With an emphasis on temperament, fertility and carcase quality, Atriem Murray Grey stud principal Stephen Koch is using a range of breeding technologies to fast-track the genetic progress of his family's cattle herd.
Although relatively new to the stud game, Mr Koch, along with his partner Anne and children Finlay and Gemma, is passionate about producing high-performing Murray Grey cattle for the commercial beef industry.
A born and bred Queenslander, Mr Koch and his family moved to Victoria in 2012 for business reasons.
With an interest in cattle, they settled on a property at Tallarook, north of Melbourne.
The next step was deciding what breed to focus their efforts on.
"I had done a lot of research and reading on Murray Greys, and their Australian story and origins really appealed to me," he said.
"I really liked the Murray Grey attributes of temperament, structure and carcase quality that breeders had focused on for many years, I was also very impressed with their maternal traits."
Starting with 16 females selected from the McRae family's Dajory stud near Shepparton, Mr Koch established Atriem in 2013.
During the next couple of years, quality genetics from the Banksia Ridge, Kilmainhan, Mount Major and Lindsay studs were also added to build herd numbers.
Now running 75 breeders across 260 hectares of owned and leased land, the stud has embraced data collection and performance recording, which Mr Koch believes has been a key driver of the stud's success.
Involved with BreedPlan since its inception, Atriem currently has at least 50 per cent of its females in the top 10pc of the Murray Grey BreedPlan measurements for intramuscular fat (IMF), with 10 cows in the top 1pc for IMF, while more than 50pc of the herd is in the top 10pc for calving ease.
"We have really focused on the performance of our females which has paid off, this doesn't discount the importance of the bull, but I believe the foundation of any herd is females," he said.
"Every female is registered and every calf is registered, we weigh every calf at birth and from that time on we are evaluating them.
"Data recording is absolutely key but assessing the animals on the ground is also vital.
"Our primary assessment is temperament, I really believe that has the number one impact on a herd.
"People are safe to work with the animals; the animals are calm, they breed better, they finish better and they get onto your plate in better condition."
To assist with selection, Mr Koch has enlisted the help of Liam Cardile, Beef Excel, Holbrook, NSW, who completes an independent assessment of all the young cattle between 14 to 18 months of age.
They will be ultrasound scanned for carcase quality with their temperament and structure also evaluated.
"We scan for eye muscle area (EMA), rib and rump fat and most importantly IMF," he said.
"In our females, we are looking to retain heifers in the top 5-10pc of the breed for IMF, while we're happy with the bulls in the top 25pc.
"We want to produce easy-doing cows which will perform when conditions are tough."
He said the stud was primarily using artificial insemination (AI) to improve the genetics of the herd, with an emphasis on selecting outcross bulls with the desired traits.
Mature cows are joined in June using AI technology with Mr Koch preferring to naturally mate the heifers to their own home-bred stud sires six to eight weeks earlier.
"I spend a lot of time sourcing the bulls I want to use, if I am selecting a bull in the flesh, the very first thing I'll look at is temperament and eye appeal and then their figures," he said.
"Research shows temperament is at least 30pc heritable so you can't afford not to carry that through.
"The key estimated breeding values we look at are calving ease, gestation length and birthweight, combined with good growth and carcase quality.
"I want IMF to be above breed average as well as positive rib and rump fat and right now we are looking to increase EMA.
"We use six to eight sires in the AI program to ensure the diversity of our genetics; we have a lot of repeat clients and it's important to be able to offer them an outcross."
Mr Koch has also taken an innovative approach to fertility with a blood test carried out 28 days after joining to determine pregnancy and an ultrasound scan completed at about 16 weeks gestation.
Current conception rates average a high 98pc plus at the 28-day mark and 96 to 98pc at scanning.
"Pregnancy testing twice provides a more complete picture of an animal's fertility and whether that cow or heifer is worth carrying through," he said.
The ultrasound scanning is also focused on detecting any twin-bearing cows, which are then managed accordingly.
Since introducing AI, Mr Koch said rates of twin-bearing cows had increased significantly.
With demand continuing to grow for their high-performing genetics, Mr Koch is looking forward to welcoming visitors to this year's Stock & Land Beef Week.
It will be the stud's fourth year of involvement in the event.
"The stud is developing slowly but very deliberately and we're very selective in the bulls we keep, it's important to be realistic and understand where our market is," he said.
"We don't operate on social media or have a website, our sales are private and via repeat clients and word of mouth.
"Our target market is the domestic and supermarket trade; we aim to have our animals turned off and on the plate at 450 to 500 kilograms liveweight at 12 to 16 months of age.
"We have an excellent relationship with Victory Meats at Broadford so all our heifers and steers not retained are sold direct to the butcher."
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