With a strong family history in the Shorthorn breed it’s no surprise that Anthony Hurst utilises the maternal strengths of the breed in his Charolais crossbreeding program. The results are not only impressive in the pasture but keenly sought after when auctioned at Ballarat, Victoria every summer. Anthony has a strong belief the Shorthorn female offers the premium maternal base to work with in Australia and appreciates the hybrid vigour and muscle the Charolais contributes.

 

With a strong family history in the Shorthorn breed it’s no surprise that Anthony Hurst utilises the maternal strengths of the breed in his Charolais crossbreeding program. The results are not only impressive in the pasture but keenly sought after when auctioned at Ballarat, Victoria every summer. Anthony has a strong belief the Shorthorn female offers the premium maternal base to work with in Australia and appreciates the hybrid vigour and muscle the Charolais contributes.

 

The Hurst family is well known in the Lower South East of South Australia with their Lake Hawdon property. Originally running an orchard at Paracombe in the Adelaide Hills the Hurst family purchased Lake Hawdon in 1949. The first property leases around Lake Hawdon were taken up in 1846.  There is a connection with a Lake Hawdon bred horse, poet Adam Lindsay Gordon and his famous leap on horseback to the crater of the Blue Lake in Mt Gambier.

 

The Hursts ran sheep on Lake Hawdon until 1951 when the first commercial Shorthorns were introduced. In 1974 the Lake Hawdon Australian Shorthorn stud was established with the Poll Shorthorn stud following two years later.  Anthony’s brother David retained the original Lake Hawdon property in a succession plan 16 years ago and Anthony took control of the 4,200 acre Seriston property in the highly regarded Avenue Range area.

 

 Avenue Range is located  55 kilometres west of Naracoorte and 330km south east of Adelaide. Highly regarded for its stock production, neighbouring properties have been home to nationally recognised studs such as Fellwood Angus, Cannawigra Poll Hereford and Woonallee Simmental have a property nearby. The area is highly serviced by saleyards with Naracoorte, Mt Gambier and Millicent within a 150km range. Teys have a processing plant at Naracoorte.

 

A major focus on the property is the White Suffolk flock started when Anthony was 15 years of age in 1991. Currently running 800 stud ewes along with 150 Suffolk ewes, Seriston conducts a highly successful on property ram sale in October annually. In 2017 the sale averaged $1,461 for 185 rams. This is all achieved by Anthony and one staff member.

 

Close to 2,000 Merino ewes are joined to the White Suffolk rams and lambs are traded when opportunity arises. Anthony is the current Vice President of the Australian White Suffolk Association.

 

The commercial cow herd currently comprises 400 Shorthorn females and 150 Angus females joined to Angus. The Angus females were introduced when replacements were required and Anthony found it hard to obtain suitable Shorthorn females. He now has located a Shorthorn herd that fits his criteria in Queensland and with females from this herd he anticipates calving 700 Charolais/ Shorthorn cross calves in 2019.

 

With a suitable replacement program in place Anthony intends to phase out the Angus cows. The cows are purchased after they have raised at least one calf and this suits Anthony’s management. He questions the time frames involved in developing heifers if there is a good source of females available to purchase.

 

Originally Anthony trialled Limousin, Simmental and Charolais sires over the Shorthorn females and the Charolais performed the best in his environment. Whilst Anthony concedes the pure Angus calves generally receive a small price/kg premium over his crossbreds, the Charolais influenced growth consistently returns a higher per head value. Anthony quoted in 2016 there was a $70 per head premium to the Charolais cross compared to the straight Angus.

 

Cows calve March April with the progeny marketed typically early December. In 2006 after a tough season with large numbers of calves being sold through local saleyards, Anthony and his agent made the decision to truck the weaners to Ballarat in Victoria. Anthony said the extra freight was minimal and it opened up a whole new client base. Since then the calves have been sold through Ballarat and now they feature in the annual sale. Now with a solid clientele over three states for his calves Anthony is committed to the marketing strategy.  He is in the process of European Union accreditation and this will open more marketing opportunities.

 

Avenue Range is in the centre of the South Eastern district of South Australia and in above average rainfall years, the water table can be above ground level on the flat country.

In 2016 the property received 37 inches of rain with 23 inches in 2017 which is around average. Seriston has a good range of country including approximately a third of the property being sandy loam rises which are essential in winter. The heavy clay based flats become very waterlogged in winter but come spring and summer they produce grass as good as any land in Australia.

 

With the assistance of soil testing Anthony is fertilising specific soil types on a needs basis rather than a blanket single super approach. Along with timely applications of Urea in early spring Seriston is capable of producing a large quantity of quality fodder. A small cropping program is carried out with beans and wheat as a precursor to establishing new pastures.

Pastures are aimed at phalaris, rye clover base with chicory and plantain. Lucerne is being established on the higher range sandy country. Anthony is a strong believer in good genetics need good nutrition to perform to their ability and having high performing pastures assists this.

 

Cows are only drenched once a year and receive B12 and 5 in 1 vaccinations. Calves receive a booster and the herd has access to a mineral mix.

Cull females are marketed through the local yards at Naracoorte or sent direct to Teys also at Naracoorte. Anthony trades cattle when suitable with up to 1000 head and these are marketed through the local Southern Eastern saleyards.

 

Anthony places great emphasis on structure when buying bulls and quotes “in over eight years of calving out Charolais calves he has assisted only three calves”. Selection is made for medium growth sires with good muscle and essentially must have the ability to cover. Considering the number of cows being joined this is a great result. When looking at EBV’s more selection is placed on 200 and 400 day EBVs as this closely mirrors the marketing strategy.

 

 In the future Anthony is looking to select for homozygous poll sires as some of the Shorthorn females have some horned genetic in their makeup. For the first time Anthony is trialling a red factor sire in the herd and looks forward to evaluating the progeny. Anthony has paid up to $15,000 for commercial sires appreciating the impact a sire can have on productivity.

 

Anthony appreciates the uniformity of the Charolais Shorthorn cross calves and believes the soft red colour aids in visual marketing through the saleyard system. Even with the wide ranging Shorthorn colours the Charolais cross produces a very attractive soft red skin and are predominantly solid coloured. The calves exhibit tremendous length and have an excellent muscle pattern.

He also appreciates the point of difference the Charolais adds to the marketing program.  In 2016 Angus heifers from the property topped at $1230 with the Charolais cross heifers in the same sale topping at $1330 and averaging $1275.

 

For Anthony it is pleasing to have designed a program that is a little different with the Charolais cross and have this validated with strong buyer support for the progeny. His numerous clippings of success weaner sales is a testament to a program on track and producing calves that buyers recognise offer value.