News

The Cassilis ‘No Harvest’ Party will be held on Friday 6th December at the Cassilis Bowling Club. All are welcome to attend, it will be a great chance for everyone to relax & catch up over a few drinks & a nice meal!

Early weaning is definitely one of the more frequent topics for discussion among producers. Its an important strategy that can be used to successfully care for cows and ensure calf growth can be maintained. However, it does require some planning and has to be done with a daily focus. There are no shortcuts!

There are a lot of traits for what makes a successful farming family and we came across this article from Rural Resources Online that sums up some great observations.

As the drought continues to take its toll on rural communities, we were so excited to see a great initiative appear on the social media pages in the form of #buyfromthebush

Matt has joined a team of 70 other stud breeders to take part in the Movember challenge!

Movember raises funds for mens health, including Prostate Cancer, Testicular Cancer, Mental Health & Suicide Prevention.

Many people have put bulls out early this year. However, it is worth considering how the delay in cows returning to cyclicity will effect our joining result and pattern, especially in late calvers. 

We’re always looking for new ways to improve labour efficiencies on our farm. We came across the Optiweigh system & thought it had both labour, time & convenience advantages to offer.

In this article Ross Watson shares some interesting facts & figures on the current drought & looks at the likelihood of moderate to good rainfall in late spring-summer.

Do you listen to podcasts? If so, be sure to subscribe to the Profitable Farmer podcast with Andrew Roberts from the Farm Owners Academy. It’s an informative and thought-provoking listen as he discusses the skills you need to run a successful farming business.

We’ve just added another new stud sire to our team! We’re very excited to have been able to secure Lot 9. Ardrossan Holbrook N329, at the Ardrossan Angus Bull Sale last week. 

This bull has an exceptional set of data & complete new genetics for our breeding program. He is currently one of the highest marbling bulls in the breed, with an IMF of +4.7.

A new stud sire has arrived at Trio Angus! We recently purchased Waitara General N87 from Steve & Amity Chase, Trangie. He ticks plenty of boxes with a low birth weight, average mature size & big EMA, along with a pedigree that will introduce some exciting new genetics to our herd.

Two of the leading Lion Heart sons in our sale have started the long journey from Cassilis to Mortlake, VIC.

They were purchased by Steve & Noeleen Branson from Banquet Angus, a very well respected stud that sells 200 bulls a year.

Thankyou to everyone who supported our Spring Bull Sale. It was great to see high quality genetics still in demand. We sold 92% of the bulls offered, to a top of $9000 & average of $5422.

The Lion Heart sons were in high demand, with two being purchased by Banquet Angus, VIC, for stud duties. 

Recent research has confirmed that cattle with acceptable temperaments generally have higher conception, calving & weaning rates.

After more than two years of challenging seasonal conditions, many producers are facing a potentially difficult heifer calving. It’s time to ask ourselves, are our heifers adequately grown out? Are they nutritionally moving forward and ready for calving?
We know that genetics is essential to calving ease and calf size, however they are not the only piece of the pie. Nutrition, past and present, is the essential link in preparing beef females.

In this article Sutton’s Livestock shares some troubleshooting advice.

New research done by Angus Australia & CSIRO has lead to the development of ImmuneDEX – a genetic description of an animal’s ability to react to an immune system challenge (i.e. disease).

With further research this genetic strategy is expected to help reduce the use of antibiotics & also improve animal health & welfare.

In this article Kit Pharo discusses the impact a heavy calf can have on a cows ability to rebreed.

An interesting article written by Terry McCosker from RCS -‘There is always a cost in a drought. The difficult thing is to restrict the cost to a financial one. However frequently, due to lack of a solid drought plan, there is a cost to the land, the livestock and the people in the business, on top of a financial loss’.

In this article David McLean from RCS explains how high productivity doesn’t automatically equal higher profitability.

Kit Pharo says – Absolutely! If you have been paying attention, it should be obvious that not all cows are created equal.

Hot dry conditions have meant a challenging year for pinkeye, with some local mobs unfortunately experiencing high disease levels in not just young stock but cow and bull mobs. Where some have traditionally regarded pinkeye as a self-limiting process, with little intervention needed; no-one can ignore that occurrence and severity appears to be increasing, and prevention and treatment strategies are needed to avoid serious production and sale value losses.

This week marks two years since the Sir Ivan Bush Fire raged through our farm & created chaos in our community. Thankyou to everyone for their amazing help & support since then. Here’s a video sharing our story https://youtu.be/eEjS3cxj2PU

We recently traveled to Ebor to listen to US rancher, Kit Pharo. Kit is well-known for challenging the status quo & encouraging farmers to think outside the box.

Spring joining is now well underway in the local district. During this time regular monitoring of your bulls is paramount.