By Linda Mantova

Having tasted much success in recent feedlot trials and carcase competitions, Ahern Brahmans continue to be commercially-focused.

Paul and Melissa Ahern, along with their son, Trader, and daughter, Holly, operate both a stud and commercial herd of pure Brahmans on their property, Bandon, about 25 kilometres north of Gayndah, in the Burnett region of Queensland.

Their stud was established in 1998, and they currently run 450 commercial breeders, as well as 300 stud females.

With 4655 hectares of quality forest country and natural pastures, Paul Ahern said they placed strong emphasis on breeding cattle to suit their environment, with Brahmans proving to be the most suitable breed for their operation.

“They are low maintenance, as we’re not treating them for ticks, and they seem to thrive in this country,” Mr Ahern said.

“It’s a tick area here, so the Brahmans do make sense for us with their resistance whereas with other breeds you have to treat regularly to control the ticks.”

Growing up with Brahmans, Mr Ahern said his father, Barry, got into the breed about 50 years ago.
“We grew up mustering for Dad. He ran Brahmans along with other breeds, but Brahmans were always the go-to because of their low maintenance. He started buying Brahman bulls back in the late ’70s,” he said.

Today they are very commercially focused, using home-bred bulls over their females, to produce a beast that is ideal for the meat works.

Selling direct to JBS at Dinmore, Mr Ahern said they aimed to produce a steer dressing at about 350 kilograms with 2-4 teeth.

“We fatten our steers and cull heifers on grass here, and some will have grain, but not many,” he said.
“They usually perform pretty well on the grid and aren’t penalised too much. They also have the required fat cover and teeth to hit that target window.

Carcase wins

“We’ve had success at numerous carcase competitions over the years, with pure Brahmans.”

One such competition was the inaugural ABBA Feedlot Trial and Carcase competition held in 2025, where the Aherns took the top honours winning both the Champion Pen and Champion Individual Steer awards, as well as the highest individual daily weight gain of 2.97 kilograms.

Entering a pen of ten grey Brahman steers, they came out on top of 381 entries, in what was described as a ‘hotly contested and highly successful competition’.

“They were home bred steers, with mostly our bloodlines,” Mr Ahern said.

While he confessed he didn’t have any steers picked out as yet for this year’s competition, the family has entered again, with high hopes after last year’s success.

“We haven’t got any set aside, but we will have to go find something.

They will just come out of the program, and will be selected on their weight, teeth and type,” he said.

Mr Ahern attributed their trial success to their commercial focus on a carcase and the steers ability to settle into the feedlot environment quickly, plus a little luck to go with it.

“We try to breed cattle with a carcase that’s going to grade. It comes down to finding bulls that cover up and are a bit softer and are going to finish well etc,” he said.

“We place greater emphasis on selecting for grassfed finishing rather than feedlot finishing. However, we may look more closely at that in the future, as the industry appears to be moving toward more grain fed finishing and a more consistent end product.”

Mr Ahern said they liked to support their local Gayndah Show and have had good success there over the years.

“We have put cattle into the Muan Brahmans feedlot, down at Biggenden, which is organised by the show committee. A communal yard is put together of 30-40 head for producers who want to feedlot a few for the show,” he said.

“This gives the show a solid nucleus of grain-fed cattle, and we’re proud to have won the average daily weight gain with our purebred Brahmans.”

Stud success

Also having success with their stud cattle, Ahern Brahmans topped the recent Big Country Brahman bull and female sale at Charters Towers, selling their 26-month-old grey polled scurred sire, Ahern Galen 1799, for $130,000.

“We’ve always had a good run up there, but we’ve never topped the sale before. That’s always a bit of a highlight,” Mr Ahern said.

“Another highlight was topping Day One of Brahman Week a few years ago with Ahern Brock,” he said.
They buy in sires from other studs including Garglen, Carinya and 2AM, for use predominantly in their stud operation. The Aherns sell bulls annually at Big Country, Rockhampton Brahman Week and Fitzroy Crossing Sale in Western Australia.

When asked what type of female they strived to produce, Mr Ahern said they liked to breed a female that’s a fertile growthy type with good conformation and a broad head.

“The cattle have got to be able to walk and where we sell our bulls to they have to be able to walk…that’s a fundamental really,” he said.

“Another important point we focus on is fertility and the cows’ mothering ability. It is high priority for us especially when we are selling sires to the north.

“I think it really helps us in the stud game that we have a commercial focused mindset and are not just set on trying to breed bulls to sell.

“We are not really into showing our stud cattle. It’s time consuming and expensive, but it is something we’ve done in the past and was a rewarding process.

“We have been focusing more on exhibiting our cattle at carcase competitions and presenting them well at sales.”

Mr Ahern outlined his cattle program.

“We start joining heifers at the start of October, and cows a little bit later and through to the end of February. We try to aim to have all the calves born before Christmas. If we get the odd dry year or a weather event happens, we may leave them in with the cows a little bit longer” he said.

“We then preg-test everything at the second weaning and cull the empties out. We also cull dry cows at the second branding, so anything that’s lost a calf we’ll go through and get them out.

“We do our AI and IVF programs from October to November, depending on when we want to AI heifers, and the weather of course dictates that a little bit too.”

Mr Ahern said the AI program was mainly for his stud females, however he planned to do more AI with his commercial heifers also.

“We mainly used our sires, Ahern Bernard and Ahern Cruiser for our AI program. We are happy with the quality those bulls are producing for us.”

With a 10-kilometre frontage to Reids Creek, the Aherns property is “very well naturally watered”, allowing for their cattle to be fed on abundant grasses.

Recent rain has set them up for a great Autumn, receiving 90 millimetres in early February.

“It had dried off a little bit, so we were starting to look for a bit of rain. It was very good and will set us up for a bit of growth before the Winter,” Mr Ahern said.

The family has a few fencing projects coming up, as well as renovating a second home on the property.
“We also run about 80 Simbrah breeders, as a trial at the moment. I just like to keep my mind open a bit, to see what works and what doesn’t.

“We just want to keep improving our cattle and improving our property.
That’s our motto – keep improving.”