Good buying: The Appleton’s bought Blue Dog King of the Jungle (with Lochie and Jack Appleton) from Doug and Jan Bradshaw, Blue Dog Simmental, at the 2016 sale.
By Matt Sherrington, QCL
Loid and Zabby Appleton, Appleton Cattle Company, will be returning to the Ag-Grow Premier Multi-Breed Bull Sale being held in Emerald on June 29, to take a hard look at the draft assembled for this year.
We’ve been attending the Ag-Grow Premier Multi-Breed Bull Sale for close to 10 years, as it always offers a great variety of quality bulls for the Central Queensland graziers to choose from, without the need for us to travel a long way.
The Appleton’s, who call Yarmina Station in Charters Towers home, have been attending the Ag-Grow sale for close to 10 years, which Loid said always offers “a great variety of quality bulls for the Central Queensland graziers to choose from without having to travel a long way”.
“We didn’t purchase any bulls last year as we didn’t make it to the sale for the first time in ages,” Loid said.
“But we did purchase some Angus and a Simmental bull the year before, and the Simmental which we purchased from Jan and Doug Bradshaw, Blue Dog Simmentals, was used in one of our stud herds and has put some great calves on the ground for us this year,” he said.
Loid and Zabby, along with his brother Fred, and his wife Anna, and their parents, Dale and Kris jointly operate the beef cattle enterprise that encompasses a total of seven properties that stretch through the Belyando district from Clermont to Alpha.
Breeding and fattening operations are conducted throughout all the properties, with their steers mainly fattened and sold to meatworks, while the remainder are sold into the feeder market.
“We finish bullocks at an average of 320kg carcass weight through local processors and we like to get our heifers to an average of 270kg carcass weight.
“In our commercial operations we predominantly use Brahmans, and we also have a herd of Droughtmasters on one of our southern blocks.
“We use Euro-cross bulls, including Charolais and Simmental, over our Brahman and Droughtmaster females to produce an animal that is best suited to our country type and that can be easily finished.
“We are also running an internal stud operation to breed our own replacement bulls.”
Loid said over the past 12 years they’ve been improving their herd through better genetics and stricter culling for temperament and type.
“This was also one of the reasons for setting up our stud bull operation; so that we could breed more of the type we require to achieve our goals.
“We have and will always continue to improve the overall quality of the cattle we produce by using a diverse selection of high quality genetics.”