A Cardinia producer is sticking with Charolais, over more traditional breeds

Mr Neutze and partner Deborah Woodfine run two properties, a breeding block at Cardinia, just east of Cranbourne, and another one at Longwarry, where they grass finish Charolais steers and heifers.

"We started off seven or eight years ago with 14 Paringa heifers and we've build that up to 45.

"We bought them here (at Pakenham) - paid a fortune for them - and since then we bought Falls View Charolais bulls, to set up a self-replacing herd."

He said he chose Charolais on their temperament and after seeing them at cattle shows, including at Lardner Park.

"I sold my Charolais heifers, before Christmas," Mr Neutze said.

"They were too light to join at 315kilograms, but I got $1060 for them.

"The top Te Mania (Angus) heifers, of the same weight, made $860."

Mr Neutze said feedlotters were buying Charolais, while the pen he sold before Christmas went back into the paddock to breed.

He said fast growth rates were another reason for sticking with the pure-bred Charolais.

"Cross bred hybrid vigour is meant to be great, but it's not better than the Charolais," Mr Neutze said.

"An average Angus won't do that well.

"If you have a good Angus, it will do really well, but an average Charolais will still do better than our average Angus."

Mr Neutze and Ms Woodfine sold eight Angus-Charolais cross heifers, 287kg, for $650 each, or 226c/kg, but their two pure bred Charolais females, 300kg, sold for $780, or 260c/kg.

They also sold a Charolais bull, 440kg, for $930, or 211c/kg, to a processor.

He advised producers to be prepared to spend money on their bulls, because it paid dividends.

"I paid $5000 for the Charolais bull I bought two and a half years ago, I got the pick of the Falls View sale," he said.

"Spend money on a bull, it definitely pays dividends."

Mr Neutze said he was pleased with the prices, at Pakenham.

"I think it went pretty well, all things considered," Mr Neutze said.

"We have finally got a bit of rain, but had run out of hay, so it was time to sell."

The hay came from the Longwarry block, cut after good rain late last year.

"I brought up 120 bales of hay from Longwarry, to feed the cows, but I haven't had to feed anything down there," he said.

"We've been fortunate, as we got rain in November and December at Longwarry, the hay set us up so we haven't had to sell, until now.

"We missed the worst of it."

Longer term, Mr Neutze said a new farm might be purchased, north of Warragul, where there was more reliable rainfall.

"We are very fortunate in that we have a lot of developers wanting to buy our (Cardinia) property, but everyone keeps saying, hold on a bit longer.

"If the developers offer us silly money for our farm, hopefully we can afford to pay cash for 160 hectares and make a decent living out of this caper."

The Cardinia block is used for breeding, and Mr Neutze said he was fortunate in that it had a reliable water supply.

"We're on Cardinia Creek, so we have stock and domestic water, and that makes a huge difference, having reliable, guaranteed water.

"And it's really good water."

That was in contrast to the Longwarry block, where there had been trouble with the dam water, over summer.

"We have a bore but that dried up through summer and we had to use dam water.

"It makes a heck of a difference when you have good water, I didn't realise how fortunate I was, to be honest."

Joining took place on Melbourne Cup day and calving would start in August.

"We have 45 pregnant cows there, at the moment, and we've started to feed grass."

The plan was to bring the stock at Longwarry up to 420kg, selling them at Christmas, into the Greenhams Never Ever program, which is based on 100 per cent grass feeding, no antibiotics or hormone growth promotants.

Mr Neutze said he hadn't done much pasture improvement at Longwarry, but had oversown three paddocks at Cardinia to Tetilla Italian ryegrass, for winter and to give feed and silage.

"At Longwarry, it's a different type of soil, it's more clay, and holds the moisture a lot better, through summer, although not the one just gone.

"The previous summer it powererd on really well, it was a ripper paddock."