. We got our first Bottlesford Mocha calves on the ground and they have also been a very good size and shape - I'm really excited to see how they grow out and I can't wait to see how they scan, but that's 12 months away! We've had one set of twins - a pair of bulls, both good sizes and the dam has done a fantatic job of mothering both of them.

28/07/2023
Six species mix

We came home from our trip of a lifetime to France, UK and Scotland, to find that the six species mix was going gangbusters. The forage brassica provides a big bulk of early feed. The second grazing tends to be more clover and ryegrass dominant and by the third grazing the lucerne and herbs come through. I'm finding it a very good option to extend our grazing season.

5/07/2023
Visit to Playfair Farms

After the UK Murray Grey tour, Maisie & I joined the boys to catch up with our UK relatives and do some sight seeing. On our way up to Scotland, popped in to visit James Playfairy-Hannay at Playfair Farms, Morebattle and enjoyed a tour of his property, as well as stunning views over the borders. Davo thought that James' three-way cross MGxShorthornxAngus were stuninng cattle and very well suited to the environment.

June 2023
UK Murray Grey 50th Anniversary tour

Davo and Ted had a fantastic time on the UK Murray Grey 50th Anniversary tour in England. As well as being an opportunity to catch up with some good friends, they visited three different paddock-to-plate operations (Jonathan Chapman's farm, Native Beef, Wildfell Farm and Launde Farm) and loved visiting on-farm butcheries and dry ageing facilities. Talking to breeders from different countries was a real highlight and Davo found it interesting that while they all have weather challenges, wet, dry, cold and hot are managed differently around the world. They were also able to compare notes on challenges around consumers, markets and government policy. After the tour, the boys called into Cotswold Seeds who have been at the leading edge of trialling herbal leys and multi-species mixes which was a great experience, especially for Ted who is thinking he would like to be an agronomist.

23/04/2023
Weaning and new pens

We had beautiful weather for weaning and with new pens, and a bit of help from Ted in the yards, the job was a breeze. This year we have split our long thin pony paddock into a set of 4 pens with a long laneway. The ponies now have less area to get fat in spring but they do have a spiffy new field shelter which they appreciate very much! The other 3 pens are proving very handy for drafting and grouping smaller mobs and it's amazing how well the laneway works for cow flow. 

We collect tail hair samples from all the calves for parent verification and genomic testing, so our clients can have confidence in the genetics they are buying. We are also testing for NT821 and other double-muscling genes. NT821 is also related to females having a smaller pelvis so the combination of bigger calves and smaller pelvises is a recipe for calving difficulty we don't want and neither do out clients. The gene is in every beef breed and hasn't really been an issue in the Murray Grey breed but there have been a couple of bulls that have been identified as carriers that have been used fairly widely and after speaking to our clients we have decided that we won't be selling any animals with unknown NT821 status to our clients and we are aiming to remove any carriers from the herd over time. So far we have identified 5 cows that are carriers and have culled 2 already. The only way to know how many cows are affected is through testing.

14/04/23
Sowing

Bless this boy - Ted's home for the holidays and busy getting paddocks sown for our autumn start-up - a bigger job than usual, thanks to the floods. And while he was out there, doing laps of the paddock, he spotted an echidna and thought of his mum! He knows how to keep BOTH parents happy

The flood had damaged some perennial stands so there was a lot more sowing to be done than usual at autumn start up. We chose to oversow the damaged areas - about a third of the home property - with a six species mix, as well as putting in 20 ha of grazing wheat. The six species mix contains chicory, plantain, lucerne, forage brassica and 2 types of clover. Ryegrass is not sown in the mix but there must be a good seed bank from prevous years as plenty comes through. I like the six species mix because it provides an even spread of feed through the year, producing a little bit more on the shoulders of the seasons. It also has a little bit more legume content which should reduce our need for nitrogen fertiliser applications. I haven't seen any bloat with it either, just having the extra spread of species.

