Home Sweet Home!!! 29/4/12

After travelling for two straight days to make my way back to Bald Hills, I was met at the airport by my lovely family. My head is now spinning trying to work out what to do first as this month is one of our busiest times, with weaning, bailing, selling fat cattle and to top it all off - Beef 2012 where I have have been asked by MLA to be a guest speaker promoting social media and my Nuffield Journey.

My wife informed me of the amount of rain we received in March and April, around the 400ml mark with 210ml received of that in one day!! The amount of erosion is quite considerable which has created extra work for us, however the majority of the work was still carried out by my wife, Leah and my cousin, Vince. I am only home for approximately four months then returning overseas again to complete my Nuffield studies for another six weeks.

Texas - Big Beefy Brahmans 18/4/12

I arrived in Houston Texas on the 14/4/12 and was greeted by John Locke from the famous, J.D.Hudgins. J.D.Hudgins Inc. is located in Hungerford, Texas, in the area settled by Joel Hudgins in 1839. The ranch was established in 1908 through a partnership of Joel and his son, J.D., who chose brahman cattle for their ability to thrive in the gulf coast climates. In 1924, J.D. and his son, purchased a group of bulls imported from Brazil. These cattle and other breeds cattle formed the basis of the first breed developed in the United States, the American Brahman.

The Ranch's legendary Manso bull set the standard of quality that has become the trademark of J.D Hudgins Inc.which was purchased by Walter Hudgins in 1933. Manso is the single most recognised Brahman bloodline in the world. It is estimated that more than 75% of all cattle registered through the ABBA (America Brahman Breeders Association) carry this bloodline.

Over the past 100 years, the herd has expanded into 1,500 registered females grazing on 20,000 acres. The ranch focuses on practical and profitable cattle, maximising traits most important to cattleman. Artificial Insemination, embryo transfer, and extensive production and growth records further enhance their breeding program.

J.D.Hudgins is a fifth and sixth generation family run business and I personally love seeing a family run business and I wish them all the success in the future.

Last thank you for Brazil

I would just like to say a big thank you to Pablo Manfrim and Sally Thomson for showing myself around brazil and translating the local language for me. If you are involved in Agriculture you must put Brazil on your bucket list to visit.

The Final Days in Brazil 11/4/12

Brazil has been a great experience for me, I have seen some productive farming practises and met some fantastic people who have opened up their homes to me and made me feel like I was at home. For Easter, I spent it with a great family, Arsufi,(father), Valeria(mother), Helder(son) and Hertor(son) who live in the town of Auriflama. On Monday, I visited one of the top poll Nelore studs where they have been breeding poll bulls since 2002. Saverio Marino is the head vet on the farm. The property is 330ha and receives 1300 mls of rain per year and they have 350 stud cows that they use in their IVF program using control heating. The stud also uses EBVs for their bull selection process.

Later that day, I visited Sidney Martins who is a vet by trade but is a consultant to farmers for pasture management. He has been teaching pasture management using animal impact for the last 30 years. I was amazed to know that farmers receive a fine if they burn pasture, so if the pastures get too rank, they mow the pastures or just run more cattle. The main varieties of the pastures are Mombaca(Panic)Broquiarie which are rapid growing grass that produce 40 tonnes of dry matter per year. The average stocking rate for Brazil is 1 beast to the ha, but using a rotation grazing system they can run 4 beasts to the hectare on dry land no worries.

On Tuesday, I visited Embrapa which is a government research station based in Sao Carlos, and receives 1300 mls of rain per year. It does a range of research consisting of pasture management, beef genetics, rumen assessments and irrigated pastures. The genetics they where using were Nelore, Simmental and Angus. I found that the 3 cross breeding program was the best weight for age and by using a cell grazing system they had no trouble with cattle ticks because they are breaking the cattle tick cycle. The grazing system was 0.6 ha for 4 days and running 40 head and having a rest period for 32 days.

Today, I visited Embrapa again and met with Marco Bergamaschi who also a vet buy trade and showed me the best grazing practise under irrigation. The Mombaca grass was once again the best variety to use, by using irrigation and keeping soil moisture, the Mombaca grass still produced high yields. Brazillian farmers have a great future in agriculture because of the great research team undertaking the studies at the centre. I would like to personally thank Pablo Manfrim(Brazil) and Sally Thomson(Australia) for travelling with me and translating the language for me.

My visit at IMA in Cuiaba 6/4/12

For the last 4 days I spent some time at IMA Cattle Company which is based in Cuiaba. The locals say it is the centre of Brazil. I visited one of their two properties which range from 1000ha to 12,000ha where they run 8000 stud cattle. It is a very hot place and their average rainfall is 1300 ml per year and soils are very low in phosphors. The animals have access to salt and phosphorus all year round. Mr Andre Zambrim is the manager at the IMA Cattle Company where they breed Nelore and Brahman bulls to sell to the open market. Mr Andre also uses a EBVS (Estimated Breeding Values)breeding system, for the last 20 years where they suit the cow to the bulls by using EBVS records of the animals for a more scientific approach to breed a high quality beast.

The approach I admired the most was from Andre where the cattle he bred out of was just pasture based with no chemicals for cattle ticks. They had to have a good natural doing ability for weight for age in a natural environment, with little grain preparation before a sale. The property has a great location where it is based right on the main road and only 20 km from Cuiaba. The property has 25 full-time workers and is a very well managed and clean property. I would like to thank Mr Andre Zambrim and his staff for making me feel like I was at home.

Visit to CFM Agro Company 2/4/12

Today was the first day of my study topics, Beef Genetics and Pasture Management, however, firstly I would like to thank my fellow scholars Rhys, Bryan, Ryan, Dave, Damian, Natalie and Crosby for a great and memorable trip that they shared with me.

Today I visited CFM Agro Company which is a British Company that produces 3 million tonnes of sugarcane and runs 55,000 head of Nelore cattle where it is a breeding, fattening and bull breeding operation. I visited one of their 4 properties which was 15,800 hectares where the cattle operation produces 3000 Nelore bulls that they sell annually. They have their own bull and IVF centre on the farm. Their cow operation is a AI system where they AI 17,000 head of cows in a 70 day breeding cycle, using their own bulls and a control heating method. The property has a 1300ml rainfall and they use a rotation grazing system. Their bulls are on pastures until they are 2 years old and then are finished off in a feedlot for 120 days.

I found their bull selecting method very interesting where they use EBVs(Estimated Breeding Values) to join to their cows. They have been using this method for 30 years. I would like to thank David V.Makin (President) Jose Luiz A.Cervi and Tamires Miranda Neto for sharing their knowledge with me.

Uberaba - The beef capital of Brazil 30/3/12

We visited ABS, a bull breeding centre which collects semen for commercial cattle breeders and stud breeders, owned by the beef farmers. There are 120 bulls at the centre ranging from Brahmans, Nelore, Tabapau and Guzera. Most bulls are on a feed system containing 4 kg of grain, grass and silage. We saw one Nelore bull, Novel JS DA BJ, a 6 year old bull weighing 1100kg, with a scrotal size of 42cm and 82% semen count was sold for a half share of $400,000 Australian Dollars. It was a very clean and productive beef breeding centre.