Endure, Advance sons among impressive bulls on offer from Devon Court Herefords
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BENCHMARKING his cattle through carcase competitions is paying off for Drillham stud and commercial breeder Tom Nixon, whose cattle are kicking goals in carcase quality and now feedlot performance.
Mr Nixon, who operates Devon Court Herefords at Drillham on the Western Downs of Queensland, has had some impressive results in the RNA Paddock to Palate competition with Devon Court sired steers and said he used the competition to benchmark his operation against the best in the industry.
"The kicker was, we were starting to spend some pretty big money on sires and we wanted to benchmark ourselves to make sure we were doing the right thing," Mr Nixon said.
Two years ago he won grand champion carcase (70-day HGP trade carcase) with a steer sired by Devon Court Advance K126, along with reserve champion for a black baldy steer.
In the 2023 competition one of his steers took out the highest daily weight gain with a Hereford steer that had an average weight gain of 3.5 kilograms per day.
He won class 38 for a pen of six purebred steers that recorded an average daily weight gain of 3.121kg.
In the 100-day export class the two pens of Devon Court black baldy steers placed fourth and seventh out of 33 teams averaging 2.735kg and 2.697kg per day and in the 100-day HGP free export class the Devon Court black baldy teams finished 10th and 12th from 28 teams with ADGs of 2.160kg and 2.093kg.
"It's an all breeds competition so we're definitely putting ourselves up against British, European and Bos Indicus herds and trying to prove Herefords are a good cross to utilise for commercial clients
"To be right up in the mix in all three classes was exceptional.
"We want to be able to showcase that our operation is producing bulls that are commercially relevant, to produce progeny that can perform in the feedlot and on grass."
Devon Court's genetics are also put to the test in large commercial herds of Hereford and black baldy breeders.
"The best data we can collect is commercially relevant data so we can see what our bulls can do commercially, right alongside the stud," Mr Nixon said.
"All of our commercial steers and excess females are finished to around 470kg on grass and sold to feedlots around 18 months.
"We've just started utilising Black Box Co software which will help us analyse data provided back to us from the feedlots and processors."
Fertility has remained a big priority in both the commercial and stud programs, with Mr Nixon working on a tight joining period.
"The whole herd - stud and commercial - calves within a 63-day window which puts a lot of pressure on our cow herd fertility wise and it means that these bulls are born within a two-month drop and therefore, are very consistent."
On offer in the 2023 bull sale at Drillham on September 5 are 33 bulls and two semen lots from Mawarra Ultra Star R182, purchased for a Wodonga national sale record of $130,000.
Mr Nixon said this year's draft was an exceptional line, and completely prepared off pasture and oats.
The stud has introduced four new sires this year, including US bull NJW 79Z Z311 Endure 173D, who has perfect structure with an impressive data set, including being a trait leader for growth and being in the top 1pc of the breed for carcase weight, and eye muscle area, and top 5pc for intramuscular fat.
"Endure's the best Hereford bull in the world at the moment and we've used him and also bought and kept five sons to use in the herd in past 12 months," Mr Nixon said.
"His carcase merit is exceptional, along with weight gain in the paddock.
"We've seen the progeny and with both heifers and bulls they've been structurally absolutely brilliant - the type of cattle that we need."
Also in the mix are the first sons of Devon Court Advance P121.
"Advance is on our horned side and it's a line of very good growthy bulls, but they have moderate birthweight with terrific growth," Mr Nixon said.
"We're continuing to breed with horned genetics and we also have two very good bulls by Mawarra Hugo P190.
"We purchased his semen and we've used him in the cows to create a bit of calving ease and carcase quality.
"He's huge on eye muscle area, intramuscular fat and fats which is blending really well with our cow herd."
The Devon Court Herefords bull sale is at Devon Court, Drillham, on Tuesday, September 5, beginning at 1pm.
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