25/02/23 

200 day weights and vaccinations

It was lovely to have Ted home for the weekend to help with 200 day weights and vaccinations and it's always nice to see how the current crop of calves are performing. Titan and Toblerone were the standouts amongst the bull calves. They both had weight, shape, and were looking really good. The heifers were a very even line which will make it hard to select the ones that will be retained.

8/02/23
Ted starts at Longy

We have just left Ted at Longrenong Agricultural College, all smiles and ready for his next big adventure. We’re going to miss him but we are so proud.

25/01/2023
Open for Beef Week

We will be open for Beef Week again this year and are looking forwards to talking cows with anyone who stops in - current clients and new visitors are all welcome.

New Year, new tractor, new farm

It's a special day being able to take delivery of a new tractor. After 15 years, the 1970s David Brown was getting a bit tired and not coping so well with the hot weather. So we've upgraded to a new Deutz 5105, thanks to Mark Lewis and the team at GV Ag. The cows thought it was weird seeing a different tractor bringing food.

We have been lucky enough to have the opportunity to buy the block we have been leasing for a few years from Brett & Carolyn West. Our new property is 80 acres at Yabba South, a bit closer to Dookie, with a gorgeous mud brick house. The farm has a good pasture base and a very well sheltered block. I'm looking forwards to doing a bit of boundary fencing to improve biosecurity and some pasture improvement.

News 2022

Merry Christmas

And finally, for lovers of bad poetry everywhere: Davo's annual Christmas poem . . .

Oh did it rain dear Planting rice would have been nice    Gee it got wet A record I bet The water has stopped Time to harvest some crops I’ll say hello to Santa and Have a few of Dad’s Fantas

18/11/2022 - Flood damage

From the end of September to late November we have had a lot of rain and a lot of water sitting over the farm. It's made life challenging, to say the least and no doubt we will have lost a lot of lucerne as well as the newly sown Front Bush and beautiful stand of vetch that was destined for silage. We had a drone operator fly over and the photos were fascinating.

6/11/2022 - AI

Two days in a row without rain and the water has now stopped running over our road and the paddocks are starting to dry out. We have been able to run our modified, cut down AI program, although A) 19 doesn't seem like a very cut down version of the usual program (Davo, looking at you) and B) it was still very sloshy and muddy. Although the bulls went in at the normal time, the AI mob have been set back two weeks to allow things to dry out a bit but we got there in the end. We are now looking forwards to some lovely AI calves next year from Bottlesford Mocha as well as tried and tested Mount Major Peregrine and Mount Major Quixote. In the paddocks Mount Major Strzelecki, Mount Major Skipper and Eylwarra Sands Qualifier are working away and are holding up under the wet muddy conditions.

6/11/2022 - Silage making

With the flooding all the paddocks we had locked up for silage are stuffed: either too wet or we can't get on them or there's too much lodging and pasture damage. There was a tight window of opportunity in late September where we might have been able to make silage from the lovely vetch crop we had grown. We tried to cut the high parts of paddock but there was just too much moisture underneath for it to cure properly and get it off before the next rain. And then it just kept raining, the vetch lodged and then by the time the rain stopped, it was past its best anyway and unusable as hay or silage. If the vetch goes to seed it becomes bitter and unpalatable. We are now aiming to turn it into green manure if we can get on the paddock and we'll get some benefit out of it over the next 3-4 crops. I was very happy growing vetch though and am keen to have another crack at it.

16/10/22 - Joining

With the wet conditions here at Yabba North and another 50-100mm due later in the week, we’ve had to readjust our plans for joining. The synch program was supposed to start today for half our herd. The AI technician is booked (if he can get here), and there’s some exciting new genetics in the AI tank. But we really don’t like the idea of running 30 cows and calves through the boggy yards multiple times. So as a compromise, we’ve settled on a more targeted joining program. We’ll AI fewer cows and push AI back another week, giving us the option of bailing out (literally?) if conditions get too much worse.It wasn’t much fun trudging around in the mud, especially for Ted who had wet feet all day but I’m pleased to report the silage tape worked a treat on my leaky boot, and at least we are all set up for joining now. New young sire, Mount Major Skipper (aye, aye cap’n) is ready for action and there was no need to ask Where’s Wally? (aka Eylwarra Sands Qualifier). Mount Major Strzelecki has also been retained as our heifer bull.

