Flexibility with high profit

Chris Mirams says his breeding plan allows him to be flexible without compromising on the important things that affect profit.

Having a clear and precise breeding plan has enabled manager Chris Mirams to maintain breeding flexibility on Woomargama Station without compromising profits.

The 2600 hectare property on the South West Slopes, just south of Holbrook, is fully pasture improved and in a predominantly winter and spring rainfall area. The herd joins 550 straight Hereford cows each year for a spring calving and targets the feeder steer market with 15-monthold, 400 kilogram steers.

Steers are grown out on predominantly phalaris pasture with very little supplementary feeding. Having a breeding plan for his cattle herd has enabled Mr Mirams to better achieve the production he wants.

“My breeding plan is to manage the most efficient cow herd that I can, the lowest cost of production, highest gross margins, and highest profit to generate the highest return to equity,” he said.

This can only be achieved by having well thought out production objectives. “I must get a live calf on the ground from a two-year-old heifer, high conception rates, a 400kg steer turned off after its second spring, and all achieved with no supplementary feeding.”

The key is the way Mr Mirams concentrates on the herd fertility. “The bulls we select come from herds with a similar breeding objective as ours. They are managed under a really tough commercial environment – restricted joining times and high stocking rates. This is in itself a great screen for fertility,” he said.

“We test our bulls each year and join all our females for six weeks only. This puts huge pressure on  the herd’s fertility and anything that drops out of the system is culled.”

Fertility is complemented with selection for other traits important to his breeding plan. “Our objective is not only high fertility but getting the end product right. We select for growth to 400 days using Breedplan. We also select for moderate cow size to reduce cow maintenance costs.”

Even though breeding at Woomargama Station is carefully planned, flexibility is important. “As more information is available, we will fine turn how we keep the herd productive. We no longer select for milk as calving in the spring provides the milk we want,” Mr Mirams said.

“We also use mature cow weight EBVs (estimated breeding values) instead of 600 day weight EBVs to limit our cow size. “We can be flexible on our herd but we will not compromise on the important things that affect our profits.”

Contact Brian Cumming, Albury, 02 6041 6500.