ROD and Kerry Newnham watch with some satisfaction as their clients regularly top Euroa's weaner calf sales.
The Newnhams were one of the first to import New Direction Black Simmental genetics from the US.
Though Euroa is famed for its Black Friday Angus sales, Rod says he's slowly winning over traditional British breeders seeking more weight for age and kilograms of beef per hectare.
And it certainly helps that their Newblax stud sires produce black cattle.
"I have one client, he's actually down in Leongatha, who always buys our F1 (Angus-Simmental) bulls and his herd is becoming all the same colour and the same shape," Rod says.
"Though they are of no particular one breed, they are uniform and well structured."
Rod and Kerry farmed Hereford and Simmental cattle for 20 years alongside their earthmoving business before they bought stud and performance-recorded females from a nearby Angus stud, Lawsons, in 2002.
Soon after, the opportunity arose to import 66 Black Simmental embryos from the US in conjunction with PertGenetics at Glenaroua.
"My then manager, Ian Collie, had been to the US on a number of occasions and had been following the progress of some forward-thinking Simmental breeders there.
"They understood the needs of the complete US beef industry production chain, from the rancher, to the processor and right through to the consumer," Rod said.
The first Newblax embryo-transfer calves were born in 2004 and since then the Newnhams have built their Black Simmental, Angus and Sim-Angus cow herd to 300 (about a third are registered) to supply mostly commercial producers.
Last December the top three pens of steers at one of Euroa's Black Friday sales were all by Newblax sires and, at just nine months, returned $845.
"On top of the extra kilos of beef on weaners, we also seem to get a better price for first-cross cattle," Rod said.
But it wasn't only improved returns at the saleyards that kept clients coming back.
Rod pointed to research in Australia and in the US that showed a 25 per cent advantage in lifetime productivity in crossbred cows compared with their purebred counterparts.
Then there was the added benefit of greater flexibility in marketing stock Sim-Angus stock were less likely to become over-fat when held over to avoid a trough in prices and surplus females were always in demand to breed from, he said.
"I knew the resultant progeny from a well-structured cross-breeding program would be limited by the quality of the parent seed stock. I knew we had to be very selective in choosing our donor cows."
To this end, Rod and Kerry selected cows according to pedigree, structure and ultrasound scan, or "raw" data.
They then set about developing a climate-controlled, airconditioned lab on the farm to implement their ET program, designed to extract the best from all three breeds.
"The Black Simmental and Angus were so compatible and, when crossed, produce an animal that is of moderate frame, very fertile, structurally sound, easily born, has good growth, yield and carcass quality the traits necessary for an economically viable and sustainable beef production system," Rod said.
"I can tell the difference between the three the Black Simmental are always thicker and beefier, they have different coats and slightly different structure. The figures are there for them. We've just got to convince people to get a bull and try it."
Rod continues to flush and store embryos on farm from his most elite females.
They join autumn and spring, using artificial insemination from both Australian and international sires in both matings as well as ET for fast results.
"Most of my bull-buying clients indicate that an F1/F1 mating in a self-replacing herd is the simplest way to optimise and use the benefits of hybrid vigour. Other clients have experienced good results from just using an F1 bull over straight Angus and black baldy cows," Rod said.
"I still sell more Angus sires than pure Simmental sires, but the younger farmers are really having a go at cross-breeding over their Angus cows."