October 2022 - Flood

The rainfall for October was up 500% on average.

Calving 2022

I feel like we've got some really good bull calves out there, including a couple of Echuca and Quixote sons. There's a good mix of sires but there are some standout sons from each and they are all very even. I've already had quite a few people comment on I'm looking forwards to

September 2022 - Ted's mix

The "Ted's Mix" that we sowed in the newly renovated Front Bush paddock established really well with a fantastic amount of clover and grasses. We got the first grazing off it which was superb. The grasses in the mix grew so well, they were starting to lodge so we gave it a light grazing just to manage the growth.

12/06/22 - Seedlings

Seeding was a lot later than normal this year due to having to wait for contractors. But acouple of days after sowing we had some rain which has allowed good germination. Ted’s Mix is up and I was very happy to see the number of clover seedlings. In NS1&2 we are trying something new. We have sown vetch which will allow us to clean up some barley grass that has stated to creep into the paddock and hopefully it will allow us to make some top quality hay for summer when things dry off. There are also plans for a new hayshed – watch this space!

May

Back Bush dam

The dam in the Back Bush paddock has been silted up for a long long time - our neighbours used to call it a puddle. So we've cleaned it out and put some timber in there are a coral where we will establish some combungi. This will be good for wildlife and should help to keep the water clean. It's nice and deep now, and we are looking forwards to seeing what wildlife it attracts. The turtles have already made themselves at home around the timber and a pair of shelducks have moved over from the neighbouring farm.

Sowing

Our neighbour Chas Dickins came over to sow the Front Bush paddock for us. This paddock has now been brought into the 21^st century with subdivision, good seed, fertiliser and, from now on, better grazing management.

Ted's mix

Ted worked at SeedForce over the busy period, mixing and bagging seed during his gap year. So this year we sourced our seed from SeedForce and Ted helped to design the mix for the Front Bush. It’s Phalaris, cocksfoot and clover, and Ted picked out the appropriate seed treatments. That paddock is subject to inundation and has heavier soil type and should be very well suited to Phalaris which is more tolerant of waterlogging than other species and Dave has been keen to get more clover established to improve nitrogen in the paddock. It won’t be grazed until after the Phalaris seeds this year to allow it to establish.

Paddock renovation

We got some paddocks levelled that were getting waterlogged where they held onto water and while the laser unit was here, we took the oppprtunity to get the Front Bush paddock levelled. We are doing a bit of renovation work on this paddock to get it into full production and gain another 15 ac of productive pasture. Where the stumps had been removed, there were whoops and hollows, the ground has been extremely rough and with a bit of rainfall the paddock ended up being a series of puddles. The laser unit just gave it a rip and a smudge so that it just levelled it out to improve drainage. The paddock will also now be much more trafficable and productive.

April - flushing

Davo has decided to flush a couple of our elite cows, Delvene N8 and Lucy 24. Both have outstanding structure and conformation along with elite EBVs. Delvene N8 is also the dam of Quantum who joined the bull team at Woodbourn last year. The aim is to lift the bottom end of the herd and produce more elite bulls. We’ve had an order to supply embryos to Mexico but also I’d like to keep some embryos in the tank as a biosecurity insurance policy.

Delvene N8

Lucy R24

March

Preg testing

Usually we don’t get around to preg testing until later as we get good conception rates and we really just need to identify empties to cull. So June is the usual time, and then the vets do rectal palpation to give us a rough estimate of foetal age, allowing us to pick out culls and plan calving groups. But this year we did an earlier preg test than normal to try and get some more accuracy with calving dates. Plus, this way it is easier on the vet and the cows (using only the wand, no rectal palpation), and more accurate. Davo was pretty excited about the technology, as it's the first time he’s used it, and enjoyed seeing the calves on the screen and got excited about which ones might be bulls and which ones heifers. Thanks to GV Vets for a very professional job!

