You don’t know performance if you don’t measure

Location: Baralaba, QLD

Enterprise: Beef cattle

Producer: Lyn and Brett Coombe

Soil type: A wide spectrum

Pasture type: Buffel grass

Lyn and Brett Coombe run a 150-cow stud operation in Central Queensland. They have been actively involved with performance recording since BREEDPLAN's inception in the late 1980s and believe the emphasis BREEDPLAN places on recording herd performance gives a clear picture of how their cattle are doing.

 

Benefits of BREEDPLAN

Brett says that while BREEDPLAN initially focused on growth traits, the more recent inclusion of maternal and fertility traits have given him a second wind as figures such as days to calving give him a clearer picture of dam performance.

The Coombes believe that one of the benefits of performance recording is the ability to get online and access a wide range of genetic information across many breeds. Brett says he is able to go to a bull sale and if he sees a bull he likes, he can go home, jump online and see the performance of the bull's dam and grand-dam - the best way to gauge performance and a real benefit of BREEDPLAN.

 

Performance recording and management decisions

From a management perspective, Brett says BREEDPLAN has ensured that the beef cattle industry is one of the most measured and highly analysed livestock industries in the country. He feels that performance recording, and its subsequent use in BREEDPLAN, has meant that nearly all stud breeders are more attuned to their herd's performance because they are getting regular updates on most aspects of an animal's progress and they know where the are going with their breeding program.

Brett also said his commercial clients were also using BREEDPLAN to varying degrees to assist their decision making for genetics that were brought into their operation.

The Coombes believe that you don't know performance if you don't measure it. Adding that the one fundamental truth behind BREEDPLAN is that it offers an insight into both a herd's and a beast's performance and can assist in developing the genetic nucleus of a herd.

Baralaba, QLD
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