Newsletter for the week ending 29 October 2004

NLIS Tags Stay In

One of the concerns about the electronic ear tags used in our National Livestock Identification System is that the tags will fall out at an unacceptable rate. Tony and Jill Whistler of Home Station Limousins at Wangaratta in Victoria have put about 700 tags into the ears of their calves over the last five years and tell me that only three tags have been dislodged over that period. In all cases the animal retained it's paddock tag so was easily identified and retagged. "These tags are much more reliable than ear tattooing because we always used to have a few "no name" females whose paddock tags fell out and then we were not able to read the ear tattoo" Tony told me.

The Vogt family of Maryvale Limousins at Kapunda in SA have been using electronic tags in 140 calves per year four the last four years as part of the requirement to supply cattle for the European Union market. "As far as I know we have not lost a tag and we certainly do not miss having the messy job of tattooing our calves" said Barry Vogt.

The loss rate will vary according to your fences with electric fencing being the best. By all means keep tattooing your calves but I am quite confident that in a matter of years we will be relying on NLIS tags as our most reliable method of permanently identifying registered Limousin cattle.

Performing Under Extremes

On Thursday I spent the day with Barry and Simon Vogt being shown around Etadunna Station,a 6000 sq. km station in the pastoral zone of South Australia.

Etadunna Station is 800 km north of Adelaide on the infamous Birdsville track. With an average annual rainfall of 100mm (four inches) per year (and some years missing out on rain altogether) this has to be one of the tougher environments in which to run cattle in Australia. A mix of sand hills gibber plains and some Cooper river flood plains (which rarely flood), Etadunna runs about 2500 Hereford based females which are watered from a series of water troughs fed from three artesian bores.

Limousin bulls were first introduced about 15 years ago and we saw a good number of Limousin bulls which had been there for many years together with Limousin cross and high content Limousin females which were coping with the environment extremely well. So much so that the current owner of Etadunna has recently introduced more Limousin bulls to the station.

Time does not allow me to expand on this remarkable Limousin success story but I will include a more detailed story in the next Limousin Australia.

Field Day at Lyndhurst

On Thursday together with a hardy band of South Australian Limousin breeders we had a stand at the Landmark field day at Lyndhurst which is 550 km north of Adelaide in the pastoral zone. It was a great experience talking with station people who had travelled up to 500 km on dirt roads to attend and listen to a range of speakers on subjects including NLIS and nutrition of early weaned calves. It is certainly "a different world" but there is potential for more Limousin bulls to go into this part of the country.

Vale Steve Terpstra

I was saddened to hear that Steve Terpstra a principle of the Aldgate Limousin Stud in WA, passed away this week after a battle with a brain tumour. On behalf of the Limousin family our sympathies go to Steve's wife Pat and daughter Penny.

Workshop Tomorrow

Don't forget the workshop commencing at Bruangil Park Limousins tomorrow commencing at 10.am.

Yours in Limousin

Alex McDonald