Stump removal

Davo has had all of the stumps removed on the property that have been cut off below bonnet height on the ute so safer to drive around and for machinery to navigate. Still got a lot of dead trees to drive around but it’s the ones that have been cut off at awkward heights that damage machinery. This was part of bring the front bush into proper production.

February

21/02/2022 - Rod & Helena Hoare's visit

We were delighted to welcome Rod & Helena from Cadfor Murray Greys over the weekend. It was a great opportunity to talk all things cows and lovely to see them again.

January

We were open for Beef Week again this year. It was good to see some new faces and some familiar ones. We had a steady stream of visitors throughout the day. Ted helped hosting - one of his first farm duties as he starts his gap year - and enjoyed showing off his bull Royale who has been collected by AgriGene.

I (Sarah) broke my wrist in mid-January, falling off my horse, which made life a bit harder for a while but turned out to be a good way to get the easy job at weighing and vaccinating time. Dave was pleased that the best bulls were gaining 1.6 kg/day.

News 2021

December 2021

Merry Christmas

Royale

We are very pleased to have some professional photos of Mount Major Royale by Andrew Cullen. He is pictured here at 15 months and much cleaner than our own photos taken a couple of months earlier - but he still hasn't been clipped or washed so these are still paddock photos! In fact, just before we turned up he had rubbed his head in the mud so there are no photos of his right hand side. He has been collected for the domestic market and semen is available in Australia through Agri-Gene.

14/11/21

Wet spring

Well, it's a miserable wet day outside with sideways rain so what better time to update the news page? It's mid November and the paddocks are still green with a full moisture profile (Dookie Land Management Group have soil moisture probes in a neighbouring property so we know exactly what's going on below the surface): I wouldn't be putting the tractor on the paddock today. In all, it's been a fantastic spring and the pastures have grown exceptionally well this year. Spring rainfall over the last decade has been very unreliable and we've had a couple of poor springs in a row so to now get two good springs in a row is fantastic, although our lease block did suffer a bit with it being too wet. There have been 63 mm for November so far with another 40 mm predicted for next week. 68.5 mm in Oct, 83.5 mm for Sept and August was the driest month with 38 mm.

We've got plenty of grass and probably should be cutting hay but it's been too wet. Also we have plenty of hay on hand and to be honest we'll be able to buy better quality than we can make - we can buy last season's hay that has been shedded and hasn't been rained oon. The cows will just have to try and eat through the pasture and will probably trample a bit but it's a nice problem to have! Having this much grass may also present a bit of a fire risk but we'll make sure we have a bared out paddock for them to go into if needed.

We have cut some hay in shares with our neighbour and currently it's had some rain on it. It was almost ready for baling before this last lot of rain and just needed one more good drying day . . . At the moment the quality should still be good so hopefully we'll get it baled before the predicted rain next week. 

We did sow lucern in the spring with some ideal rain the first week after sowing but we've had over 200 mm since so it's been too wet for establishment, especially in the lower parts of the paddock. Unfortunately we'll have to spray that paddock out but will take the oppportunity to improve drainage before we try again with lucerne in there.

Royale

I'm really pleased that Ted's bull, Royale, has been selected by Agri-Gene for collection and domestic distribution. Agri-Gene has quite a big market for semen which goes across dairy and a range of different beef breeds so they can reach more markets than the traditional Murray Grey breeder. It's a big deal for us to get a semen contract with a semen company. There hasn't been a lot of Murray Grey bulls collected in a while but we are confident Royale will suit their market with his low birthweight, moderate frame and really good carcass traits. Royale is a Jupiter son out of a really solid Josie cow. He clearly had the best shape out of all the bulls in the paddock as well as being very sound-footed and silver which is a bonus. He has been scored at a frame score 6. At the moment he's a young bull and we hope to get some much better photos as he matures.

