Despite a bias against Bos Indicus blood in the Meat Standards Australia beef grading system, the Brangus cattle breeder has already shown that crossbred vealers out of Brangus cows can match the best that British-bred cattle could produce.
At Beef Australia 2012 in Rockhampton in May, the Elliott family's Corumbene Brangus stud's two Belgian Blue-Brangus steer calves placed first and fourth in a class.
"Our steers competed at seven other shows across Queensland after that and we won five grand championships," Geordie said.
One of the steers then placed 12th as a carcass at the EKKA show in Brisbane, in August, scoring 87 MSA points out of 100, among 650 steers competing.
Geordie 23, his sisters, Jackie 20, and Annie 16, made the trip to Queensland just 18 months after they and their parents, Will and Christine, moved from Leongatha to establish a new base on the 250ha property, Weerangourt East at Byaduk, south of Hamilton, in prime Angus and Hereford territory.
Geordie's sisters also made state handler finals with Angus steers at the Royal Melbourne Show last month and their 450kg yearling Belgian Blue-Brangus heifer, exhibited by Rural Industries Skill Training Hamilton, placed third in the jackpot class on combined hoof and hook points.
"She gained 2kg a day in 90 days and came out with an MSA score of 89.6 points and the grand champion carcass won with 92 points," Geordie said.
"Our heifer placed sixth in the live class and sixth in the carcass class.
He said competing in the shows provided a good guide to how the Brangus-cross carcasses perform under MSA grading, that took points off for having Bos Indicus content in the calves.
In Australia, registered Brangus cattle must have 25-75 per cent Bos Indicus blood with the balance being Angus, but Geordie said the Corumbene Brangus show steers' Belgian Blue parentage dropped their progeny's Bos Indicus blood back to less than 20 per cent. Geordie believed the Corumbene Brangus steer results showed that very low Bos Indicus content cattle could grade under MSA "as good as, or better than any other breed".
"I'm not saying that full blood Brahman cattle will make the MSA grade, I would never say that, but our Brangus cattle are 5/8 Angus, 3/8 Brahman, so then you are putting them over a 100 per cent European or British breed animal," he said.
The Elliotts moved to Byaduk after two years on a Leongatha farm, but it was on a property at Barfold, near Kyneton, in 1991 that they got their first taste of Brangus cattle.
A Brangus bull bred by Bob Davies on Phillip Island infused impressive hybrid vigour and finishing ability into calves from their Hereford and Shorthorn-cross cows.
Some heifers were retained and were crossed back to Brangus bulls.
By 2000 the Elliott family had registered the Brangus stud name Corumbene, the name of their property at Barfold .
The Elliott's then purchased the Capuchon Brangus herd from Geoff Hood on Phillip Island in 2003.
This was one of the oldest registered Brangus herds in Australia and founded on embryos imported from the US in the 1960s and 1970s from the earliest Brinks Brangus bloodlines.
Many of Australia's Brangus cattle reside north of the Victorian-NSW border, but the Elliott's now have one of the oldest herds in Australia, in non-traditional breed territory.
The family is still using embryos from the earliest imported US bloodlines to inject more frame and milking ability to get what Geordie believes will be an ideally framed cow for Australia. The Corumbene Brangus herd of 30 commercial and 80 stud cows had "turned inside out" at Byaduk he said.
Most of the cows are calved in the spring.
"Our cows improved in condition, heifers got in calf easier and calves finished earlier and heavier," Geordie said.
"Calf mortality rates are near to nothing now. We've had to keep the condition back on the cows and use lower birth weight bulls."
Geordie is confident the herd will lift its beef production/ha and the breeding success at Weerangourt East will allow him to cull the cows harder.
"We'll tighten the stud cattle up and start investing more money into North American and higher quality genetics," he said.
The investment has already started with the purchase of Cloncurry 146F7 for $13,000 at the Telpara Hills Elite Genetics Sale at Rockhampton in May during the World Brangus Congress.
The high marbling son of the leading American sire, Csonka of Brinks, will go over all of their stud cows and fitted Corumbene Brangus's focus of breeding thicker, more moderate frame cattle.
"He is in the top one per cent in his drop for 90 per cent of his estimated breeding values for growth, carcase and weight," Geordie said.
Corumbene Brangus aimed to start selling bulls in the next few years and Geordie believed the stud's location gives it good access to South Australia and the Wimmera, where the Brangus would do well because of their ability to push on through summer.
He believed a potential market for Brangus sires would be dairy herds wanting low birth weight, fast-finishing calves from bulls that are easy to handle.
"The main market we are chasing is the Angus cow market," Geordie said.
"If we chase up the people using Angus or black baldy cows or any beef cow, the Brangus will put extra bodyweight into calves.
"We are weaning them at about 350-400kg and they are getting out of here at about 10 to 12 months old."
The commercial Brangus cows at Weerangourt East are joined to Belgian Blue bulls to produce their steer show calves and "unstoppable" vealers for sale over the hooks.
If the season permits, the Belgian Blue-cross calves can gain up to 2kg a day and be sold straight off the cows at eight to nine months, Geordie said.
Last year, Corumbene sold 20 stud heifers to Asia as part of an air shipment of 150 cattle.
"We're hoping it will be ongoing, but we are also getting a lot of interest from Malaysia for embryos," Geordie said.
Weerangourt East is also running 650 first-cross ewes, joined to Warrayure White Suffolk rams, that have consistently weaned 150 per cent lambs.
Geordie is allergic to wool so leaves the sheep work to his father, except for lamb marking.
"The sheep are making a lot of money for our operation," he said.
"But the Brangus cattle are my love. They cover their bills beautifully and we'll develop them into a more condensed herd of higher quality cattle
Source: weeklytimesnow.com.au
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