After taking over the reins of his family’s property, The Gums, near Casterton, in May, Nathan Faroe is looking forward to offering a quality draft of Angus weaners at next week’s Casterton sales.
The Faroe family have been long-time supporters of the annual sales. Now trading as Carapook Pastoral, Mr Faroe will sell about 280 February/March-drop steers and heifers.
During the past five years he has made the change to a pure Boonaroo-blood Angus herd due to increased market demand.
Currently running about 450 autumn-calving cows, plans are underway to build numbers to 500 breeders.
With a focus on producing cattle with good growth rates and carcase quality, Mr Faroe has been sourcing bulls from the Foster family’s stud for the past five years, selecting structurally sound sires with above breed average figures for 200 and 400-day weight.
Mr Faroe targets a liveweight of more than 300 kilograms, which has been helped by a good season.
“The green feed has really taken off in the past couple of months, I’ve had paddocks locked up which are now ready, I have always been told to wean onto green feed.”
The calves will be weaned in the yards for a week, with hay supplementary fed to settle them down, before being moved onto the better pasture paddocks.
The Gums’ line of Angus steers will be offered in the Landmark/Elders sale on Tuesday, January 8, with the heifer portion sold on Friday, January 11.