The Moopark Braunvieh Stud is located at Broadford one hour north of Melbourne on the Hume Freeway.  The cattle are run over 500 acres on three properties, ‘Kara’, ‘Glenaroua’ and              ‘Alla-Meade’.  The properties have clay loam soil profile, moderate to extreme terrain in parts,           16” rainfall with predominantly clover and phalaris mixed pastures.   In the beginning our family ran commercial cattle and went looking for a breed that could perform in line with our commercial predominantly British bred beef vealer operation.  We became acutely aware that in order to put a European sire over our herd; we would be infact jeopardizing our fertility, maternal and milk traits in our replacement females along with marbling and tenderness in our carcass performance.  Until we came across Braunvieh, the breed has delivered all that and more, we haven’t looked back since.   Braunvieh is our choice of cattle for their: ·        Fertility (bulls that can cover cows all year round and females that keep producing calves every year well over 15 years of age) ·        carcass attributes particularly marbling ability is produced through fullblood and cross bred cattle ·        docility (handled by novices in the beginning and now predominantly by Allison) ·        They are  with out a doubt aesthetically pleasing they are simply gorgeous (who wants ugly cows) ·        Perform in relatively tough terrain with limited growing seasons (our Kangaroo country..)   The stud was established in 1998 with the purchase of two females from the Tarrawarra stud at Yarraglen in Victoria.  Since then the entire Tarrawarra herd has been purchased thus the foundations of our female herd are Tarrawarra bred lines including Caroline the first imported Braunvieh female into Australia along with Highland Valley females (South Australia).  We use stud sires the stud has produced and have opened up our gene pool by using Artificial Insemination through Canadian and Swiss genetics.  Sires currently standing at stud are Moopark Factor and Moopark Yardarm two exceptional bulls in Australia today.   Our stud is committed to producing functional, sound, docile cattle that can fit in with anyone’s operation. The cattle are run under relatively harsh commercial conditions (especially the last 4 years of low growth) with hay being the only supplementary feeding regime.      Our cattle have been shown at Sydney, Canberra, Adelaide and Melbourne Royals with numerous successes.  Local shows are also attended with success in Interbreed competitions as Braunvieh are slowly being recognized for their marketability.   Currently running around 50 Braunvieh's the stud is not yet at full capacity but the stud is run inline with a commercial operation with weaners (300kg +) heavily sort after in the market place.  We calve our cattle down in Autumn and Spring so young stock are always available for sale and the show ring.  We are in the National Johnes Program and are currently MN2 which gives us the choice of showing and selling nationally. The property is also a member of Landcare and has some fantastic environmental works being undertaken such as revegetation sites, erosion works and pest plant and animal control. The stud is a member of Australian Braunvieh Association, which is a tight knit group of enthusiastic beef producers that welcome and support all new members.  We strongly encourage anyone looking for a breed of cattle to fit into an existing operation or a completely new venture to seriously consider Braunvieh.                Visitors are Always Welcome.                           Allison Long

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