Using The Beefmaster To Improve Your Herd

After owning a Simbra-type cattle herd for many years, the Rattray family of KwaZulu-Natal decided to convert to Beefmaster. According to Hayden Rattray, who runs the Pleasant View Beefmaster stud, introducing the breed has resulted in many improvements in the herd, including decreased birthweight, improved weaning weight and excellent mothering ability.

- Hayden Rattray

In 2013, Clark and Hayden Rattray of Pleasant View, in the Swartberg region of KwaZulu-Natal, launched their Pleasant View Beefmaster stud by upgrading the Simbra-type cattle herd that their family had farmed for two generations.

This herd had consisted of three-way crosses of Simmentaler, Hereford and Brahman.

The Brahman-type cows were put to either Hereford or Simmentaler bulls, and the Hereford-Simmentaler-type cows were put to Brahman bulls.

“Unknowingly, we were breeding an animal that matched the criteria of the Beefmaster breed, which was originally a three-way cross made up of 25% Shorthorn, 25% Hereford and 50% Brahman,” explains Hayden Rattray.

The idea of moving to a Beefmaster stud was initiated in part by well-known Beefmaster breeder Graham Hart. However, it was Laurence Lasater’s book, The Lasater Philosophy of Cattle Raising, that finally convinced Rattray.

“This brought to light the unbelievable potential the Beefmaster breed has to offer our South African stock farming conditions,” he says. Hart advised the Rattrays that upgrading their cattle by putting them to Beefmaster bulls, but not buying in females, would lengthen the time it took to obtain pure animals, but would serve them well in the long run.

“This advice has been very valuable to the growth of our stud,” says Rattray. “Graham also advised us that our stud should make up part of our operation, and not become the backbone.”

WELL-ADAPTED

The Rattrays decided to upgrade their own cattle, rather than buying in others, as their animals were already well adapted to the local conditions.

“Through years of strict selection, our cattle had become a highly productive herd,” says Rattray.