ALLAN Crozier admitted he hadn’t heard of Charolais cattle before getting involved in the breed, but is now coming close to five decades running his own Charolais stud, Morgiana House.
“I went down to do an artificial insemination (AI) course at Werribee, and these two guys had got some Charolais semen from England, and were talking about it,” Mr Crozier said.
“It then seemed like every newspaper and radio station was talking about the breed, and I asked my dad if he had heard of them, and he said he had no idea.”
The benefits they kept hearing about the breed led them to establish the stud in 1970, which was based on genetics sought from New Zealand.
“We imported some semen from New Zealand, which was pretty hard to get at the time, and used it on some Dairy Shorthorn cows, which we already had, and the growth on the calves was incredible,” he said.
They weren’t originally able to source cattle directly from Europe and the United States.
“The English would only offer the cattle they didn’t want, and the New Zealanders would buy them because they could import cattle and we couldn’t, and then they would take the top of the pick, and then we’d just be able to buy the leftovers,” he said.
“But then they were importing semen from France to England, and shortly after we were able to get semen from the United States and Canada, and that allowed us to upgrade our herd.
“We then purchased a daughter of the Brisbane Interbreed Champion, Colinta Tiara, and our last French heifer was purchased from Rosedale Charolais stud, Blayney, NSW, Rosedale Honor, who was a very successful import, originally from New Zealand.”
In that time, the genetics within Australia also began to improve.
“The first French cow I bought was from Mount William Charolais, Willaura, and then I bought another from a stud dispersal in New South Wales,” he said.
Mr Crozier has also recently got his hands on some semen from a premier French sire, named Castor.
“I heard about Castor from a French AI exper last year, who told me how successful he’d been, and then some agents in Australia got some semen tubes from him, and I was in the right position to be able to buy them,” he said.
“We’ll join him this coming season, and flush some of our top cows too.”
He joins about 90 cows per year, of which he anticipates to slowly increase.
“We don’t have the biggest herd, and there are some out there with 1800 cows, and you can only imagine how many bulls they’d need,” he said.
“If I went out and bought bulls, I’d probably buy three, and if one of those bulls was no good, we’d have a third of those calves that we’d need to cull.
“Whereas if I had 10 bulls to produce sale bulls from, there’s not much risk of having a dud, because you can cull those calves and still have enough for a sale.”
The stud generally offers 20-25 bulls at its on-property sale, with the upcoming sale its 10th.
He said he believes Charolais are a standout breed of cattle.
“They’re exceptional on grass, you don’t need to grain feed them, they’ve got tremendous weight for age and muscle,” he said.
“When you go to buy your steak, you’re buying muscle, and Charolais are one of the best breeds for it.”
He said being able to utilise BreedPlan has revolutionised his breeding program.
“We’ve had great success with BreedPlan, we’re now able to really factor in the things that are important, the profit drivers, and work to improve them,” he said.
“I have figures on my cows and bulls, and can match them up to improve them.”
It’s the stud’s 15th year participating in Stock & Land Beef Week, of which Mr Crozier said has been a valuable promotion tool.
“If you go to a show, you’re just going to bring your best cows and bulls, whereas if you visit a stud on an open day, you get a better idea of the entire operation,” he said.
“We get people coming from all over the place, and not just Charolais people, we get some that might be visiting a nearby stud, and want to come and look because they like the look of Charolais cattle.”
