What To Look For When Buying Beef Breeding Stock

Breeding with structurally faulty animals can set a herd’s quality, productivity and profitability back several years. Knowledgeable breeders Ting Braithwaite, Tim Hempson and Ndumiso Gule, all based in KwaZulu-Natal, share their tips on what to look for when considering which animals to buy as a nucleus or replacement breeding stock. Lloyd Phillips reports.

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For those still in the early days of being a commercial beef producer, it is often financially impossible to afford higher-priced bulls and breeding females that hold the promise of optimal productivity and carcass quality. However, this should not be a deterrent, as many lower-priced breeding animals that can contribute to the development of a commercial enterprise are regularly on sale. This is according to Ting Braithwaite of Damview Brahmans, who produces both stud and commercial Brahman cattle in KwaZulu-Natal.

He concedes that it takes time and practice to learn how to visually evaluate a potential breeding animal’s physical strengths and flaws with accuracy.

“The most important overall consideration is to ensure that the animal is sufficiently structurally sound to enable it to add value to your beef enterprise,” he explains. “A lower-priced animal can still have many beneficial characteristics that will help to develop the commercial herd in the direction that you want it to go in terms of your production environment and goals.”

Braithwaite, together with fellow veteran beef producers Tim Hempson of Southern Berg Brahmans and Ndumiso Gule of Baynesfield Estate, strongly agrees that no matter how cash-strapped a potential buyer is, he or she should never resort to buying a breeding animal that a seller originally intended to send for slaughter. These animals are usually so flawed that they would most likely cost money by being unproductive and uneconomical, and also potentially pass these flaws on to their progeny.