Scanning and bull sales

As usual, Liam Cardile came to scan and independently assess our cattle in September, nothwithstanding Covid restrictions and border closures. Fortunately he was included in the border bubble, and so were we, which allowed him to cross with a permit. On hand to help out for the day were Colette Suter, a Dookie Agricultural College student, who has been working for us this year; Ted who was very keen to see his bull scanned and is planning a future in agriculture; and James Bremner and his son, also in the border bubble and a valued client. Some clients have not able to visit to view bulls this year due to Covid restrictions so we have had to adapt and put together videos to try and give an all round view of the bulls. All our young bulls were sold by the end of September to repeat clients who had pre-ordered. We'd like to thank all our bull buyers and wish them the best of success with new bulls.

6/09/21

Grazing brassica

This year I have trialled a multi-species crop which includes forage brassica, chicory, plantain and two types of clover, sown into a thinning lucerne stand. I saw some research results on multi-species pastures and was impressed that they were getting better pasture yields with less N input. The mix is also supposed to extend the growing season by having some deep-rooted plants and a mix of annuals and perennials so I was keen to give it a try at home. I have had an excellent strike of all the species in the mix, although it was late kicking off as the autumn break was 6-8 weeks late this year. But we're having a fantastic spring and I've got the cows in for the first grazing. They are loving it!

3/07/21

The 5 S's of pasture improvement

Back when Davo and I were both at Dookie College, David Chapman used to teach the Five S's of pasture improvement and management to the degree students: 1. S . . . rotational grazing (not quite an "S"), 2. Subdivision, 3. Stock (timing of calving, stocking rate, etc.), 4. Superphosphate (fertiliser), and 5. Seed (making sure you have the best fit of pasture species). Since we have had this property, our 30 acre bush block, has been under-utilised. It gets wet in wet years, especially the back half, and has lots of trees which are great for shade in summer but very unattractive to contractors. There's a little bit of phalaris in there that struggles along and we did broadcast some ryegrass in the early days. The only fertiliser it gets is from the cows as no-one is willing to drive in there to spread it. And because the cows are usually being fed some hay while they are in there, they congregate at the front and don't graze into the back half of the paddock very well. So I have been at Davo for a few years to split the paddock into two so we can concentrate on improving the pasture in the front half. We did this with a big 60 acre paddock a few years ago and that has made a huge difference with the heavier dirt that was previously under-grazed now being properly used.

While Shannon was here replacing the old fence at the front of the bush block, we asked him to put in a new fence to divide it in two. Now we will be able focus on cleaning up the fallen timber in the front half, spread some liquid fertiliser, and try to establish some phalaris. By managing the grazing pressure more precisely we will be better able to get better pasture utilisation in the back half and get on top of the weeds in that section. And as a bonus it will also give us more flexibility at the times of years when we have a lot of different groups of cattle around the place that we need to keep one paddock apart, like weaning and joining. I'm looking forwards to seeing the pasture improve.

R&M June

The autumn break has been a little slow arriving this year but the drier weather in June gave us a chance to get on with some fencing. We have replaced one of the oldest fences on the property that was barely standing with a spiffy new fence. A big shout out to Shannon Pool Rural Fencing Contractor from Invergordon who did a terrific job! It has also been an opportunity to replace a pair of "pretzled" gates that suffered in the early days of Ted learning to feed the cows, and put some earth from the cleaned out dams around water troughs. It feels good to get on top of some of these jobs and have the place looking neat and tidy - and there has still been time to sit by a campfire and appreciate the sunsets.

29/05/21

Chook poo

It's been good to be able to get some chook poo this autumn as it's usually quite hard to get at this time of year. I find it's a really good, well-balanced fertiliser with a lot of extra nutrients, such as calcium, phosporous and potassium, and it also provides a lot of slow release nitrogen. I think it works really well with the lucerne and also our pasture paddocks. I keep the cows off the paddocks for about 6 weeks and I like to get a good rain on it before grazing, just to manage any botulism risk.

