Glenavon Angus Stud is now approaching its 30th Annual on property Bull Sale.
For 50 years our initial aims, philosophies and breeding objectives have never really
changed as we have always endeavoured to breed large framed, soft, fertile, easy doing
cattle, that will calve easily and thrive under commercial conditions.
Initially, for the first 20 years we aimed to set a type, breeding our own replacement bulls,
for our large herd of self-replacing Angus cattle, then selling any surplus bulls privately.
This caused some conflict as time went on as our clients always wanted the first pick of these
sale bulls. So when our stud numbers increased it enabled us to have an on property auction
sale in 1984.
Before the days of Group breed plan we purchased many “prize winning show bulls” over the
years, with mixed results. As it became obvious that the best Feeder won the prize and many
of these bulls did not breed on.
We have always run our stud under commercial paddock conditions and we prefer to try and
purchase out cross genetics from other on property sales run under similar conditions.
Since the development of Group Breed plan, we A.I over 200 Cows each year in a continued
effort to improve our genetics. This allows us access to the ‘best’ genetics available, allowing
us to pick a ‘type’ that suits our programme and we then use these AI sons extensively.
Our aim is to produce feeder steers for the Japanese B3 market that will have the growth and
potential to grow out for the EU market. The EU Angus feeder steer market has always offered
a premium, with rates presently at $2.35 which is some $0.30 above the saleyard rate.
Note; (500kg x $0.30 = $150 extra per head)
We have always kept to, and keep going back to the basics, being very conscious of phenotype
as well as genotype. There are not any EBVs for structure, allowing conformation to be
overlooked by many, in the pursuit of other EBV’s.
We feel that there should be an EBV for Longevity which is highly correlated to structure.
This EBV could indicate the expected lifetime of a bull which could produce an extra 60-70
calves, therefore increasing a much higher return on your capital outlay.
Bull A = 2 years use at 35 calves at $500 = $35,000
Bull B = 4 years use at 35 calves at $500 = $70,000
Our aim is, and always has been to produce, sound, productive, easy care cattle that are bred
for cattle men.