Breeding Program
With food producers worldwide under increasing pressure to ‘produce more with less’, Greenstead Grazing’s breeding program centres around cow herd efficiency.
Herd genetics with commercially profitable traits, achieved in a natural environment without artificial inputs, deliver sustainability – both economic and environmental. Our commercial focus as beef producers gives us a unique point of difference as seedstock breeders.Breeding Objectives
Temperament
No artificial inputs
The entire herd is grass fed, organic.
Fertility
Selection pressure across the herd means every female must calve unassisted by 2 years of age and continue to wean a calf every 12 months, within a 60-day joining.
Polled
Intense bull selection
Only top 5 % of male calves selected as bulls for continued genetic gain.
Early puberty
Selection for scrotal size at weaning and one year old. Bulls must have reached puberty by one year old. Research shows scrotal size needs to be evaluated in terms of ‘how big and how soon’ ie. when you want your heifers cycling.
Adaption
Bred in tough environmental conditions to perform with no artificial inputs.
Bulls in paddock condition, ready to work
View bulls in their ‘working clothes’ to select animals that can perform in a grass-fed environment.
Market suitability
Selection traits based around fertility and growth patterns to meet organic, MSA market specifications, off grass.
Our family’s breeding program has been in place for over 25 years and now sells seedstock under the Rangeland Bulls breeding collective. The collective group is made up of Esmae and Steve Taylor (Amy’s parents) and Kate and Pete Moloney (Amy’s sister and brother in-law) and Amy and Kenton Peart.
As commercially focused beef producers, Rangeland Bulls share the growing interest in improving cow herd productivity and linking bull breeding to the commercial sector. They offer an alternative where animals have been selected for many years based on genetic merit without any nutritional advantages and bulls are presented in grass-fed condition.
Rangeland Bulls’ breeding priorities are reflective of the profit drivers in a commercial herd, focusing on the productivity gains that come from running fertile, efficient cows that will wean a higher percentage of their own weight without inputs. The selection traits of the program have remained constant over time, with the enduring goal of optimising net profit per hectare in a commercial environment. Cows need to work hard to stay in this grass-fed system, where selection pressure is essential to genetic progress of the herd. They have never set out to produce a large number of bulls and only offer bulls for sale they would be satisfied to use themselves.
“I have been performing the routine veterinary work at Wetlands and Dunvegan including pregnancy testing and bull testing for some years. In my experience the cattle are quiet and perform well year on year almost regardless of the season.
Each year the conception rate is consistently above 90%, including the heifers that are joined as yearlings. All females are joined for only 3 months. Empty females are culled which means that every bull produced, is from a cow that has produced a calf every year. This is extremely important as it sets them apart from many other bull breeding operations.
Fertility is a heritable trait. By keeping bulls only out of females that produce a calf every year means that the herd increases in fertility and these bulls will then pass this on to their progeny. Joining the cows for only 3 months (and the same months each year) also increases the selection pressure and means that only the most fertile cows become pregnant as their inter-calving interval has to be under 365 days.”
Dr Will Nason; BVSc (Hons), Veterinarian
