Trevor Hall puts his money where his mouth is when it comes to breeding cattle that can not only survive, but thrive, through tough seasons.
After 2022 brought what the Quarterway Angus principal described as ‘’the wettest winter he’d seen in 40 years”, 2023 followed with a very dry spring.
Both the stud and commercial herds at the Waterhouse, Tasmania, operation have come through the extreme seasons well and continue to breed highly profitable offspring.
“The spring failed us, and we’ve had minimal rainfall since September; and that is general across Tasmania – the hay and fodder cuts were less than half of what they would be,” Trevor said.
“But the resilience is evident in our cow herd, they are still holding condition despite doing it pretty tough – we aren’t supplementary feeding any of the cow herd.
“We have to breed the cattle so they are tough enough to withstand any season.”
Also coming through the dry period with flying colours is the latest crop of bulls to be offered at Quarterway’s annual autumn offering on March 15.
“It is a great run of bulls, including the first sons we will offer of Nampara Junior Q148, as well as bulls by Pathfinder Prophet Q400 and some standout lots by Millah Murrah Quixote Q96,” Trevor said.
“They’ve got the depth and thickness we are looking for with sound feet and really good temperament.
“There is also a really good spread of data across the bulls.”
The sale will also feature grandsons of Merchiston Steakhouse 489, a New Zealand bred bull which Quarterway has semen shares in.
“We first trialled Steakhouse in our commercial herd, and he bred really good, structurally sound cattle,” Trevor said.
“And now we’ve got some great bulls from his line.
“There is starting to be a trend in the Angus breed to go to New Zealand to look for sires, but we’ve been doing it for 10-12 years.
“We first use them in the commercial herd and if they make the cut, they go into the stud herd.”
The consistency and quality throughout the catalogue particularly stand out this year, Trevor said, with the bulls in the end pen as good as the bulls in the first.
Last autumn, Quarterway sold 59 of the 61 bulls they offered, topping at $21,000 for a Texas Horsepower N229 son, and averaging $9339.
The 34 Angus bulls the stud sold in the spring offered Quarterway’s return clients even more great value, averaging $7000 and topping at $11,000.
Trevor said producers have got more optimistic since Christmas, however, with cattle prices on the improve and the global beef trade looking positive.
“If you look at the latest figures coming out of the USDA (US Department of Agriculture) at the end of January, the US herd is at its lowest numbers since 1951 and the female slaughter is still up at 52%,” Trevor said.
The US is one of Australia’s key beef export markets, and as US production falls it relies more on imported product.
“Australia’s beef job has to go off, there is no reason for it to be held back,” Trevor added.
“We are breeding cattle we can make money out of, and we want cow calf operators to be paid a decent price for the investment they make.”
“High profit cattle mean steers hitting feedlots weights at 13-15 months and in self-replacing herds the heifers doing the same to reach a good mating weight.
“We want to breed cows that get in calf every year, have no calving issues, and raise it well.”
Quarterway’s Autumn bull sale will be held on Friday March 15 at “Lyndhurst” via Waterhouse, Tasmania, with the sale kicking off at 1pm and integrated with AuctionsPlus.
As always, the stud offers free delivery Tasmania wide, including King and Flinders Islands, as well as to Melbourne, Victoria.