By PENELOPE ARTHUR

TEN years after launching hisShorthorn breeding and finishingoperation, Drillham producerMichael Hinz believes he’s finally

starting to see his breeding program comeinto its own.

“Ten years isn’t very long in beefbreeding, but I think we are finally at thestage were we are happy with things likefertility, weight and growth and can start tofine tuning other aspects of the breedingprogram like carcase quality,” he said.

“For that, we will be turning to peoplelike Spencer Morgan from The GroveShorthorns, where we buy most of ourShorthorn bulls.

“They’ve done a lot of work on carcasequality over the years, and if we select theright bulls from them that will pay off in ourherd.”

Working in partnership with his parents,Pat and Sandy, Mr Hinz runs a mixed grain

and beef operation on the 3400ha WilmaPark, 15km south of Drillham.

The property includes 1200ha of culti-vation which is used for both cereal andforage cropping.

The Hinz family runs about 400 breed-ers, but started breeding only 10 yearsago, buying in mainly Hereford, Angus andShorthorn cows.

Mr Hinz said his aim had always beento eventually establish a herd with aShorthorn base.

“We’ve been using Shorthorn bullssince we started, and while our aim is toget to that Shorthorn base we will still useother breeds down the track to keep thathybrid vigour,” he said.

“We don’t mind still having someHereford and Angus-cross cattle in theherd, because I definitely still think a bit ofcross breeding is an advantage.”

“The Shorthorns are doing everythingwe want them to do – they give us good

carcase attributes, good weight gains and,in the herd, the cows are performing verywell, too. They make very good mothers,have good temperament and are generallyvery easy to run.”

The Hinz family aim to finish theirsteers on forage, offloading the steers atan average of 650kg at 18-24 months.

The steers are sold either direct toworks or through the Dalby Saleyards.

Mr Hinz said he had received valuablefeedback from both buyers at the saleyardsand from processors about his cattle.

“We’ve been really happy with thefeedback we have received from the worksand the last time we sold cattle throughDalby they were purchased by three sepa-rate processors who all seemed prettykeen,” he said.

Mr Hinz has also been focusing heavilyon fertility and joins his cows only for 90days from November.

The cows are then pregnancy tested atbranding and any dry or empty cows areculled along with those identified with badtemperament or faults.

First-calf heifers are joined one monthearlier to give them a better chance ofconception at their second joining.

“That strategy has been working reallywell,” Mr Hinz said.

“It just gives the second-calf heifers anextra month to get over having their firstcalf before they have to start cycling again.

“We’ve been really happy with fertilityin the herd – our back-in-calf pregnancyrate this year was 95 percent, althoughthat came after three good seasons in arow, which has made a big difference forour cows.”

Having struck some of the worstdrought years in his first few seasons ofbreeding, Mr Hinz was impressed with theability of his Shorthorn cows to handle thetough conditions.

“We had a couple of other breeds that

really struggled to get back into calf inthose dry years, but the Shorthorns wereable to get back in calf and also safelyraise that calf,” he said.

“We also like running a Shorthorn base,because when it does get dry, we canmove cattle on as feeder steers and thereis always a pretty good market for them.”

“The Shorthorns are so popular with thelotfeeders that they give us extra options ifwe don’t have an oats or forage crop forour bullocks to go on to.”

Mr Hinz relies on both a visual appraisaland Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) toselect his sires from The Grove Shorthorns.

“I like the fact the Morgan family fromThe Grove have even gone further andreally got behind the Durham research totry and better their bulls,” he said.

“All those improvements in traits suchas carcase quality will now be coming backinto our herd which gives me, as a buyer,great peace of mind.”

QUEENSLAND COUNTRY LIFE FUSION 201210

Shorthornsfine-tuneDrillhamoperation

The Shorthorns are doing everythingwe want them to.

– Michael Hinz, Wilma Park, Drillham.‘ ’

Michael Hinz, Wilma Park,Drillham, is starting to fine tune

his operation and targetaspects, including carcase

quality using Shorthorn bulls.

FUS

Michael Hinz says Shorthorns “give us good carcase attributes and good weightgains”.

The Hinz family aims to offload steers at an average of650kg at 18-24 months.

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