Spenbar run approximately 500 Brahman and Charbray crossed cows in its commercial herd. All of the commercial herd are run on “Kanandah” station.

Brahman, Charbray and Charolais bulls are used over our commercial cattle.

All progeny are transported back to Benwerrin for weaning and handled for six (6) weeks. They are then returned to Kanandah to grow out for approximately twelve (12) months before returning back to Benwerrin feedlot for finishing.

Our goals are to identify low maintenance, consistent fertile cows with calving ease, and good udders and teats, and a strong resistance to parasites e.g buffalo fly.

Our cows are required to produce a calf yearly. All cows are pregnancy tested approximately three months after bull removal. By identifying and culling cows we then achieve very rewarding results. A large percentage of bulls used in our herd are home bred so we can monitor their progeny’s progress right through to the hook.
In a recent assignment of cattle to Australia Meat Holdings Pty Ltd on the 30th October 2003, Spenbar culled two Charbray bulls for a dress weight of 645.5kg and 606.5kg to return $1,807.40 and $1,698.20. With both bulls having 4 teeth.

In May-June 2004, we shipped out 370 head of bullocks to Independent Meat Traders at Cannon Hill, Brisbane from our feedlot. These bullocks had dressed weights ranging from 256kg’s to 498kg’s .The group averaged a dressed weight of 359.5kg’s to return an average dollar value $1,258.30 per bullock.
 

Spenbar commercial cattle excel not only in the show ring, but also produce efficient beef cattle. We evaluate our crossbred calves sired by our Brahman and Charbray bulls with monitoring of our feedlot and carcass performance.

Testaments by leading processors and retail butcher shops are the true responses and answer to the cattlemen question.

Cattle are mustered at about 15-18 months of age and effective back grounding of our young cattle is important on entering the feedlot. Correct treatment at induction has contributed strongly to pen health performance.

Performance is tracked using a proprietary database that Spenbar designed as the cattle enters and leaves the feedlot. Ear tags are read, hormone growth promotants are implanted, cattle are vaccinated for botulism and are segregated by their weight reading into their pens.

Approximately 50-60 head per pen, so all cattle have ease of access to water and feed troughs. Good genetics lay the platform to produce consistent high quality domestic and export grain fed cattle to our processors.

All cattle are fed twice a day so there intake ration is closely monitored using a dieticians recommendations with water troughs cleaned every second day for good hygiene.

Spenbar feedlot cattle excel in weight gain using a mixture of the following ingredients to produce a high quality ration sorghum, wheat, barley straw, silage, whole cotton seed hulls, cotton seed meal, lime, urea and molasses feedlot concentrate liquid.
Our feedlot cattle achieve good fat cover without laying down excess amount of subcutaneous fat. Spenbar bred cattle achieve a high feed conversion with top weight gains and minimal waste.
Brisbane Meat Wholesalers have been purchasing our steers and heifers, which have been through our feedlot for several years.

The cattle above show good fat coverage without excess, and have achieved high feed conversion with top weight gains and minimal waste.
When M.S.A first started grading cattle at Cannon Hill, IMPT had 72 of our cattle all with Brahman content graded with 70 passing the stringent criteria.
It was very pleasing to have this high success rate.

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