Rainfall to date has been 40+ mm. Pastures have responded quickly to the rain at our southern tablelands property with clover shooting to the two leaf stage. Cattle are grazing fresh green feed along with variable cover of old dry feed making a good combination. All cattle are in sound working condition. Spring cows with calves are milking well, dry Autumn cows and heifers entering their last trimester also in ideal condition. Urgently looking for follow up rain to keep things going, along with cooler temperatures <30°C.

Our plans for the next few months are to spread 125 kg/ha single super over all our country and sow Tetila ryegrass in up to 80 hectares to provide finishing feed for steers/bulls and options for silage/hay later in the year.

Cattle

We have over the last couple of years undertaken an extensive ET program for both our Fleckvieh and Angus. New bulls used have included JNR Gravity 813U, Sibelle Dirty Harry and various Bar 5 sires. Our donor cows have included our great matron B018 together with younger cows like E025 and H072. Our strategy is to increase numbers of polled genetics without compromising our quality. Note: As well as providing us with polled bulls for in herd use, we also have polled and horned bulls for sale from these programs, it also quickly improves quality of the female herd.

Our latest ET implant was mid November 2015 and we about to preg test both recips and breeders for Spring 2016 calving.

Sale results – 2015 was a great year for bull sales and 2016 is shaping up to be just as good with current prices for weaners as high as $3.65/kg.

Angus program

Our Angus program is based around a group of donor females purchased from Kennys Creek and Millah Murrah together with embryos purchased from KO Angus. The sires used have included Braveheart of Stern, Rennylea Edmund, BT Right Time and Te Mania Emperor. These programs have enabled us to kick start Wirrabilla Angus stud and have proved more cost effective than any other way. Once again we have bulls for sale – our main focus is on high 200, 400 day growth (vealers) with above average EBV’s for IMF and P8 rump fat, and milk.

We are crossing these elite Angus genetics with our elite Fleckvieh to give an exceptional Fleckvieh/Angus composite with bulls also available from this program.

To this end we will have, centred around this years Beef Week, a 3 day private treaty sale for Fleckvieh, Angus and composite bulls and females. All bulls will be for sale at $3000 + GST/head with females depending on age and pregnancy status from $1200 to $4000.

Moving Forward

Wirrabilla has entered two teams of steers in the Beef Spectacular Trial for 2016 comprising 10 animals. Following our result in 2014 where one of our Fleckvieh/Angus steers was the highest point scorer overall, we are hoping for good feedback again this time around.

The next few months will see our Autumn cows and heifers calving for 7 weeks starting from February 8th. We will have a number of females available to meet Chinese orders once Blue Tongue quarantine conditions have been met. Our Spring cows and heifers are to be preg tested in February along with any calves that need to be dehorned. We have a flush program coming up shortly and we are also willing to carry out custom ET programs to suit client needs. Note: We always have bulls and females for sale all year round – as we only grass feed, the condition of the stock can vary according to the season.

If instead you are more interested in purchasing embryos, please contact us about our available genetics.