Newsletter for the week ending 10 December 2004
It's
Raining!
Most of eastern Australia has
had moderate to heavy rains this week.
For those in the south still
harvesting grain it was not wanted but for those looking for summer feed it is
most welcome and is likely to have a positive effect on cattle prices.
In Search
of Information
As mentioned in previous
dispatches breeders are always keen to get a docility ranking on new AI
sires. One source is the Irish Limousin Society who have a docility
scoring system very similar to ours. The Irish rankings are expressed as
Indexes with high positive indexes being favourable. Sires which have a
docility index with an accuracy of over 70% are published on their website
www.irishlimousin.com under Breeding
Improvements Bull Catalogues/Bulls A to Z.
The sires with published
Indexes for docility are Ferry; 108, Highlander; 116, Genial; 88, Malibu; 124,
Imperial; 138, Nenuphar; 108 and Lino; 112.
These compare with the current
breed average in Ireland of 108. Several sires of interest which have low
accuracy docility indexes provided by the Irish Limousin Society are Gwenole;
108, Jockey; 103 and Navarin; 145.
Herd for
Private Sale
Daniel Fischer from Charles
Stewart at Colac Vic has provided the following information on the Meranook
herd which is for private sale.
15 2-7 year old stud (ALBS
reg) apricot females with 7 stud April '04 drop calves (Ben Darroch, Bruangil,
Benika blood) at foot. Balance PTIC to Donna Valley Excellency for Autumn
'05 calving.
3 junior stud bulls.
Spring '03 drop ex Donna Valley cows.
Stud sire: Donna Valley
Excellency 2 1/2 years(2nd top price Donna Valley '04 bull sale).
Above cows selected over last
12 months from renowned studs Donna Valley, Ben Darroch, Kaludabah, Nunkeeri
& Bilati and are only being sold due to property sale.
Daniel can be contacted on
0419 362 681 for more information.
Too Heavy!
Charles and Vicky Carmichael
reported another outstanding sale of cull Limousin cows. They sold seven
cows up to twelve years of age over the hooks to Australia Meat Holdings just
after their calves were weaned. The top priced cow at 421.5kg dressed
weight made 335 c/kg or $1,412, and the seven cows averaged $1,287. A
premium price of 358 c/kg was available for cows 300 to 419kg with 3 to 12 mm
of fat on the rump.
As Charles lamented - if that
cow had weighed 2.5kg lighter due to a lower dressing percentage she would have
made $1,500 or $88 more. No doubt the meat from this cow went into the
same "box" as the lighter cows but that is what happens when you sell
in a price grid.
Overall Charles and Vicky
were very pleased with the result, and justifiably so.
Top
Vealers at Pakenham Vic
Featured in last weeks' Stock
& Land were 16 Limousin X milk vealers sold by John Dixon of Ventnor,
Phillip Island. They weighed 391kg and sold for an average of 218.5 c/kg
or $853. The tops sold at 222.6 c/kg.
Stawell
Success
John and Joy Repper who run a
high content commercial Limousin herd at Stawell in Victoria reported a
very good sale of 39 Limousin steers at Ballarat Saleyards recently.
Weighing an average of 279kg
they made 205 c/kg or $570. A grass fattener or lot feeder will end up
with some very good steers.
Yours in Limousin
Alex McDonald