PLACING third and fourth in this year’s Beef Spectacular Feedback Trial were entries from seedstock producer Jon Wright, “Coota Park”, Woodstock, with his line of Blue E cattle.
Mr Wright initially envisaged the Blue E concept (an Angus/Shorthorn composite) after a number of years working as cattle manager at the Trangie Research Centre.
He now runs a 500-cow seedstock and commercial operation.
All cows at “Coota Park” are registered and have Breedplan figures, with data collected in conjunction with Angus Australia.
After seeing first hand the enormous value in selecting for feed conversion, Mr Wright returned to “Coota Park” and, together with his father Harvey, built his own efficiency testing facility on-farm about 18 years ago.
“The association of these two breeds sometimes produces the blue colour - that’s where the name originated,” explained Mr Wright. The ‘E’ is for efficiency.
“We have to find other angles to promote our cattle,” Mr Wright said, of his self-funded research.
“Without actually putting them in an independent commercial trial we have few ways of testing our product.
“The way we select is according to those five proven factors that make commercial producers profitable: fertility, growth, feed conversion, muscle and marbling.
“These are the things in cattle that make you money.”
“Unless you have the guts to put them up against others to see if they are any good, you won’t know,” he said. “And if they’re not good then you make them better.”
Mr Wright said it was satisfying to breed cattle, but it was even more satisfying to breed cattle that performed.
“It is all about profitability for our clients so it’s a good way to show we are breeding profitable, performance cattle,” he said.
Mr Wright said the Angus/Shorthorn combination came about when composite breeding was taking off in America, about 20 years ago.
“It seemed logical – taking the best of two breeds and combining them,” he said.
“We believed we could make a better animal by combining them.”
He said it was a combination of the composite breeding as well as marbling that proved such an important part of meat quality, especially 20 years ago.
“Those two breeds were the two best breeds for marbling and meat quality at that time,” he said.
“You have to have patience when breeding because it can take a lot of time to make responsible change,” he said.
“You can go somewhere very quickly if you just breed for one thing.
“As soon as you include another trait, it slows the process of where you want to get to genetically.
“After nearly 20 years we are getting somewhere.”