ENTER FRANKEL

At the Booroomooka sale in August 2012, we joined forces with a group of Angus breeders and were successful in purchasing Booroomooka Frankel F510. Sal and I were able to secure the walking rights while James and Ted Laurie, Knowla Angus Gloucester; Fred Bell, Glenavon Angus Guyra; Loch Rodgers, Wattle Top Angus Guyra; John Woodruff, Witherswood Angus, Victoria and Booroomooka Angus, Bingara, each share in the semen sale rights.

Why Frankel?

In the early 1990s we were searching for angus genetics to fulfil our requirements to satisfy the performance traits set out in our selection criteria Fertility, calving ease, growth adequate milk, structural soundness, soft pliable skin, tight sheath, longevity and temperament. In addition to the above mentioned we were also searching for genes to improve the carcase traits, in particular marbling but also saleable beef yield.

After considerable research we selected the Summitcrest Angus herd of Mr Fred Johnson. Fred was a founding father of Certified Angus beef and has the belief that beef needed to be more than a commodity, it had to satisfy consumers’ expectations for Tenderness, Juiciness and Flavour. Fred also contended that beef needed to be price competitive hence his desire to include saleable beef yield in his selection criteria. In 1992 we visited Fred at his Summitcrest Ranch in Ohio and inspected the cow herd with Fred and Henry Bergfeld the cow herd manager. After much deliberation we narrowed our choice to 4 cow families.

The Pixies, the Blackcaps, the Ericas and the Marys. Unfortunately we were unable to find a Mary cow to suit the timing for quarantine/embryo collection so had to settle on embryo’s from the first three mentioned. Interestingly Dulverton Quantum Leap Q16 came from the Blackcap line and Dulverton Erica Q29 and Dulverton Pixie Q12 (the two particularly good breeding cows) came from the batch of embryos sourced during 1992. Not long after we had moved to Moree, Hugh Munro of Booroomooka contacted us and asked us about the cows we’d seen at Summitcrest. I outlined my thoughts and mentioned we had been unable to secure embryos from the Mary line but thought the Mary line the equal of the Pixies, Blackcap and Ericas. Hugh and Sinclair went ahead with their importation and subsequently produced Booroomooka Tracy T4 from an embryo by Summitcrest Scotchcap OB45 / Summitcrest Blackcap Mary E210.

Sal and I were of the opinion that if Hugh and Sinclair were to produce ‘a special’ from the Mary line that we would be interested in acquiring a sire.

Enter Frankel

Note the Booroomooka Tracy T4 is the dam of Booroomooka Tracey Z5, the dam of FRANKEL. For those students of pedigrees, it is worth noting that Booroomooka Tracy T4 is on the maternal side of Carrabah Docklands D62. So as to consolidate the contribution of the Blackcap Mary E210 we decided to use Carrabah Docklands D62 in our A.I. program this year. The four bulls used at Dulverton this year include:-

  • Dulverton Figure F43. F43 was sold as lot 10 in our sale to Clyde Agriculture and was used over the heifers, we AI’d 42 heifers to him. Figure F43 is by Nichols Extra K205 who has proved to be a very safe calving ease bull for us and he is out of Dulverton Kath X34. Dulverton Kath X34 is by Rock n D Ambush 1531 ( calving ease) out of Dulverton Kath K32 D. Kath K32 produced until she was 14yrs old  (longevity) and we used three of her sons as calving ease specials. F43’s whole of life gain was 1.12kg (birth until sale day ) so as well as carrying the calving ease trait he also passes on above average growth. Well bought Michael.
  • Booroomooka FRANKEL- AI’d to 58 cows. Frankel was then naturally mated to 76 cows, 36 of them have been AI’d to himself, Dunoon Ernest E477 and Carrabah Docklands D62. Frankel has in the order of 55 cows to serve naturally from 19.10.2012 to 18.12.2012. we have been very happy with his do-ability, he came out of the cows exhibiting a body condition score of 2+, identical to that he showed when he was joined. His mobility, his sheath configuration and his skin and hair pattern continue to impress.
  • Dunoon Ernest E477- AI’d to 41 cows. We used E477 last year and at this stage are very impressed with the natural thickness of his calves. The calves carry musculature right the way along the spine into the chine. We haven’t used a bull with as much ‘expression on the top’ since O’Neills Crusader.
  • Carrabah Docklands D62- AI’d to 43 cows. Remember Docklands has the T4 cow in exactly the same spot in the pedigree as FRANKEL.

