BETTING ON BRAUNVIEH
At a glance
· Allison Long, Alla-Meade Braunvieh Carlsruhe
· 120 head breeding herd
· Genestar test for marbling and feed efficiency
Allison Long has her hands full. Each week she juggles the operation of a Braunvieh stud and commercial herd with her husband Dan Mudford without dropping the ball on her commitments as State Wide Landcare coordinator.
Her abilities were recently recognized when she reached the finals in the 10th Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation Victorian Rural Woman of the Year Award, the winner which will be announced today.
The winner will receive a bursary of $10,000 to pursue their vision in their chosen industry – Ms Long will research fertility and feed efficiency traits in cattle.
Her interest in this topic has stemmed from a long involvement with Braunvieh cattle, a traditional Swiss breed.
During her mid-teens, her family, from Glenaroua, near Broadford, bought into the rare cattle breed, purchasing cows from Tarrawarra Braunvieh, Yarra Glen.
Three years ago they sold half their stud herd to their daughter.
Ms Long named her stud Alla-Meade and with the purchase of Yarram-based stud Warragai’s herd at a dispersal, pushed her breeder numbers up to 40 head. The infusion of new genetics has mixed very pure (no cross breeding for seven generations) and traditional Swiss genetics into her foundation herd. ‘The females we’ve got from Warragai are really unique and there’s a lot of different stuff which we don’t have but were looking for,’ Ms Long said.
Aiming to consolidate the operation into a sole Braunvieh stud, Ms Long said they are steadily pursuing their goal of 120 Braunvieh breeders, holding roughly 10 extra females each year.
They select for moderate framed, maternal, fertile females and feed efficient bulls that can lay down the fat. ‘I really like moderate-framed milky females that put a lot into their calves and are really maternal which we’re getting to right now.’
Calving is split neatly between autumn and spring, calves are weaned at nine months and Braunvieh are then prepared for the either the show of field day circuit.
A constant incentive to remain focused on this method of promoting their stud has been their sale price- $1500-plus.
‘They’re a premium animal; you can breed half of them for the same amount of money’. And with plenty of holes in the Australian Braunvieh stud map. Ms Long said she sees ‘ a lot of potential ‘ for the herd.
Stud bulls – about 10 are sold each year – are bred with the commercial breeder in mind. ‘We try to be very real about commercial conditions and make sure our bulls can perform everywhere and haven’t had this high protein, high energy diet in a small area and never had to walk,’ Ms Long said.
Genestar provides a useful mean through which Ms Long tests for feed efficiency and marbling. Each year about six cows are artificially inseminated for genetic diversification. About 80 Angus-Shorthorn cows run directly alongside the stud. Joined to a Braunvieh bull, Ms Long said the mix produced a heavy, early maturing vealer.
Turned off directly after weaning at about 350 kilograms to either backgrounders or a feedlot order, Ms Long said the vealers averaged about 200 cents/kg.
