INNOVATIVE ideas combined with sound principles mean Te Mania has long been a leader in the Angus world.
However, one of the stud's directors, Tom Gubbins, believes the beef industry is on the cusp of huge change.
"I see the DNA era - for (my brother-in-law) Hamish (McFarlane) and I at Te Mania - as similar to the development of Breedplan that (my father Andrew) went through," he said.
And DNA technology is changing. Fast.
"Last year we could take 10,000 'snips' (single nucleotide polymorphisms or SNPs). At the moment we can take 50,000 from an animal. Soon it will be 500,000 and there will be a day when the whole animal would be able to be (mapped)," Tom said.
In the future, genetic information derived from the cattle's DNA will lead to cattle breeding programs where genomic information is used in conjunction with phenotypic information - the physical performance characteristics of the animal, such as its weight and growth rate - to help producers breed better beef.
"If DNA technology becomes really good, and describes 50 per cent ... of the animal, it would be amazing, but I don't see it happening in my lifetime," Tom said.
"It is costly, and we need to decide when we start to go into it.
"I do not see a significant genetic improvement advantage in being involved with DNA at the moment - but there will be an advantage in the future.
"Phenotypical information is so good and so accurate at the moment that DNA won't improve what we have now - but further down the track - I (think it will)."
Before DNA technology is accurate enough to be practically useful for studs such as Te Mania, Tom said there were many obstacles to clear.
Not least of all facing the industry is regulation, and how big companies that manufacture DNA technology fit into the picture.
"It is crucial for the future of DNA's use in a animal breeding that markers be independently calibrated in populations of animals outside of the discovery herd," Tom believes.
Beef CRC research shows that "discovering and validating" DNA markers associated with important production traits, such as feed efficiency and female reproduction, is more complex than initially thought.
Since the cow genome was sequenced in 2006, geonomic testing - and its cost - has changed vastly.
"In 2008 a 'snip' panel that can test 50,000 DNA markers simultaneously, became available," Beef CRC chief executive Heather Burrow said.
"It cost us around $US250 to use that panel.
"We can now access that panel for $US100 and we are expecting it to reduce even further in price as the size of the 'snip' panels increases to 500,000 (DNA) markers or even more."
While Te Mania are always pushing ahead to better their Angus genetics, they have also relocated, or centralised, their operation.
The Te Mania principals - Tom and Lucy Gubbins, Tom's sister Amanda and her husband Hamish McFarlane, as well as their parents Andrew and Mary Gubbins - spent last year relocating their bull unit from near Colac to Mortlake.
The family sold the Colac property - established by Mary and Andrew 50 years ago - at the end of 2008 and completed the move to Mortlake in August last year. The females had been running at the Mortlake property since 2002.
"At the moment we are having a period of consolidation. However, we think we have found the farm that suits our enterprise," Tom said.
"The bull-buyers never saw the cows when we were at Pardoo, so this way, we have streamlined the operation."
However, Tom is not looking at what has been done. He has his eyes fixed firmly on the future.
"The cattle population is being pushed north, and cattle and dairying country is becoming scarcer in the Western District (with a lot of land in recent years going into cropping)," he said.
Like other breed-leaders, Te Mania has a presence the north, with its spring bull sale at Walgett, in northern NSW, growing each year. And this year will be no different.
Tom anticipates 160 bulls will be offered - 40 more than last year, when 122 bulls sold to a top of $14,000, and up from 90 bulls in 2008.
"We like to see bulls being reared in NSW for our northern clients. I think it is important," Tom said.
They have just completed the second round of artificial-insemination programs for 1000 cows and 470 heifers - and Tom talks about working on carbon levels within the soil and maintaining those by minimal tilling.
"We farm biologically. There is very little soluble fertiliser used here," Tom said.
"We are looking into marking compost here as well, as compost innoculates the soil."
Te Mania's autumn bull sale will be held at Mortlake on March 19 at midday.
It will preceded by Te Mania's commercial female sale on AuctionsPlus on March 18 at 5pm.
