By Linda Mantova

First time buyers at last year’s Rockhampton Brahman Week Sale, the Fry family of Strathmore Station, Collinsville, have not regretted their decision to invest in quality Brahman genetics.

Purchasing 20 bulls at the 2023 sale, the Fry’s cattle operator, Dan Condon, said the sires they acquired had performed well on their north Queensland country.

Mr Condon said they had in the past purchased bulls from northern studs including AJ Davison at Viva Brahman stud, Stewart Wallace at Wilangi, Brian Hughes at Lanes Creek and the McCamley’s at Lancefield, but wanted to try some different bloodlines.

Running approximately 6000 Brahman breeders on the Fry family’s 48,582 hectare breeding and fattening property, Mr Condon said the Brahmans were ideal for the country at Strathmore Station.

Operating as Strathmore Station Trust, the Fry’s, who previously resided in Sydney, have owned the property for the last 15 years, and have gradually built up Brahman numbers ever since.

Mrs Fry is the niece of renowned Queensland pastoralist Edward (Ted) Cunningham, whose pastoral partnerships were said to span from Collinsville to the outskirts of Townsville at the turn of last century.

“Young Ted had Brahmans here in the late ‘70s and early ‘80s, and in 1988, along with their Poll Devon herd, had to heavily destock due to an outbreak of TB,” Mr Condon said.

“Sally had always been up here visiting Ted, and playing around with a few cattle, but they’ve saved it and it’s kicking along real good now,” he said.

“I’m not there all the time, to check for ticks etc, and the Brahmans are really good when the years get tough and just cruise through.

“They have a great temperament, and we’re really happy with how they’re going.

“I like something that is big boned, has a good square head, and plenty of length.

“I think the Brahmans are just a little less maintenance for what we need. We go mustering the breeders twice a year and the Brahmans handle that. I’m not saying other cattle aren’t good too, but if you’ve got other breeds you might have to do three rounds a year to keep the ticks and flies off them.

“They don’t mind walking a few kilometres for a drink either, where the other breeds don’t mind laying about.”

With 25 kilometres of frontage to the Bowen River, Strathmore Station is made up of black soil flats with Mr Condon describing it as “top breeder country”.

“There are not many places up here that I know of that get 87 – 90 percent calving in their breeders,” he said.

Targeting both the live export market and the feeder market through the Emerald saleyards, Strathmore Station recently sold a line of 1200 steers to a private buyer.

“However most go either to the boat or to Emerald. We keep about 500 replacement heifers and sell the rest through the same markets,” Mr Condon said.

Aiming to produce steers up to 400-420kg, and heifers up to 350-380kg, average, at 14 months of age, Strathmore turns off around 4500 progeny annually.

Mr Condon said they had a few paddocks where they control mate, with the remainder mated all year round.

“We always join our heifers at Christmas time, then we pull our bulls out and preg-test, and the replacement heifers for the herd come out of those preg-tested heifers,” he said.

The Strathmore Brahman herd run on predominantly natural pastures, as well as a bit of irrigated Rhodes grass, where they run some herd bulls.

“That’s a new 730ha block across the creek, with a massive water license, where we plan to grow some hay,” Mr Condon said.

“If we pull the herd bulls out and they are a bit light we’ll take them over to that block and build them up a bit and bring them back.”

Over the 11 years of working for the Fry family, Mr Condon said he had built up a strong rapport with them.

“I probably talk to them more than my mum and dad,” he laughed.

“They are very smart businessmen and really good people, so the sums have to add up and that’s why we’ve gone the Brahman way.

“The last bull sale I went to during Brahman week, they never attended, however their son, Mitch, was there.

“We had a chat before we went and decided we wanted to start getting into some good bulls as the cattle market was good, and aimed to spend $20,000 a bull.

“We only spent about $14,000 and Mitch said we’ll be able to buy a fishing boat with the other money.

“We bought a good mob there of about 20 or so, and they’ve been good bulls too. We got a couple of pollie bulls that we normally don’t buy and they’ve been good.

“We bought a mob at Clermont last year too, and they averaged about $18,000 there, but they probably weren’t as good as the ones we bought from RBWS, but the bulls that were better were a long way better.

“We’re actually going to have a go with a couple of black bulls this year, just in one paddock and cross them with the Brahmans,” he said.

“We’d never keep a black beast to breed from, and will just sell the progeny.”

Running roughly 150 bulls in total, Mr Condon said around half would be from Viva stud, and they ran a ratio of one bull to 25 cows.

“This year we might not be chasing as many bulls, and just try to use a few out of the herd,” he said.

“We had bought a mob off Lock Lani Brahmans near Gympie, who have sold some top priced bulls at Brahman week. We bought 25 bulls off them out of the paddock about five years ago.

“That helped a lot as they were good boned bulls, and at the time Paul and Sally still found it hard to understand that we had to spend $18,000-$20,000 for a good bull to start getting better progeny than we had.

“It’s hard to explain to someone that you can buy a bull for $6000 and still get calves, but if you spend $20,000 you get a better type of calf, and the difference in the money and how much you can make out of it is huge. That’s why we look for the better Brahman genetics.”

Strathmore Station donate cattle each year for the Bowen River Campdraft, held only eight kilometres from the homestead so cattle are walked to the event, which is one of the highlights of the year.

“We take over 2000 head to the campdraft during the June long weekend. Sally is the secretary and Paul is the vice-president, so they’ve been doing it prior to me getting here. I don’t think there’s ever been any other cattle taken there.

“Sometimes it goes real good, but other times not so good. The cattle handle it pretty well though.”