Hereford’s early maturity, weight gain and finishing ability on grain is resulting in a profitable return on investment for a family-owned breeding and lot feeding enterprise in southern Queensland.
The Bowhay family specialises in finishing steers and cull heifers for 100 days on grain to 400kg carcase weight with low ossification scores, and marble scores of 1 to 2 before the age of two years.
“The carcase specs are 320-400kg – that is an easy target for us to hit when turning the cattle off by two years and the Herefords do that comfortably,” Mark Bowhay said.
George and Robyn Bowhay, their son Mark and his wife Rina, and his brother Stephen, operate Buckinbah, a vertically integrated cropping and beef enterprise across 16,194ha at St George, value adding grain through an accredited 500 head on-farm feedlot to turn off heavyweight steers to Kilcoy Global Foods.
The September/October calving herd of 850 Hereford cows is run on black soil Mitchell grass and red Mulga country in a 475mm rainfall zone.
An irrigated cropping program produces wheat and fodder for the feedlot while the cow herd grazes Mitchell and Buffel grass pastures. Calves are bunk trained at weaning in the feedlot and then finished to feedlot entry weight on grazing oats.
The family sources bulls from Talbalba Herefords and uses artificial insemination every few years in selected heifers for rapid genetic gain.
They cull hard on fertility and were previously part of the Meat and Livestock Australia’s CashCow project. The project investigated the causes of poor reproductive performance in northern Australian beef herds, including environment, nutrition, management and infectious disease.
“Usually, we only join for two months, and we are always striving for fertility. Our heifers don’t get any special consideration and we fertility test our bulls every year,” Mark said.
“The CashCow project gave us a lot of good feedback on nutrition – we were happy with our fertility rates with the cows up around an average of 90 per cent calving rates over the life of CashCow.
“We strive to be up around 97 per cent calving rate and maintain that. Nutrition plays a part in fertility with a lot of Australian soils being phosphorus deficient, but a big part is management.”
The “deal breaker” traits in bulls are 600-day weight estimated breeding value, scrotal circumference over 40cm and 100 per cent eye pigment in both eyes. Maternal traits including milk and carcase indicators such as eye muscle area and IMF are also considered.
The family classes their own heifers and grows them out for joining as two-year-olds.
“We are not turning out weaners but heavyweight feeder steers to be finished by the age of two years,” Mark said.
“Kilcoy is our preferred destination, and the top of the grid is 400kg carcase weight. We need bone, length, depth and width in those calves. So, we are looking for large framed, fertile cows and big, fleshy bulls.
“Those steers have to be gone by the age of two – we don’t hang on to them until they are two-and-a-half or three-years-old.
“Our cast-for-age cows are also finished in the feedlot to over 800kg liveweight, so we lose there if we join them too young as heifers. It is a trade-off and one we are happy running with.”
The joining percentage has slowly declined from four bulls to 100 cows and is now at 3 per cent.
“CashCow pushed for a lower percentage and once again it is a trade off – the bulls are capable of doing better and I would be comfortable at 2 per cent, but in the commercial herd setting we don’t see them every day.
“We join the heifers for eight weeks and the cows 12 weeks in November to January, aiming for conception in those first two cycles but in saying that the weather can be quite hot.
“We like the cows to calve a bit lighter in condition and then be on a rising plane of nutrition.”
Calves are weaned into the feedlot according to seasonal conditions rather than weight and bunk trained on a grain and fodder ration.
“The feedlot gives us the flexibility to wean calves earlier if we have to. It was built as a risk management tool for consistently turning off heavyweight steers by the age of two for premium markets in our variable climate,” Mark said.
“Our ration is a simple, traditional one of home-grown wheat and hay with the additives. Wheat is what cattle will perform on but it is higher risk, so we carefully manage the feeding in those first three weeks.
“We are aiming for the 400kg carcase, even in our cull heifers, so have two entry points a year – the first entry is for all steers and the second for cull heifers and tail end steers.
“We try not to feed over summer as we don’t get the average daily gain due to the heat. So, we calve over summer during our greatest grass growth, put the calves in the feedlot at the end of that pasture growth, and they are gone by the time they are two.”
Being one mark and vendor bred, the steers are well socialised and educated to the feedlot beforehand.
An average daily gain target during the 100-day grain fed program is 2.5kg.
“We find the Herefords are feed efficient and the quiet temperament never goes astray. The heifers have the frame size to carry a 100-day feeding and can perform without a growth promotant,” Mark said.
Mark said the full Meat Standards Australia chiller feedback is evaluated and used to fine tune the breeding and feeding programs.
“Kilcoy also gives us their internal benchmarking feedback for the cattle killed in the same fortnight. It is handy to compare all the 100-day grain fed cattle subject to the same humidity and heat events and processed at the same time. They may have been under different feed rations and management, but they had to put up with the same weather conditions,” he said.
“Our average MSA Index is in the high 50s and 70 per cent of the bodies a marble score one. The ossification of our cattle usually shows up well as they are younger at heavier weights compared to the other breeds with a MSA score of 100 to 150.
“The Herefords early maturity and finishing ability at a younger age is an absolute advantage and that shows up in our benchmarking.”
Stephen, George, Mark and Matthew Bowhay in their feedlot on Buckinbah, St George. Image Steve Reid.
