By Matt Sherrington; (Pictures by  AgriShots.com)

Purebred Brahman produced on Jumbuck Pastoral Company’s Meda stations in the West Kimberley region of Western Australia has proven to be highly sought after by exporters and lot feeders in Indonesia.

Troy Haslet has been the manager of Meda for nine years, and he, together with two full-time staff and 13 seasonal workers, ensures the Jumbuck pipeline of Brahman to South East Asia is constantly flowing.

Shorthorn were the dominant breed on Meda until 20 years ago when Brahman was introduced.

“We now run a pure Brahman herd on Meda, involving 26,000 head in total, of which 11,000 are breeders,” Mr Haslet said.

In these programs maiden and second-calf heifers are joined from mid-February through to the end of June. Once past this period they’re then put in with the mature cows which are joined all year round.

“We select on temperament and type, while maiden heifers require strong fertility, any that preg-test empty are culled. We also cull cows at 10-years-old,” he said.

“We generally hit a conception rate of 75 per cent for the maiden heifers and 75pc at weaning. The entire breeder herd has averaged 75pc at weaning for the last five years. We’d like to get that up to 80pc as long as we can achieve it profitably.”

Close to 5000 head of purebred red Brahman from Meda were shipped to Indonesia for the 2022-23 financial year.

“The market was a bit slow this year. We were fortunate to sell all our stock, which was due to them all being purebred Brahman. Hopefully, the domestic market kicks a bit next year, which should then get the export market rolling again before the end of 2024.”

The company sends feeder steers and heifers at 260 to 370kg (averaging 320kg) to Indonesia.

“We have a solid rapport with the Australian exporters and we have formed good relationships with the Indonesian feed lotters, who like the type of cattle we’re sending.”

While all females in the programs are homebred, Jumbuck has been purchasing Brahman bulls from Reade Radel, Kandoona Stud for more than 10 years.

“We have been buying roughly 60 bulls yearly from Kandoona over the last eight years. We have found these bulls to be highly fertile, good doers in our country with a great temperament. They’re good solid bulls. The gains we’ve made in our breeder herd is a credit to these bulls.”

The 505,857ha Meda Station, situated 40km east of Derby, has been owned by Jumbuck for 30 years, which is the same span of time the company has owned the 254,648ha Blina Station, which runs adjacent to the southern boundary of Meda.

The land across these properties predominantly consists of black soil Downs country, and some red soil terrain, which both receive an average of 650mm annual rainfall.

“We had a good wet which ran through to April this year followed by a pretty dry winter, which has led into a late start to the 2023-24 wet season.

“However, the cattle are in really good condition after the 2022-23 wet season, and the country is still holding on. With storms to come the country should rebound quickly.”