BRUCE and Sue Griffiths’ dedication to showing is evident when you walk onto one of their three properties in Kyneton, where they have countless ribbons and photos on display.
The couple, of Beckenham Limousins, started showing back in 2007, and have continued to compete all around the country, at Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide’s royal shows.
Ms Griffiths said competing is a good opportunity to benchmark against the rest of the country, but Mr Griffiths said it’s often not the best judge of quality.
“It’s all well and good to judge for what’s on the outside, but at the end of the day, it’s what’s on the inside that really counts,” Mr Griffiths said.
“You’ve got to remind yourself what it is you’re breeding for.”
Despite this, they have enjoyed their many successes, including winning interbreed reserve cow and calf at Melbourne in 2009, which Ms Griffiths said was a particularly thrilling win.
“Bruce bought me Jill as a birthday present, so it was extra exciting that she won, because she was mine,” Ms Griffiths said.
At Melbourne in 2014, they won grand champion and reserve champion domestic steer on the hook, as well as export grand champion.
They said Stock & Land Beef Week, which they’ve participated in for the majority of the last 15 years, is a good opportunity to show off their cattle, but with much less work.
“It can be a lot of work to show, which is why Beef Week is really good, the farmers can come to us,” Mr Griffiths said.
They said they would be selling a pen of heifers at Stock & Land Beef Week this year.
Mr and Ms Griffiths initially only ran cattle commercially, but said it wasn’t long before they increased their workload on the farm.
They now run 103 registered breeders, a few commercial cattle, and about 200 first-cross sheep, on their three properties that collectively span about 300 hectares.
Before Mr and Ms Griffiths became dedicated Limousin breeders, they had a stint at breeding Meuse Rhine Issel cattle, a breed that originated in the Netherlands and Germany.
“They were meant to be dual purpose cattle, good for milk and meat, but no one wants dual purpose cattle nowadays,” Mr Griffiths said.
“There just weren’t many other breeders in the country, it was a pity it didn’t work out.”
After this, they decided to focus purely on their Limousin cattle, and have since strived to “breed the perfect animal”.
“Limousins have a high dressing out percentage, and butchers really like their meat,” Mr Griffiths said.
They said artificial insemination (AI) and embryo transfers (ET) have played a big part in their operation, despite it increasing their workload.
“We join cows all year round, with great difficulty,” Mr Griffiths said.
“AI and ET work upsets our joining process because it mucks around with their routine.
“Ideally we would like to have an autumn and spring calving, it would be a lot easier, and it’s something we’ll look to implement.”
All of their hard work has paid off, with their genetics being sought after interstate, as well as overseas.
“We bought a bull from an Australian breeder, Mandayen, Keith, SA, and he’s had over 500 calves, and we were contacted by studs in New Zealand, Indonesia, and Asia for some of his semen,” Mr Griffiths said.
“We were hesitant to send it overseas, because we’ve had trouble before with quarantine issues, but we ended up doing it through Semex, and they handled it all for us.”
They also sent three live bulls to China a few years ago, and have had a couple of hundred live embryos sent to Indonesia.
Another of Beckenham’s biggest achievements was donating the Bendigo National Beef charity steer in 2010, in conjunction with Finley High School, who they have donated a steer to annually since 2007.
The steer was shown first on the hook, and along with other entries, was auctioned off, with all proceeds going to the McGrath Foundation.
Ms Griffiths said that a few years later, she ended up needing the services of the foundation.
“Little did we know that I’d be diagnosed with breast cancer a few years later, at least we ended up donating to a foundation that we unfortunately ended up needing,” Ms Griffiths said.
