Breeding breakthroughs on the cards for Te Mania

A major seedstock producer has its sights set on developing a unique breeding value, as it marks a 30-year milestone at Colac.

A major seedstock producer has its sights set on developing a unique breeding value, as it marks a 30-year milestone in southwest Victoria.

“We’ve got our eye on methane, we’ve also got our eye on new fertility traits we can record,” Te Mania Angus Merrang farm manager Edward Gubbins said.

It comes as Team Te Mania reached its 30th anniversary this week, with about 70 farmers and industry experts meeting at Colac.

The original bull sale arena, at the Pardoo Cattle Co property. Picture: Supplied by Emily McCormack

Mr Gubbins said they had producers from South Australia, NSW and Victoria, with speakers travelling from the World Angus Forum in Queensland.

“The reason we did it in that part of the world, for the 30 years, was to revisit the birthplace. The whole property is amazing, it was very nostalgic and a good feeling to go back,” he said.

They visited Araluen Pastoral Co at Birregurra, and Te Mania Angus’ birthplace at Pardoo in Barongarook West, now owned by Pardoo Cattle Co’s Matt and Ange Joyce.

Lucy Gubbins, Edward Gubbins, Amanda McFarlane, Hamish McFarlane, Tom Gubbins and Sam Reid at Pardoo Cattle Co. Picture: Supplied by Emily McCormack

Team Te Mania started in 1995 as a commercial partnership between Te Mania Angus and beef producers, which has built to more than 40 Angus herds.

The workshops featured StoneX’s Ripley Atkinson with market updates alongside industry experts, and included focuses on animal welfare improvement, biotechnology and more.

Pardoo Manager Glen Paton addressed a crowd at the Team Te Mania 30th Anniversary. Picture: Supplied by Emily McCormack

Mr Gubbins said for the coming years, they would focus on amplifying phenotypic records, through Sapien Technology.

In 30 years, Te Mania progeny’s Estimated Breeding Value changes included reducing average birth weight from 4 to 3.1, or 22 per cent, and intramuscular fat increased from 2 to 4.5, or 125 per cent.

“From the start we want to improve the fertility of our female herds and produce more calves, because input costs and everything is going up, obviously we can push growth and carcass traits into the progeny, but we need to start from the progeny numbers themselves,” he said.

“We’re at a point where we’ll have our own EBV on age of puberty – improving the accuracy of fertility traits.”