Armed with a firm belief that bulls are meant to commence their working life at 12 months of age, Ben Nevis Angus principal Erica Halliday is committed to producing high quality yearling bulls for her clients.

Ben Nevis Angus (located in Walcha, NSW) has been selling yearling bulls for over a decade and their clients wouldn’t have it any other way.

Explains Erica, ‘In our experience, yearling bulls suffer fewer breakdowns, cost less to produce, are cheaper at the point of sale and offer genetic gain a year earlier than the traditionally sold two year old animals. Both vendors and clients stand to reap the benefits.’

Erica adds, ‘Starting work at a younger age also means that the bulls are less bulky, more agile and less likely to fight with their peers than bulls started as two year-olds’.

In preparation for sale, Erica (in conjunction with her husband Stuart Halliday and parents Bruce and Cherry Steel) aim to grow their young bulls to weights of 500 to 550kg at 12 to 14 months of age. In order to consistently achieve these targets and best exploit the genetic potential of their animals, the family focus heavily on correct weaning and backgrounding nutrition and management using the Livestock Central systems.

Stuart Halliday (Livestock Central Director of Research and Development) explains, ‘As a professional industry advisor I would not be comfortable in recommending management and feeding strategies to producers if I did not have the utmost faith in the ability of those systems to deliver results in the real world. Erica and I use the Livestock Central programs extensively in both our stud and commercial operations and are delighted with the results we are achieving. In addition, we are constantly evaluating and fine-tuning our systems, which even further enhances the quality of both animals and advice that we are able to offer to our clients.’

Ben Nevis Angus provide an excellent example of how innovative thinking, combined with top class genetics and management strategies can combine to deliver animals of outstanding quality into the Australian livestock market.

Please Contact Us for more information on Livestock Centrals Advanced Management Systems.