Presenting stud cattle in the show ring requires a team effort these days, especially when the pressures of day to day living eat into the time required to prepare and present as expected.
To make the most of prospective champions former dairy producers Murray and Nicole Nicholls, Tookawhile Charolais and Show Steers at Roseberry Creek via Kyogle, offer a service that goes beyond mere fitting of show cattle.
It now enters the realm of feed analysis and even preparing cows for artificial insemination or embryo transfer, contract feeding and preparation of sale bulls.
Lessons learned in the dairy industry find a ready home in beef cattle preparation with the mantra of a "rising plane of nutrition" key to successful production.
For Limousin breeders Josh and Kirsty Sawtell, Lindesay View at Findon Creek, nestled in the Border Ranges, life's desires can get side-lined by full time work and small children so they employed the Nicholls to prepare their show steers so that the genetic merit of each animal could be expressed in ways that catch a judge's eye.
"This way is best if you want to win," said Mr Sawtell, who credited the Nicholls with creating the icing on the cake during several ribbon championships on last year's show season circuit.
"I didn't know how much went into preparation."
From Lismore, the Gibson family's Medlyn Angus stud has historically held its annual bull sale on the Northern Tablelands and agisted country at altitude to acclimatise their cattle. Lately their sale has been held at Toowoomba, Qld.
Now, however, there is a desire to bring the selling location back to the coast, where the Medlyn name has a long association. However, to showcase their young bulls to their best they need to parade around the local show circuit - and this is where the Nicholls' preparation service fits in.
"We didn't want our bulls to be prepared only on grain," said stud principal Rodney Gibson. "We were looking for someone who could offer rye grass in winter and improved Setaria and Rhodes pastures for summer."
The light preparation means bulls aren't "rolling fat" at sale time.
"They look healthy and fit," Mr Gibson said.
The Nicholls employ proven practice like rotational grazing and prepare show animals with their own secret recipe that won't be shared here. They also handle animals daily in their own sawdust-floored undercover facility.
Mrs Nicholl's childhood was spent on her parents' Charolais stud while Mr Nicholls left the family dairy farm at Roseberry Creek to work in the Santa Gertrudis industry. But they both agree that "the finer points of nutrition" were best learned during their decades in dairy - a job they swapped for beef preparation two years ago.
The Nicholls' prowess in the show ring is proven by their collection of championship ribbons but the job is becoming more and more technical every year for many stud producers.
"We are offering a service to stud producers that don't have the time, facilities or knowledge to flush their stud cows with the veterinarian of the client's choice," said Mrs Nicholls.
"There is the option to either freeze the embryos collected or place them in the our contract recipient beef herd and growing the calf out until it is a weaner.
"One of the important factors with AI or flushing cows is keeping the cows fed correctly," she said. "A rising plane of nutrition will get the most out of both donor and recipient."
The Sawtells have taken a leap of faith and agreed to go ahead with 150 head prepared for fixed-time artificial insemination, with half in spring and the other half in autumn. As well they will carry out the transfer of 40 embryos into recipient cows as they progress their growing breeding operation, with a focus on commercial relevance, feed conversion, finishing ability and temperament among their Limousin progeny.
The Gibsons are more concerned with functionality, having lived through the grand era of big Angus bulls of the 1980s.
"Where we end up depends on how we fit different markets," Mr Gibson said. "For instance a lot of our bulls go into crossbred herds."
All cattle in a single program are fed together, to highlight the potential of each animal.
"If they are prepared right we can see the potential here on the coast for a bull to go west and do a job," he said.
Meanwhile, the location of the Nicholls' farm, on the NSW Border Ranges, ensures cattle have good immunity to potential limiting factors like worms, ticks, and too much rainfall.
While program requirements differ between setting up cows for flushing or bulls for work, at the end of the day nutritional requirements are central to success.
"We follow our consultants' advice and we trust them," said Mrs Nicholls. "The key to preparing any group of breeders is to have industry professionals around you.
"And for that reason the beef industry right now offer huge job opportunities for young people."