22/05/21

Quixote goes to Tumbarumba

Now that Ted is able to look after the farm for us, we were both able to get away for the weekend to deliver Quixote to James Bremner in Tumbarumba and had a lovely weekend away. We got to inspect the Mount Major bulls that James has previously purchased  and see how well his property is recovering from the fires - thanks to James' hard work. We're really proud of Quixote - we used him here over a few cows and have retained some semen.

19/05/21

Cool burn

The cool burn is something I have been trying to get right. The idea is to encourage trees and native grasses along the roadside. I choose a still night in late autumn/winter when there is some green grass. The idea is for the burn to creep along really slowly and I can put it out just by standing on it - needless to say I am very careful not to let it get away. It burns away dried grass and leaf litter but doesn't burn so hot that it damages the trees.

19/05/21

Stumps and dam clearing

We've had a couple of stumps just below ground level that would sometimes catch the contractors' seeders. I asked Colin Willcox to bring his excavator and come out and remove them. It's one of those jobs that's not super urgent but it's good to get done. While he was here, I asked Colin to clean out a couple of dams for me. One is in a paddock and will give me emergency water supply in case the troughs are not filling for any reason, and the other is in a fenced off section of re-vegetation. We call it the cumbungi dam and there are always lots of birds around it in the mornings. By clearing it out, and putting in some timber, I hope that it's even more bird-friendly and maybe I can get a population of yabbies established. It was interested to see how much silt had built up - it was quite obvious the dams hadn't been cleaned out for a long time.

4/05/21

Qualifier

We purchased Elywarra Sands Qualifier at the National Show and Sale - this year was the first fully online National Show & Sale due to Covid, conducted on Auctions Plus which was a first for us and an interesting experience - in a good way. Qualifier was the Grand Champion bull in the show and but what we really liked was his big eye muscle, his really good retail beef yield and his carcass weight which will complement our herd. He's a full outcross for us and we look forwards to using him in the spring. It's the first bull we have bought without seeing in the flesh but he travelled well and I was excited to see him and pleased to find that he has a lovely quiet temperament. Ted took delivery as we were at the Woodbourn sale in Tassie but he made sure I got a photo first thing in the morning, as soon as the bull arrived. Thanks Ted! (But this photo credit goes to Nigel.)

3/05/21

Trip to Tassie for the Woodbourn Sale

Davo and I made it over to Tassie for the Woodbourn sale. We had a lovely few nights in the Penny Royal motel, walked up Cataract Gorge and had so many lovely meals out. We enjoyed meeting up with Gail and Lyndon Menegon who took us to the new Western Tiers distillery and then out to dinner. Charles Wallace's sale set up was really impressive and he had a really good sale. We also got to see Mount Major Quantum who went to Woodbourn in the spring and we look forwards to seeing his calves in future sales.

9/04/21

This morning we waved off a group of young females on their way to a new home. They were picked up in a brand new truck and we were very impressed with the shade cloth covering which made the truck light and airy, and much more inviting for the stock to load into. It also provides wind protection and is a modification I have added to my wish list for when I can afford to invest in a new truck. One day . . .sigh.

28/02/21

Weights & vaccinations

We got our 200d weights done and vaccianted with 7 in 1 at the same time. I'm really pleased with the weights this year. It's been good to have a good season, and it's clear that the cows have benefited from it. I am really happy with Intensity's calves in particular which present a really even line: they all look almost identical in type and shape. Quixote - who has been retained for using in the herd before going on to his new home - weighed 800 kg at 600 days off grass, displaying amazing softness and shape. We don't often get to see our premium bull calves performance as they are usually sold as yearlings.

6/02/21

Storm damage

We escaped damage when a storm passed through the area but the lease block copped a fair bit of damage: we lost a couple of panels on our stock yards and there was a hell of a lot of timber down which we spent the day helping to clear.

27/01/21

Visit from the Country News

We had a visit from the Country News looking to promote Beef Week in the region and are very grateful to Daneka Hill for some excellent photos.