By Linda Mantova; photos supplied; printed in September 2025 Brahman News

The Hartley family started off in Herefords back in 1880, however over a hundred years later, Tom Hartley convinced his father that Brahmans were the future, and he has stuck to his guns running a quality commercial Brahman herd for the past 35 years.

It all began back in 1991 when Tom went to the Roma Brahman bull sale and bought 59 Brahman bulls.

Today Hartley Grazing operates a 148,257 hectare aggregation, consisting of three properties 100 kilometres north of Mitchell, including the home place, Coopermurra (11,983ha), adjoining Southlands (14,412ha), and Crystalbrook (85,020ha), as well as 36,842ha at Thornhill, in the Hughenden district.

Operating as a family partnership, Mr Hartley, his wife, Sandra, their son, Andrew and his wife Abbey, believe Brahmans suit their country and their program.

With 5000 breeders, both Brahman and cross bred, Mr Hartley said his total herd consisted of 16,000 head.

“We have around 4000 Brahman females and 1000 crossbreds, which are joined with Brahman, Charolais and Angus bulls, as well as some Santa Gertrudis bulls,” he said.

“The cross breds are softer sort of females who stay down on the softer country.”

Mr Hartley said Crystalbrook was their main breeding property.

“It runs about 3500 cows, and they are mainly Brahman types but some with a bit of crossbred in them.

“It’s forest country and that’s why we have the Brahmans running there.

“We’ve got about 500 Brangus cows and we will either put Brahman or Santa Gertrudis back over them, but Brahmans are our base herd. Crystalbrook is a reasonably hard place so they’ve got to be able to live and raise a calf in that country.”

Running about 100 Brahman bulls, out of about 200 sires used on their four places, the Hartley’s have been buying at the Rockhampton Brahman Week Sales for the past six years.

Mr Hartley said they would be heading there again next month on the hunt for new sires.

“We usually buy around 10-15 at Rocky, but this year may be a bit less, as our bulls are in pretty good order this year and we haven’t had many break down, so won’t need quite as many as normal,” he said.

“We look for good bone, length and frame in a sire, as well as good loose skin, and weight is a fairly important thing. Days to calving is also important, so we try to keep to the more fertile ones.

“We don’t stick to any one stud or bloodline, we buy across a range of six/seven studs, but have bought from Kandoona, Fenechs and Rocklea in the past – we buy bulls that suit us.

“There is always a good selection of quality genetics up there and the best quality line of bulls you’d find anywhere,” he said.

“The studs bring their best bulls to Rocky, and the tail has gone right out of the bulls for the last 20 years. The Brahman society cleaned that up, and now you’d hardly see a bull at Rocky that you’d be ashamed to take home.”

Mr Hartley said they targeted the bullock trade for a long time, with Brahman really suiting the bullock ‘job’.

“If I was just doing bullocks now, I wouldn’t have anything but a Brahman, however circumstances dictate that we have to chase the feeder market a lot more now,” he said.

“That’s why we are crossbreeding a lot more now. We try to target a heavy feeder market aiming for 480 kilograms for our steers and 470kg for our heifers direct to feedlots. That’s our minimum weight at around two years old.

“We sell pretty exclusively to Ben Morgan at Morgan Pastoral Company near Dalby, and have done so since 2013. Those feeder cattle are reasonably flat backed with the Angus and Charolais taking the humps out.

“However, because the Brahmans haven’t been the flavour of the month for the last couple of years, our Brahman steers and cull heifers go back out to our Hughenden place, where Andrew and Abbey and their two children, Andrea and Audie, live.

“Those Brahman cattle then go on to the live export (heavy boat) trade. We also buy a lot of lighter Brahman steers in at Thornhill so it’s more a trading/dry property, and we don’t have many cows out there. We grow those steers out for the heavy boat trade.”

Mr Hartley said they sent bullocks to Vietnam recently.

“They were mostly our own breed. They were weighed at Cloncurry at 623kg, for $3.20/kg, and shipped out of Darwin,” he said.

“We’ve only had that northern country since 2021, so have only accessed live export since then.

Entering 25 pure Brahman steers in this year’s inaugural ABBA feedlot trial and competition, Mr Hartley said he was thrilled with his family’s success winning Reserve Champion Individual Carcase.

He believes the event is an essential tool for Brahman breeders going forward.

“I think about the Brahmans in the northern country, as we buy a fair few northern steers in, and there is still a reasonably big variation in the quality of cattle, which I suppose is true for every breed, but I just think the feedlot trial is a really good idea,” he said.

“They probably need to do a trial every year and try and encourage Brahman studs to become involved, so it gives them a bit more comparison about how their cattle are going,” he said.

“Fertility is something Brahman stud masters should keep their eyes on. We know that Brahmans live in the toughest part of the NT and Qld, but females still have to be able to produce a calf most years.”

Mr Hartley said he was first attracted to Brahmans due to their ability to survive in harsher climates.

“Also their frame, and ability to put more weight into our cattle is impressive. They are a lot easier to muster and are a lot more intelligent beast,” he said.

“We use helicopters to muster at Hughenden, but use horses for our two annual musters (weaning and branding) on Crystalbrook, and then use buggies and bikes on our other places.

“We’ve got four full time staff plus family members, including our daughter, Krystle, who does all the book-keeping, plus another daughter and son-in-law, Amanda and Brett Slater, who are on Crystalbrook.”

Mr Hartley said succession planning was on his radar in the future, “to see where everybody wants to go and what they want to do”.

“Another daughter and her husband, Michelle and Dan McInerney, have gone their own way and we’ve acquired a couple of properties near Mitchell, Morwhiena and Lanook, for them as their share. They run mainly Brahmans and black cattle,” he said.

Having experienced a reasonable season on most of his Mitchell and Hughenden country, Mr Hartley said all his cattle were fat.

“I would have liked a bit more bulk of feed, but after a recent fall of 25 millimetres it has sparked some new green pick,” he said.

“All of our cattle are run on natural grasses, Buffel and Brigalow.”