OUR HERD - FEMALES OPTI ELSA Z14 daughter of Bando 598 OPTI -Aristocrat-Egret daughter of Te Mania Xpo. Hamish McFarlane thought she had "some real stretch and shape to her". New Level heifer A20. Our most important goal is the production of top breeders: To achieve this we weight 80% of the calves at birth. If one were to ignore the actual weight at birth one would know very little about the future heifer and her ability to perform as a future breeder. Weighing at birth is stressful but it is essential to know your herd. Once we have certainty about the first weight we can plan which sires the future heifer will need. Y60 for instance (a Design Plus 97 daughter) weighed 49kgs at birth. Her first calf A23 by Te Mania Modest weighed 31kgs. Accurate weighing at birth allows for precise planning in breeding and in particular for precise calculations of calving ease requirements. At The Pines we are serious about weighing at birth. Breeders are foot scored and structurally assessed by an indedpendent assessor. It is rare to foot score the females but we have discovered that it helps in the selection of breeders.

Scanning of the females gives a fairly good indication of the marbling of the herd. As expected the daughters of Future Direction, OB45 and our depasturing bulls by OB45 were in the top group (IMF: between 5% to 7.8%). The scanning confirmed our high marbling average as per EBV's. Through GeneSTAR testing we have further increased our knowledge of the herd regarding marbling and tenderness. The test is particularly interesting for the tenderness gene which is inheritable. Tenderness stars do not fluctuate with the fat condition of the animal. Therefore we consider this data as highly reliable. C60 daughter of OB45 with USA97 sire of her dam. She is 10 days old. OPTI Delia A12 daughter of Future Direction with OB45 sire of the dam. She has many flush sisters. Our females are from OB45-Future Direction cross, 208-Future Direction cross, 208-Te Mania Xpo cross. We have also females by Vermilion Dateline and Design Plus 97. This August our calving season yielded elegant E.T heifers from legendary cow makers such as Sitz Traveler 8180 and Leachman Right Time.

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For enquiries, please contact us: The Pines Pastoral Meryla Road, Moss Vale NSW 2577, Australia

Phone: (02) 4868 3523 - Mobile: 0418 200 138 Fax: (02) 4869 2125 email: cattle@thepinespastoral.com.au

Last updated 12/11/07