PROGENY TEST DATA SUPPORTS FURTHER USE of the SUMMITCREST Line- FRANKEL in particular 

In the early to mid-1990s carcase data availability was very limited and the only real attempts to gather carcase data which could be then used to make selections has been gathered in the MRC sponsored M112 project. Unfortunately M112 ceased in 1995. In the spring of 1995, the embryo s we’d imported from Summitcrest were born. During 1996 and early 1997 we were impressed with the performance of Q16 and were keen to collect some structured carcase data. We discussed the idea with Dick Whale who’d been the manager at ICM Peechelba. Dick found a cow herd belonging to Mr Reade who was keen to AI 320 commercial cows to 4 sires. The four sires included:-

  • B/R New Design O36- Benchmark
  • Victoree Scotchcap K46- by Scotchcap
  • Kennys Creek Q15- by Papa Equator
  • Dulverton Quantum Leap Q16- by Vdar Newtrend  315

Q16 was out of the Summitcrest Blackcap Cow line.

Progeny Test Carcase Data

Ident

No. of head

Feedlot entry wt.

Feedlot exit wt.

Gain per day

Carcase wt.

Dressing %

Ossify

Aus-meat marble score

U.S marble score

Rib Fat

EMA

O36

13

466

748

0.97

444

59

168

4.7

734

12.8

87

K46

17

465

739

0.95

437

59

158

3.6

605

16.2

80

Q15

13

465

721

0.89

428

59.5

169

3.3

592

14.1

83

Q16

16

458

738

0.97

435

59

170

4.3

635

17

85

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

  • The steers were fed for 283 days m a ration designed to grow the steers at 1.00kg/day for 280 days.
  • The steers were 17 months going on feed and 26 months when slaughtered.

The cows were AI’d, calves born and run as a contemporary group through to a Japanese Feedlot entry weight of 460kg. The steers were fed at Tallawanta Feedlot for 280 days, they were then slaughtered at the John Dee, Warwick Bacon plant and carcased assessed by Matt Cooper. Matt was one of the original MSA graders he now is in charge of the standards for grading training.

What does the Data Presented in the table tell us?

  • O36 is a worthy Benchmark:-

                                      i.       Adequate growth

                                    ii.       Ossification under 170

                                   iii.       Aus-meat marble score in excess of 4.5, U.S.D.A marble score is excess of 700, the fleck size and distribution particularly special.

                                  iv.       Rib fat less than 15mm for 280 days with the abovementioned marbling is truly amazing.

                                    v.       EMA is excess of 85sq.cm again very special given his below average fatness and above average marbling.

  • Q16 preformed as well as we could have hoped

                                 i.            Same growth as O36, that is adequate

                               ii.            Ossification same as O36

                              iii.            Aus- meat marbling slightly below 4.5 ; U.S marble score in excess of 600 with very good fleck size and distribution

                             iv.            Rib fat slightly over 15mm but at 17mm still very reasonable

                               v.            EMA right on 85sq.cm ensuring adequate retail yield

There is obviously a VDAR New Trend 315 effect here, O36 & Q16, both by New Trend. We have become satisfied that Q16 fitted the bill and that to achieve the carcase results reported his maternal line, dominated by the imported Summit Crest genes, must have contributed.

Interestingly one of Q16s’ oldest progeny S124 has a son G28 (by 458N) who we used as a Yearling this year. E165 another S124 son will have progeny in this year’s Dulverton Bull Sale.

The supporting data suggests FRANKEL is a bull with a future we look forward with baited breathe for his first progeny. Watch this space for future FRANKEL updates.

Posted in : News