Charlie's 39 year long run
From the July 2007 edition of Agriculture Today.
Acting on buyer feedback has enabled Charlie Miller to sell vealers bred on his property south of Dungog to the same butcher for 39 years. The 300 breeders run on Mr Miller’s 500 hectares turn off breeders all year round to butcher shops in Newcastle. Every four weeks, 17 cows are mated to a bull to ensure this regular supply.
“We don’t have many days when we’re not calving. But it means we can mate lots of cows to our really top bulls,” Mr Miller (pictured) said.
The vealer market has been good for Mr Miller and feedback he received from his butcher led to some big changes that enabled him to keep supplying that market. Mr Miller is one of 13 producers excelling in his industry, featured in a new information package, Better breeding – Beefing up your Business, to be launched next month at the Mudgee Small Farm Field Days.
“Most of our cows have been British breeds. The butcher we sell to said the vealers were getting too fat, so we knew it was time to do something,” he said.
“Our market has required carcases 180 to 220 kilograms with about five to 10 millimetres of fat. We needed to stick to these specs.”
He looked at other breeds to complement his own British cattle.
“We always wanted to lift growth, reduce the fat and increase the muscle in the vealers,” he said.
“We decided to use some European blood over our existing cows.”
The herd now combines Charolais and Angus/Charolais first cross bulls over mainly Angus cows.
“We have used breed selection to get what we want. An extra 50 kilograms of dressed weight at $3.80 a kilogram makes a big difference.”
Artificial Insemination using Angus semen is used to breed high quality replacement females.
“We select the Angus for easy calving, good milk and moderate frame size,” Mr Miller said.
“We get the extra growth and muscle from the European bulls. It suits us well.”
“Last year we joined 76 cows to our top bull and the 76 calves we sold averaged more than $800 a head, and there wasn’t a calf nine months old amongst them.”
Contact Brett Littler, Mudgee, 02 6372 4700.
