DROUGHT in 2005 and 2006 took its toll on Murrabah Salers, Tocumwal, NSW, forcing the Randall family to move to Warrnambool, to manage a large Angus stud in the western districts of Victoria.
Rob Randall, who helps father Malcolm run the stud, said they relocated half of their herd, about 20 Salers, to Warrnambool, and continued to run their operation there.
“The drought was really tough, our best option was to relocate the nucleus of the herd,” Mr Randall said.
He said his father, and father’s father Reg, had run Salers for about 25 years, but working with Angus cattle helped spark an interest in the breed.
“We love Salers, they’re a good maternal breed, but they are a minority, there’s not a huge pool of them in the country,” he said.
“Angus are more of a majority breed, they’re easy care, and easy to market, everyone loves them at the saleyards.”
In 2013, the family moved back to their Tocumwal property, and decided to add Angus cattle to their operation.
They currently run about 150 head on 130 hectares, 60 per cent of those being Angus, and 40 pc being Salers.
Mr Randall said visual appearance is of significant importance to the stud.
“At the saleyards, buyers are looking at the animal, that’s what they care about,” he said.
“To be commercially relevant, you’ve got to sell well on the hook.”
They breed crossbred steers and heifers, and sell straight off mothers at local markets.
They also sell about 15-20 bulls privately a year, 80 pc to local farmers, and the remainder to the northern area.
Mr Randall said Stock & Land Beef Week is their most valuable marketing avenue for these sales.
“This will be our third year taking part, it’s always good to see new faces,” he said.
Murrabah rely on artificial insemination (AI), joining twice a year on all of their cows and heifers, to calve in autumn and spring.
“We’re fortunate enough to have had a lot of success with conception,” he said.
“Doing it twice a year spreads out the flow of calves coming through in the herd and to the market.”
He said they have had to refrain from using AI in the past, to make the most of the bulls they have on the ground.
“We bought the second top-priced bull from Vermont Angus, Penshurst, at their bull sale about eight years ago, and he’s bred some really nice calves,” he said.
“It got to the point where we weren’t getting many calves by him because of the AI conception rate, so one year we decided to not AI so we could get more use out of him.”
He said it’s been a very busy few months for the stud, having just finished doing AI/ET in December, as well as their harvest, and Mr Randall said he’s looking forward to bigger and better years to come.
“We want to expand and grow our clientele, and getting more into social media is definitely an option we’ve considered,” he said.
He said he plans to continue running the stud after his father retires.
“Beef cattle is all I’ve ever known, I’ve done it since I was a kid,” he said.
