Hereford cattle with muscle, temperament, and the ability to press down the scales are the main profit drivers for one central outback Queensland family.
Third generation commercial producer Bevan Hauff and his brother Tony trade as C A Hauff & Son, and run 1500 breeders or 4000 head across Colart Station and The Springs, totalling 28,340ha.
Bevan and his wife Julie live at Colart whilst Tony and his wife Diane live at The Springs.
The Blackall based aggregation is one of the largest purebred Hereford herds in Queensland and predominantly targets the eastern states feeder market.
“Weight for age is where they make the money for us. We can hang weight on them and they can handle it. Herefords have fertility, weight gain, temperament and market flexibility – those are the four attributes that stick by us,” Bevan said.
“We are not pin holed into one specific market – we can meet a trade market, feeder market or carry them through to bullocks,” Bevan said.
“We can get our cattle easily to feeder weight off our country. Our weaner steers average 280-320kg, coming straight off their mothers and into a fresh paddock.”
The cattle are run in 450-550mm rainfall zone on black to red loam soils with pastures consisting of mitchell and buffel grass alongside seasonal herbages.
The family has undertaken a pasture rejuvenation program sowing legumes, such as butterfly pea and desmanthus along with other grasses including Gatton and bambatsi panic, to provide a boost to soil health and structure and variety for their cattle.
Being a family run operation, Bevan and Tony place emphasis on the temperament of their herd.
“We are heavily family orientated and have involved our children when working cattle throughout the upbringing, so the temperament of our cattle was and still remains very important.”
The Hauff brothers purchase 10 to 15 bulls a year, predominantly from Queensland studs Talbalba, Devon Court and Lambert, and select for a balanced set of EBVs.
“One of the strengths we look for in a bull is ensuring they are structurally correct and can walk the distances. We buy bulls with below average birthweight, moderate mature cow weight and above average 400 and 600-day weight,” Bevan said.
“We aim to produce a structurally correct, moderate framed, efficient cow which milks well.
“The bulls we are selecting now are certainly different from 20 years ago. Now we are selecting a more moderately framed, heavily muscled bull with good calving ease.”
The breeders are grazed in average paddocks sizes of 1021-1214ha with heifers joined at 14 months of age for either an autumn or spring calving.
“We cannot go past the fertility of our Hereford cows with up to 90 per cent calving in our herd.”
Heifers are pregnancy tested with conception rates averaging 85 to 95 per cent. Cull heifers are finished for the supermarket trade or sold on AuctionsPlus to NSW restockers.
The weaners come off at around 10 months of age and are educated to horses, bikes and dogs before being grazed on forage pastures in paddocks up to 3239ha.
“We were aiming to run 2000 breeders but have reduced that to a sustainable number of 1500-1800 head, allowing us to carry more feeder steers,” Bevan said.
“Our feeders are well sought after not only by feedlots in the Darling Downs region, but also sold across the country to others including Princess Royal feedlot, Burra, South Australia.”
The steers are grown to an average of 460kg liveweight for short fed supermarket programs at feedlots and any overweight cattle are sold through prime markets at Blackall saleyards. Backgrounder Hereford steers are also purchased when the season permits from another commercial producer at Longreach and carried through to feeder weights alongside their own cattle to value add.
The family contributes steers annually to Queensland’s only multi-vendor single bloodline store sale for Hereford genetics at the Lambert Stud infused feeder and weaner sale at Blackall saleyards in September. They won champion pen of heifers in 2023 with females weighing 444kg. Their 509kg feeder steers, which were runners-up in the 381-520kg class steer competition.
“With the introduction of MSA grading, many more producers have opened their eyes to Herefords in an attempt to seek more consistent weight gain over other breeds,” Bevan said.
“As commercial producers we need to be in contact with our stud breeders to let them know our requirements. Technology allows us to keep up to date with what bulls are on the ground and follow their genetic data set, so it is becoming easier to find where the good bulls are.”
Bevan is pleased with how the breeding goals for low birthweight, high calving ease, weight for age, muscle and eye pigment over the years are shaping the cow herd today.
“It gives us a great deal of satisfaction to see it,” he said.
This group of feeder steers weighing 400-460kg liveweight are being fattened on the Hauff family properties. All images Diana Hauff
The Hauff family purchases around 15 bulls a year, predominantly Queensland bred from Talbalba, Devon Court and Lambert studs, and select for a balanced set of EBVs. This is a Devon Court sire purchased in 2022.
Heifers are pregnancy tested with conception rates averaging above 95 per cent.
