A balanced approach at Alpine Angus

The stud, owned by Jim Delany, who grew up locally and now lives in Melbourne, concentrates very heavily on structure, type and temperament, with high 400 and 600-day growth figures.

Stud manager Chris Oswin said the key to the Alpine Angus breeding program was selecting sires to complement the strong female herd.

“We introduce high performance sires in our breeding program, but we’re not really into just stacking EBVs (estimated breeding values) and putting the highest numbered sire over the highest numbered female – we prefer a balanced breeding approach, selecting physical traits to complement each side,” Mr Oswin said.

“A lot of clients are looking for moderate birthweight bulls, with good growth, that are easy to handle, easy to manage.”

The stud’s genetic diversity increased following the acquisition of key Welcome Swallow females in 2015, with Welcome Swallow principals Jim and Suzy Martin joining the team to assist with marketing and genetic development.

Alpine Angus has been participating in Stock & Land Beef Week for about 15 years, and will have a selection of sale bulls on display, along with some females, at Rosewhite.

“The open day is about five weeks before our autumn sale, which gives clients the opportunity to look at our sale bulls and talk to the team about bulls that will suit their operations,” Mr Oswin said.

Included in the sale will be 10 bulls by Coonamble Hector H249, who was bred by Murray and Craig Davis at Coonamble Angus, Bremer Bay, Western Australia, and was the sire of $190,000 heifer Millah Murrah Prue M4, who set a new Australian Angus record at the Millah Murrah sale in October this year.

“He’s a low birthweight strong-bodied bull, with excellent docility and throws a very consistent type,” Mr Oswin said.

“Hector is not the biggest growth bull going around but excels in producing high quality cattle with true Angus characteristics.

“He has only had progeny in three sales to date, topping two of them and producing the second and third highest-priced bulls in the other.

“It is pretty incredible to think from his first drop of calves a bull can produce the highest-priced Angus animal sold in Australia as well as bulls making to $40,000, $30,000 and $26,000.”

The stud is now joining more than 500 females, and has shifted to holding two bull sales, offering a total of 150 bulls a year.

“We’ve had a 100 per cent clearance with bulls for the past three years, which we think is a testament to the quality and consistency of our bulls,” Mr Oswin said.