All bulls will be delivered free of charge, if multiple deliveries can be arranged.
• HEALTHCattle purchased for interstate can be held at Depot; testing and agistment at purchasers expense. All vendors have supplied appropriate standard herd health status forms. None of the cattle offered for sale have received treatment for their feet.
• VIBRIOSIS
Many of the district veterinarians have highlighted the annual vaccination of your bulls as mandatory. This is a venereal disease causing early embryonic death and resultant returns to service. Abortions in cattle sometimes (rarely) occur - Hungerford’s Diseases of Livestock (9th Edition). The disease can be inadvertently introduced via trade cattle that are infected. All Reiland bulls are vaccinated for Vibriosis, however annual booster shots are strongly recommended. Treat all bulls six weeks prior to mating.
• BOVINE JOHNES DECLARATION
All cattle are derived from protected areas and are considered MN1. All cattle are free to travel to all areas including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia. MN2 herds should note these cattle are available to your herds subject to the standard current animal intake rate.
♣ Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus - All bulls will be ear-notch tested for Bovine Viral Diarrhoea Virus (BVDV), a complex of Pestivirus. This process will be undertaken by herd consultant veterinarian Reon Holmes of Holbrook Veterinary Centre, and will guarantee that clients will not purchase a persistently infected (PI) animal that can carry the disease without showing any symptoms. We see it as a Duty of Care in providing assurity on all aspects of disease minimisation whether they be going to a naturally immune or naïve herd structure or not.
♣ ARTHROGRYPOSIS MULTIPLEX (AM) or “CURLY CALF” – The recent discovery of Arthrogryposis Multiplex (AM) in the Angus breed is a manageable situation that breeders and Angus Australia are working hard to resolve. All AM% Reiland Angus Bulls are DNA tested and sale bulls will be AMFU (untested) re: pedigree or AMF (tested). Reiland reserved the right to replace a lot based on this testing. See belowfor details on AM discussion.
CURLY CALF DISORDER - Arthrogryposis Multiplex (A.M)
Reiland Angus Perspective:
We have deliberately left the scientific interpretation out of this disorder, so a basic commonsense approach can be applied to its control and eventual eradication.
In the main, the majority of Australian herds will have acquired the disorder via Future Direction linkage which emanates from the GAR Precision 1680 lineage.
Interestingly, the herds that have attempted to fast track the marbling trait via double crossing on line breeding have inadvertently concentrated the gene and increased the number of individuals carrying the recessive gene disorder. No cases of A.M. have been detected in Reiland genetics to date. Reiland Angus has avoided fast tracking such genetic lineage and maintained a higher degree of genetic diversity than many other seed stock operations. Due to this, the impact on the herd will be significantly reduced in comparison to other “high carcase focussed” herds.
In fact, Future Direction never impressed us sufficiently to undertake a double cross of such genetic combinations. Being a recessive gene, there is a 50% chance that the offspring of a carrier joined to a non-carrier will prove free of the disease.
We propose to test the sires that are sired by bulls that have proven positive from the USA’s testing procedure. These include:
- Reiland W231 by Future Direction
- Naroola Xanana X4 by Future Direction
- Reiland Callum C54 by Boyd Beefmaker
- Lawson B120 by GAR Solution
2009 BULL OFFERING:
Upon the results of the above, we will test the progeny of any positive sire carrier within our herd in addition to any bulls sired by already known positive A.M. sires that we have A.I. bred such as:
- Ardrossan X15
- GAR Solution
This will be undertaken prior to the autumn selling season, so that buyers can buy with
absolute knowledge that these animals are A.M. Free. If any positive A.M. bulls are identified, they will be disposed of or sold to a crossbreeding herd where the impact of such a recessive gene is of no consideration.
All Donor Cows of Future Direction “direct” daughters will be tested as well. Fortunately we have limited flushes to any known positive carrier of A.M., given our focus on outcross genetics.
SUMMARY
The breeding philosophy of Reiland has been to maintain genetic diversity at all costs. Obviously this is very much in Reiland and our valued clients’ favour.
We will enforce such a policy into the future in our quest to maintain Reiland’s undeniable structure and phenotype superiority whilst improving carcase traits of eye muscle area and IMG% gradually. Current 2008 drop IMF% average is virtually double the breed average at 1.3% IMF.
We have chosen the use of Breedplan a little differently than others by avoiding the negative trait bulls rather than constantly selecting the popular high-end sires, that may or may not have other less desirable traits for practical, commercial beef production.
The asset of “selection pressure” within Reiland’s large herd numbers allows us to develop a superior phenotype that suits a grass fed based future – in short, many of the high-end marbling sires, with slighter muscle and indifferent structure just did not “cut it” amongst sires selected for constitution, breed character and some degree of modernity in absolute “numbers”.
The future looks bright!
We see ourselves as an economic seed stock operation where our focus is first and foremost profit related. The kilograms developed and sold off your property pay the bills. We will continue to improve carcase traits with genetic lines that don’t compromise calving ease and growth. Ion fact, once the A.M. “free” genetic lines are identified from within carcase genetics, such individuals will be significantly more valuable.
With the cost of fertilisers forecast to stay high, the breeding cow may need to readjust her nutritional expectation in her day-to-day function. Breeding country that has been fertilised in the past may see a chance in productivity as the finishing and cropping country are elevated in terms of fertilising priority.
Reiland Angus will seek to improve cow / calf function and efficiency with growth in a mid-maturity package seen as a major profit driver for our valued clients into an ever-changing climatic and economic world.
For more information please email Reiland : Mark Lucas