Table Top Angus' focus on female hits the industry mark

Achieved through making temperament paramount, and focussing on structurally correct, easy-doing animals with the right spread of growth figures, stud co-principal Tim Scott said made their progeny, and that of their clients, in demand by lot feeders.

And while the beef industry has ever evolving targets, Mr Scott said, together with wife Jessica, they have kept the same path since establishing the stud in 2000.

“A lot of clients want heifer bulls or dual purpose, so we’ve always tried to keep an eye on the birthweight, and always tried to keep fat cover on our cattle by the bulls we source having positive fat cover, as well as looking for marbling and eye muscle area for feedlots,” he said.

The females at Table Top stud, which is based in the locality of the same name, are the backbone of the operation.

This was proven when the Scott’s pen of 10 won the Royal Agricultural Society of Victoria 2014 Heifer Challenge, held in conjunction with Stock & Land Beef Week, against 60 competing studs from Victoria, southern NSW and South Australia.

The win was achieved with 17 month-old pregnancy tested in-calf (PTIC) heifers, which were conceived via synchronised artificial insemination – a feat no other heifer challenge entry had claimed at the time.

There is strong demand for their pregnancy tested in calf females, sold prior to calving down two-year-old, while they also sell surplus females to the export breeder market.

“Your bull production comes from your breeding herd,” Mr Scott said. 

“Our short joining, and artificial insemination program followed by a back-up bull for one four-week cycle, is a big part of the demand for our heifers.”

Predominately a July-August calving herd, the Scotts start selling bulls at 15 months-of-age, weighing 550-600kg, for the following October-November joining.

“While they are mainly grass-fed, during the previous autumn they received silage and winter grazing wheats to keep them going forward and in desirable workable condition, to go do their job at joining time,” he said.

Pathfinder Genesis has been a key sire in recent years, as well as Te Mania genetics, and Mr Scott said their main home-grown AI bulls were “producing a good functional article”.

Table Top has had a difficult season like many across the country, and Mr Scott said this further highlighted the importance of fertility.

“The testing seasons for a lot of producers has meant their breeding herd has been reduced - most people have had to kept only their most desirable, productive females,” he said. 

“The quality of stock going forward should be quite good if there is enough feed available.

“The biggest thing is in a trying period like this, you can’t have any passengers, you have got to make a decision and make it early and go with it.

“Conception of your females is very important.

“Concentrate on getting them in calf and move on the ones that don’t.”

Mr Scott said the stud was always trying to improve their stock, and the exposure of their herd during Stock & Land Beef Week was a helpful tool.

“By opening up the front gate for people to come, the feedback that we get from clients is important to us,” he said.

“It is a day for our clients to come and see next lot of bulls or breeding females.

“We’ve been doing it since the beginning.

“It is a day of the year we get organised for and find a lot of benefit from it.” 

Table Top will open on day five of Beef Week, on Wednesday, 20 January.