rcCharolais/Brahman a

Magic Mix in OldGraham and Roslyn Bauer believe matchingyour cattle to your country and they say therecould not be a better mix for their country than

Gharolais bulls over Brahman females.Graham and Roslyn Bauer use Charolais cattle in their beefoperation at "Greendale", Tambo in Central West

Queensland.The family has been involved in breeding purebredBrahman cattle since 1955 as they were originally based inQueensland's coastal area.

Graham said the lighter country complete with ticks and

other parasites, made it necessary to use Brahman cattle tomaximise returns.They registered their Brahman stud in 1960 and havecarried on with the breed ever since.

in

"We try to keep a stud herd of about 300 cows and sell theBrahman and Charbray bulls we produce without grainfeeding, straight to producers in our region and furthernorth," Graham said.

The Bauers moved to "Wahroonga" in 1985 on the DarlingDowns, an area which was tick free, so they decided toexperiment with the Charolais breed."Over the years we had shown cattle all over the countryand had seen the early Charolais cattle as we travelled theshows," he said."Our first Charolais bulls were purchased in 1986 and we

have been using the breed inour operation ever since."Our program involvesusing Brahman cows afterthey have had one Brahmancalf and mating them toCharolais bulls. The femalefirst-cross progeny areretained for breeding andjoined to Santa Gertrudisbulls as terminal sires."The Santa progeny are solddirectly off their Charbraymothers to a fattener in theRoma district or throughRoma saleyards.

A percentage ofthe first-cross males are kept as

Charbray bulls and the restof the steers sold."The fatteners at Roma,John and Anne Martyn,keep accurate records ofthese cattle and it is theirbelief they get more weightfrom the first-cross cattlebut the Santa-crosses are

inclined to carry the fat

Charolais Australia July 2006 - Page 56

t@Charolais/Brahman a Magic Mix in

Gentral Old Commercial Herd (cont.)cover required at an earlyage."The steers they buy usuallyaverage around 280 to 300kilograrns off their mothersand most dress at about 330to 350kg in 12 to 14

months."Over the years we have

cemented our belief that inany breed of cattle you muststick as much as possible to

the breed characteristics,"Graham said."The early imports ofFrench cattle impressed us

with their length and

softness of fleshing with abit of hair on them as theyare supposed to have. We

have used a large number ofthe Cass family's bulls as

we strongly believe theydisplay the characteristicswe desire," Graham said.

"For the year 2005 we received a total of nine inches for the

year and we have found the traditional French-type bullscan handle this. The bulls from the Cass family have proven

to be alert and active in the tough environment."We fully understand thereis a demand for differenttypes ofcattle in any breedbut on observation in thistype of country the taller,clean-coated NorthAmerican types don't seem

to handle this country as

well as the traditionalFrench type of cattle."The Bauers run about 300stud Brahman cows, 400 to450 commercial Brahmancows and 400 to 450 first-cross Charolais/Brahmancows."We've tried other breeds ofcattle in our crossbreedingenterprise but we feel these

three breeds have fitted withthe type of country wehave," Graham said.

Charolais Australia July 2006 - Page 58