The breeding objective can be summarised as “High Growth at no cost”.   That is, we strive for growth as that has a direct effect on our farm-gate returns, but we are careful not sacrifice other traits. After all, a fast growing calf is only profitable if it is alive, and if it’s mum is efficient.

Ultimately, the objectives are centred around the cow and by describing our ideal cow we can get a good picture of the constraints we’re talking about.

Breeding Objective	Selection Drivers
A cow that produces a live calf	Good width, pelvic structure and smooth shoulders. Positive Calving Ease and moderate Birthweight EBV’s.
A cow that gets in calf easily	Fertility traits: Scrotal size, short gestation and days to calving.
A cow that is efficient and resilient	Moderate frame. Moderate mature cow weight EBV.  Positive fat cover (rib and rump EBV’s).
A cow with adequate carcass attributes	Maintaining breed average or better for IMF and Eye Muscle area.

When all of those are achieved, we then select for high growth – with specific focus on 400 day EBV’s.

We focus on 400 day growth over 600 day because most of us sell our cattle between 270 and 450 days of age. Early growth is more profitable than late maturing cattle (which is what much of the industry is focused on breeding for).

Our policy on carcass attributes is now changing. Good carcass traits are not currently a profit driver for commercial breeding enterprises.  Only the MSA job factors in IMF and the bar is set very low. The proposed “Value-Based Marketing” (VBM) that the big processors have hinted at will herald an new era where farmers do get paid for good eating quality. When selecting genetics to use at Black Star Angus, we have always aimed to maintain IMF at or above breed average. With VBM on the horizon, favourable eating traits and carcass yield will become increasingly important in our choice of sires.

We pay a lot of attention to EBV’s.  That said, any animals are not structurally sound or don’t get in calf are culled as soon as they’ve weaned their current calf.

On moderate frame size, we are focussed on turning off more kilograms of beef per hectare than more kilograms per head.