Stud Profile
The Glen Fosslyn Stud retains a core herd of 250 registered breeders mated in six single sire herds and approximately 850 purebred commercial cows. Our stud breeders, approximately 450 commercial breeders and our young cattle are run on "Glen Fosslyn, "Cooma" and "Gaybrielle Downs" in the Glenmorgan and Surat Districts in Southern Queenland. These properties are red to brown soil box / belah / wilga country with the cattle grazing Blue, Mitchell and Buffel grasses. The remaining 400 of our commercial breeding herd are run on our properties at Guyra, on the New England Tablelands in New Soth Wales which consist of a mixture of soft Basalt and loamy Granite country. All progeny are weaned onto "Glen Fosslyn" and "Cooma", are grown out on pasture and finished for sale on forage sorghum and oats crops when available. The family are big advocates of not feeding our sale bulls any grain so that you as the buyer can see the cattle in the condition they can achieve from their own foraging ability, not their ability to eat out of a feed bucket!
Stringent subjective and objective selection guidelines are used in the selection of both bulls and females including the use of Droughtmaster Group Breedplan data. People who know David Salter well will know his saying – the three F’s, Feed, Feet and Fertility. The family has been following this philosophy since first breeding cattle in the 1950’s. Feed – all cattle must be able to forage well in all seasonal conditions, Feet - cattle must be able to walk long distances for feed and water for their entire breeding life and Fertility – both bulls and cows must be able to mate with ease and breeders must calve annually, unassisted and be able to provide a good start to their progeny.
All females are seasonally mated with replacement heifers mated at 15 months. All mated females must calve unassisted annually or are culled from both the stud and commercial herds. The family maintains that this sometimes harsh management technique increases the herd's fertility over time as any breeders that have reduced fertility (slow getting back into calf) are culled from the herd.
The family is also very keen to keep the stud commercially relevant by gaining Chiller assessment feedback from our bullocks and cull heifers and using the results as an additional selection tool for the stud and commercial herds.
In the never ending quest to breed the perfect Droughtmaster for the sometimes harsh conditions of the natural and business environment in Australia, the Glen Fosslyn stud is looking to breed beef cattle that have the following traits;
- Excellent temperament – speaks for itself.
- Well structured with good length, thickness and frame – after all, the main basis of income for commercial cattlemen is the weight in their cattle, so it is necessary for cattle to have thickness, length and frame so they weigh well.
- Low birth weight for ease of calving – you need to get a live calf on the ground every year.
- Cows that are protective mothers and provide a good start to their progeny – look at the 200 day Milk EBV’s as a negative EBV indicates that a cow may not feed her calf well and may have a low weaning weight.
- Early maturity so both bulls and females can start breeding for you quickly – look for high 400 day scrotal size EBV's as this is a sign of fertility of the bull which is positively correlated to the puberty age of heifers.
- High growth rates to the target weight so that beast can be sold at the desired weight as quickly as possible – look for high 200, 400 or 600 day growth EBV’s depending on your target market.
- Breeding females to have a moderate frame size as a cow with a larger frame size generally consumes more grass to maintain its body weight – look for moderate mature cow weight EBV’s.
Remember, it is not the top few bulls that show the quality of a stud. It is the quality of the tail in the line produced that is the best indicator of the consistency and quality that a stud can produce.