Tony Hooppell operates Carlsruhe Limousin stud at Rochester

Any stock agent with a 40 year career will see a lot of different cattle sold, and for Tony Hooppell, the experience has allowed him to acknowledge the best in every breed.

As a stock agent with a career spanning more than 40 years Tony Hooppell has seen a lot of different cattle sold.

He doesn’t breed bash, rather acknowledges the best of every breed has its merits.

“It is a joy to look at well-bred cattle and I’m a true believer in every breed has its share of excellent animals,” Tony said.

It was a version of the match your farming enterprise to your area, market and passion that led the Hooppell family to Limousins and Simmentals.

Based at Rochester, Tony and sons Xavier and Ethan operate the Carlsruhe Limousin stud which today numbers about 50 registered Limousin females alongside a smaller niche herd of Simmentals.

Tony Hooppell with some of his Limousin cows and bull calves on his Rochester property. He runs about 50 stud Limousin females alongside a smaller herd of Simmental cattle. Picture: Supplied

As part of the FP Nevins and Co stock agency group, Tony regularly sold cattle at the Bendigo saleyards (now closed) and Echuca where price rewards for highly muscled and yielding European vealers were consistently achieved.

These calves often came out of mixed breed herds in the region, including F1 dairy-cross cows, where the muscle power of European bulls added carcass shape and made the heifers as valuable as the steers for domestic meat buyers.

“It was years in the job and seeing those really strong trade buying orders from the likes of Hardwicks at Kyneton, the Cobram abattoirs, Swan Hill abattoirs and Kardinia for calves with the right shape,” Tony said.

“And what really stood out was the price you could get for European heifers compared to the traditional British breeds (which can get discounted on shape and fat issues).”

When contemplating a stud enterprise the Hooppells also looked at the regional supply of European bulls, and what their own passion was.

“The Limousin was always a favourite and there wasn’t many studs near us, and at the end of the day I’ve always said have the breed of cattle you want to go and look at everyday,” Tony said.

The stud was founded in the names of Xavier and Ethan, partly as a way to future proof the 404ha farm by adding a high value breeding element to the mix of cropping, lambs and finishing steers.

Today the property’s beef enterprise revolves totally around the stud cattle, and Tony admits he has become quite passionate about genetics and Carlshrue Limousins has become a family affair.

They built the herd using artificial insemination and embryo transfer technology and it was highly influenced by 100 per cent pure French Limousin genetics.

Tony said it was butt shape and muscle power that buyers still had on the top of their list when inspecting Limousin bulls, and the French genetics gave their cattle that appeal.

“People are still drawn to that big butt and really defined muscle pattern in the bulls and the traditional French genetics really gives you those heavily muscled calves, although sometimes they don’t carry as much fat cover,” he said.

The challenge for the Hooppells has been to retain the muscle while adding softness and fleshing ability, as well as focusing on temperament, calving ease and using homozygous genetics to naturally produce polled cattle.

The property’s beef enterprise revolves totally around the stud cattle.

Tony said the European cattle market had changed and while once it was centred on milk vealers sold straight off dairy-cross cows at a young age, more Euro sired calves were now being weaned and grown out and fed for the heavy domestic market.

“You now have more European calves being grown out on grass or grain so you can’t have animals that get all leggy and don’t fatten,” he said.

He said the Limousin breed as a whole had made big improvements in the past decade in terms of adding finishing ability and producing a quieter animal that was easier to calve down and handle.

“There has been a lot of good work done by all Limousin studs in getting their stock right and suitable for a range of markets,” he said, adding it was a reason why Limousin, Simmental and Charolais sired calves were strongly supported at this year’s big weaner sales.

The Hooppell’s have now started to blend some Australian Limousin genetics into their herd, and in the past two years have purchased two stud sires, due in part to all the flooding in the Rochester area making it difficult to have cattle walking in and out to yards for AI programs.

The sires selected were a pure apricot French Limousin bull from the Talana stud in Queensland, and an Australian pure sire from the Chateau stud near Wangaratta.

“These bulls have really worked for us and we have some exceptional cattle with muscle and softness coming through,” Tony said.

The Hooppell’s sell bulls privately in the paddock, and like to grow them out to 18-months to two years.

“We like to get a good 20-months on them and we have an autumn and spring calving so we always have bulls coming in,” he said.