The joining season this years see's the introduction of new sires and the arrival of the calves from last years exciting joining. This years AI has been completed with the introduction of new sires included in the Santa herd was Rowanlea Barton, a high content son of Tyndale Noddy (P), the re-introduction of Murrumbo Beaumon (P) and Wave Hill Matlock (PS), Warenda Rolex, Sahara (P) and Sherlock (P). In the Shorthorn herd we used Weebollabolla Theodore and The Grove Legend.

The winner of the under 12 Month class in the Shorthorn ring at the 2008 Briusbane Royal, Yamburgan New Legend C108, has been joined to a select number of forst calving heifers. Yamburgan Lockyer B21has also been used in the stud this year.

We have three exceptionally good Santa ET calves out of Murrumbo 1310/1 (P) (Beaumon's dam). Two are by Wave Hill Major (P) and one is by Waco Knight (P). All three calves are extreemly thick and correct. We look forward to using these bulls as sires and showing them at Beef 2009.

An extensive ET implantation was done at the end of October and early November with a number of sire and dam combination including; Waco Landlord X Wave Hill N7, Y15 and Y21, Wave Hill Major X Murrumbo 1310/1 and Waco Inventor X Warenda Cassie.

The first calves by The Grove Oscar are on the ground and look good. The calves are very similar to the Lockyer calves but with more carcass, lower birth weight than their sire and are mostly red.

Warenda Sahara (P) was used extensively last year and the calves on the ground are looking good. They are long bodied and legged with a dark skin and good character. We will be watching their progress with excitement.

Welcome to a new and exciting year at Manchee Ag. The year has certainly started well for a lot of us with the wide spread rain. We have had 9 inches to date and have sown 1000 acres of oats for the weaner cattle and the sale bulls.

January was an exciting month with the formal introduction of the Wave Hill Santa Gertrudis herd to our operation. This expansion will allow us to continue to supply the best quality genetics available to people looking for Santa Gertrudis cattle and to expand our genetic base. The number of stud Warenda and Wave Hill cows joined in the spring of 2007 totaled 550 head. AI was used extensively in the Wave Hill herd utilizing sires like Wilgaroon Jester (P) and Warenda Sahara (P). The Warenda stud was able to join Wave Hill sires naturally. An ET program utilizing both studs superior females has been undertaken utilizing sires like; Canowindra Snowdon and Waco Landlord.

January also saw the first of the Naralda Aladdin calves born. He was joined to a small number of Autumn calvers and the 18 calves born at this stage are outstanding. Yamburgan D6 is one to keep an eye out for.

At the end of February and early March saw us wean the older calves. Some of the new sires represented in the shorthorns calves are Yamburgan Sambo 5th, Yamburgan Diamantina 20th, The Grove New Legend, and in the Santas, Warenda Require (P), Warenda Kokoda, Wave Hill Xtra and Rosevale Zest. We are extremely pleased with the calves by these bulls.

We have entered 2 teams of steers in the Australian National Field Days competition held at Orange. The competition consists of the steers having 100 days on grass and then introduced to 100 days of grain in the feedlot. This is the first of its kind to be held in Australia. Both sections of the trial are judged with the winning pen being the combined best performers in both sections. We look forward to the results in August.

John has just returned from the 2008 Beef Spectacular held in Dubbo where he was judging and was very impressed with cattle presented. In the upcoming months we will exhibit a team of Shorthorns at Sydney Royal. Be a part of the Northern Beef Weeks in June and have a large Manchee Ag team of cattle ready for Brisbane Show in August.

Warenda Sahara (P) head lined the Warenda Sale this year selling to $80.000 to Baillieu and Sarah Myer, Yulgilbar Santa Gertrudis Stud. Sahara is by 2004 RNA Grand Champion Bull, Wilgaroon Jester (P). The first five Jester sons averaged $34,400 with a total of 12 sons averaging $16,833.

The sale had strong interest from both stud and commercial sales with the sale averaging $8,000. There were 73% repeat clients with 60% of all bulls selling for $4,500 or less.

To view a video report from The Land - Click Here.

A full sale report will be posted soon.

Manchee Ag had a very successful Brisbane Show. We exhibited 14 bulls and received 12 ribbons.

The Highlight in the Shorthorn ring was winning Reserve Junior Champion Shorthorn Bull with Yamburgan Masterpiece. Another highlight was placing 1st and 2nd in the very strong 24 to 30 month class with lots 1 and 2 from this years sale catalogue. In the preceding class of 19 bulls, 20 to 24 months, was described as one of the best classes of Shorthorn bulls shown in Brisbane and we had 3 bulls entered with all three in the final line up and lot 4 placed 3rd.

The highlight in the Santa ring was receiving Reserve Senior Champion Santa Gertrudis Bull with Warenda Sahara (P) (lot 2). Placing 1st (lot 2) and 2nd (lot 5) in the first half of the 22 to 24 month class was another highlight with both sons being by Wilgaroon Jester (P).

A 19.5 month old steer by Warenda Mexico (P) was placed 5th in the RNA Taste Off Taste Test competition. The top 5 animals placed in this competition were only separated by a few points, Mr Pierce, RNA Steward, said.

In the RNA 100 Day Trial Manchee Ag were placed 5th with the pen of Shorthorn steers and 9th with the Santa Steers. The equal highest marbling steer of the competition was a milk tooth Shorthorn steer with a 2 score marbling and with a 106 EMA. All the Manchee Ag steers lost points for having over 20mm of fat at the P8 site which was outside the chiller specification. This is something we will address for next years competition.

The average DWG for the whole trial was 1.93 kg/day. Mr Duncan Sturrock said it was the toughest year to prepare cattle for the competition as there was a lot of BRD (bovine respiratory disease) suffered by some steers entered.

We are pleased with the steers performance as we had no sickness of any kind in the 21 steers entered. The overall consistency of the performance of our steers was very pleasing and evident in the even line.

Click here to find out more about the YY Trial Steers.

Click here to find out more about the WW trial steers.

Click on any steer photo above to view a larger image.