TIM Stokes, manager at Karn Station, is firm believer in the benefits of crossbreeding and composites, but also sees their sheep program as a work in progress.
The 1600 hectare property, owned by Jill and Peter Lloyd and based just south Benalla, is currently running approximately 1000 cows and 2800 maternal composite sheep.
“We calve in spring and then yard wean in January, they then have around eight weeks on a recently introduced irrigation property, which has reduced our reliance on supplementary feeding over summer” Mr Stokes said.
For the past three years, the steers have gone to Oakey Queensland at 12-14 months and the cull heifers have been going to Coles at weights ranging from 220-300 carcase weight at 15 or 16 months.
We now are aiming for a 650kg cow not a 850 kg cow – saving us basically 150 kilos of feed...
- Tim Stokes, Karn Station manager
Traditionally, the herd was of a Hereford base with a mix of Simmental/Hereford cross cows. But with the aim of breeding more moderate sized cows, Mr Stokes has introduced both red and black Stabilzers and now70 per cent of the herd has a Stabilzer influence. “We now are aiming for a 650kg cow not a 850 kg cow – saving us basically 150 kilos of feed and still delivering the same or better calf weight at weaning.”
The decision to use Stabilizers was value based too, we are feel we are getting get the growth and genetics without paying a premium for high end Angus genetics.
The thing I like about the Stabilizers we get from Paringa is that you are getting some of the best Angus genetics coupled with the best other breeds.
At this stage, Mr Stokes still prefers the 50–25-25 mix which is usually Angus-Gelbvieh-Simmental.
He likes the Gelbvieh for carcase traits and positive fat, and the Simmental for frame.
At this stage all retained heifers are artificially inseminated to Angus bulls, with the cows being joined to Stabilizers. Mr Stokes said the reintroduction of straight Angus bulls at some later stage was not out of the question but would be based on the progress of the herd.
“We are gradually trying to bring down the age of our mature cows to 6-7 years, so that when we sell them they still breeding value don’t not simple get processed.”
The size of the sheep enterprise has almost tripled in the past five years and the flock is made up of Lampro Maternal composite ewes which are delivering really pleasing results. “We use Poll Dorset rams in the terminal program, and more recently we have tried FocusPrime sires from Focus Genetics again as a terminal sire, with most of the lamb sent to Coles.” Mr Stokes said the current mix of cattle to sheep on the property was 80-20, with the aim over time to grow sheep numbers and ultimately run somewhere closer to a 70-30 mix.
