By Linda Mantova, photos by Kenilworth Brahmans

Right. Brad and Kelveen Hancock, Kenilworth Brahman stud, handling cattle in the yards on their 17,000 hectare Mt Coolon property. Left Kelveen Hancock (centre), with her parents’ Kelvin and Margaret Maloney, Kenilworth Brahmans, Mt Coolon.

A major investment in quality Brahman genetics over the past two months will help secure the future legacy of Kenilworth Brahman stud.

Purchases of top sires at the recent Rockhampton Brahman Week Sale in Token Oscar for $70,000, the Carinya Garglen sale for $170,000 and the Lancefield sale for $37,500, has ensured that Kenilworth continues to produce top herd bulls for commercial producers across Queensland and the Northern Territory.

Established in January 1967, by Kelvin and Margaret Maloney, supported by Kelvin’s parents, Cedric and June, Kenilworth Brahmans is today a name synonymous with good tempered, fertile cattle.

Those traits are admired by their daughter, Kelveen, and her husband, Brad Hancock, who assist in the running of the 17,000-hectare Central Queensland property at Mt Coolon.

The future is bright at Kenilworth Brahmans with the fourth generation of the family also assisting with everyday responsibilities and data collection.

Kelveen and Brad’s daughter, Sam, has come home from working on cattle stations in North Queensland, and has set to recording the DNA of all progeny in the family operation.

Producing approximately 250 herd bulls annually, Kenilworth Brahmans sell through the annual Gold City and Big Country sales, with the remainder of their bulls sold out of the paddock.

When asked what type of bull they aim to produce, Kelveen said “a reliable one, that includes bone, beef, fertility and temperament”.

“When educated in the right way, you will see your efforts repaid,” she said.

Proven handling system

Kelveen said she had learnt a lot from her father, whom she described as a very astute cattleman.

“Our bulls go through a system that dad taught us years ago,” she said.

“We bring them in and they spend a couple of days in the yard and we walk up around them a couple times a day, which is quite time consuming but allows the weaners to feel relaxed with us. After a few days we start putting them down in a big long cutting yard and we walk them down there with buggies and dogs. We still try and get a horse around them when they’re weaners, but more with the buggies.”

“We do that for a couple of days and then we take them for a walk with someone in the lead, on the side and on the tail. We walk them out in the morning and leave them in a small paddock for the day and muster them in the afternoon and walk them home.”

“We’ll do that for two weeks. We also work them through the stockyards a couple of times and we do that with every single weaner on the place.”

“When we finish that we put them up in a weaner paddock, and when it comes closer to the end of the year, we bring them all down, and if anything is bad tempered by then, they get their balls cut out.”

The Kenilworth team sell a percentage of feeder steers to export markets, feedlots or into the Charters Towers saleyards, but prefer to sell them through the works when they are fat enough.

“Any cow that doesn’t make our standards gets fattened up and sent to the works also.”

Joining in November, branding around Christmas, and weaning from March onwards, the family runs around 800 breeders, which are mostly commercial.

“The bulls we sell are commercial. My dad has never really been interested in the stud side of things. We buy stud bulls to acquire new genetics to continue to improve our herd at Kenilworth, and so our buyers are satisfied with our product,” Kelveen said.

“The bull we bought at Rocky Brahman Week, Token Oscar, brings new bloodlines to what we’ve got at home, so that’s a good thing,” she said.

“Oscar is quite a beefy bull, and his parentage is something we haven’t had here. He is a well put together calf. We will put him in a single sire mob in a smaller paddock and we’ve got some nice cows for him.”

Kelveen said her father was very proud of his cattle, and rightly so.

“He has worked very hard to have the quality cattle that he has,” she said.

“We are starting to do DNA recording, as we’ve got multi-sired paddocks, so it’s been hard to know the parentage of cattle.”

Brahman man

Kelveen said her father was a Poll Brahman man through and through.

“Dad and mum have always run Brahmans and dad’s father always had Brahmans, and we don’t plan on changing it either,” she said.

“Dad was the boss, but pop worked side by side with him, and worked hard they did with mum’s continued support.”

Kelveen said she admired the Brahman breed for their intelligence and resilience.

“Not everyone brings their cattle up the same, but dad has always been a man that spent a lot of time with weaners, and has tried to use sires and females with good temperament,” she said.

“If they are not quiet, they don’t make it here. I think they are resilient cattle, and we are always trying to improve on what we’ve got, so we keep an eye on all the typical traits of bone, beef, temperament and fertility.

“They also smell good. In Summer, when you come home on an afternoon behind a mob of weaners and its been really hot, they have a smell of their own. Other breeds just smell different compared to Brahmans.

“I’ve got absolutely nothing against other breeds, but we won’t step away from Brahmans.”

Buying a lot of Lancefield genetics over the years, Kelveen said those bloodlines had performed well for them at Kenilworth.

Other dominant sires used at Kenilworth include Willtony Waverly and Willtony Stetson, from the Pelling family at the time.

Kelveen said both sires had now passed, but they still had sons of Stetson working in the herd and used semen from Stetson at times for their AI program. Waverly also has a few sons still at work.

Highlights

They plan to put their recent bull purchases to work in their stud program, and list them as highlights of their last 12 months, along with improving their fencing.

“For all of us, being able to fence up more of the property was pretty amazing,” she said.

Together with MCDC fencing contractors, Kelveen said they fenced a further 25 kilometres, including the construction of laneways and water squares.

“It’s made it much easier to manage the place and the cattle, and buying those couple of good bulls has certainly been a highlight.”

Kenilworth paid the top price of $170,000 for Garglen Johnstone X2349, at the recent sale, and have big plans for the 26-month-old polled scurred grey who weighed in at 949 kilograms.

“We have sold semen out of him, but will bring him home from Rocky to acclimatise,” Kelveen said.

“We also bought Lancefield S Reamus for $37,500,” she said.

“We hope people will appreciate what we’ve put into our herd and know they are buying good genetics.

“Our operation is just not a one person job – it takes a team and we are investing in our future. We all look forward to seeing calves from our new bulls and last year’s bull.

“At the end of the day, Brad and I hope we can continue to do a good job. In the big picture you just want to work to the best of your ability and hope that your cattle are going to hold.

“I don’t ever want to the leave the place if I don’t have to.”

Great seasons

With an annual rainfall of 20 inches, Kelveen said they had enjoyed a great couple of seasons.

Making their own Buffel hay if the season was right, she said they produced around 1000 bales annually.

Their country is predominantly Blackwood melon hole with belts of Brigalow and Gidgee in the better country with frontage to a tributary of Police Creek, as well as numerous dams, two bores and extensive polypipe trough systems.

“Dad calls it half acre country, as only half is usable, but the Brahmans are pretty tough. Dad has been here a long time, and has managed it well, but when it gets dry we put lick out until the rain comes,” she said.

“Probably the worst part is when it rains on our melon hole country as it usually takes two weeks for it to respond. We have seeded the place with Buffel, and other grasses and legumes but none of it really likes to be water logged at the bottom of the melon holes.

“We have a lot of Wiregrass and Saltbush herbage as well as Gidgee Burr, which the cattle do well on when it’s young and fresh.”