Frankel

We purchased the ‘walking rights’ to Booroomooka Frankel in 2012, he was an exciting individual, his physical attributes were superior to any potential sire we could find that year. He had always been ‘head and shoulders’ above his contemporaries for growth and his body capacity, natural thickness, feet, legs and mobility all positives. Perhaps his single most important factor that drove our involvement in the purchasing team was the inclusion of Summitcrest Blackcap Mary E210.

During the early 1990’s we contracted Fred Johnson at Summitcrest Oho to ‘build’ us some embryos, we wanted these embryos to be sired by the carcase sensation of the time, 036. The females we selected to mate 036 to were by Slagle Angus Direct Drive out of Premiere Independence cows. Fred confirmed that direct drive and ‘Indy’ had produced carcase data supporting well above breed average marbling (marbling not I.M.F%) and Eye Muscle Area at even and adequate fatness. These matings produced the Dulverton Bull Quantum Leap Q16 himself, progeny tested here in Australia producing a marble score average of 4.4 (16 bodies); and the Pixie cows Q12 & Q29.

At the time of selecting the matings to produce the above mentioned embryos we also saw a cow family we particularly liked – The Blackcap Marys, in fact Blackcap Mary E210’s dam was as good a cow as we had seen, she was in O’Neills Eraline 42’s class (Renovators dam). Hugh Munro identified Blackcap Mary E210 and Summitcrest Scotch Cap 0B45 the marbling proven sire as a pair to produce him some embyros.

One of the resultant females was Booroomooka Tracey T4 and her mating to 1407 produced both Frankel & Hyperno’s dam B.Tracey Z5 note we have Hyperno sons in our 2017 sale as well. It’s still our goal to lock caracse genes for proven marbling into the material side of the pedigrees of our sires, note that the Carabar Gunsmoke J134 who is represented by Yearlings in this sale has B.Tracey T4 on the bottom side of his pedigree as well – Cows maketh the herd.

Has Frankel worked?

We believe he has performed above our expectations, his 1st generation and now 2nd generation progeny bear phenotypic resemblance. His 1st and 2nd generation progeny are heavy, Lot 13 – L134 a direct son weighed 814kg on 22/05/2017, heaviest in MGTGRP2, M114 a 2nd generation son is the heaviest yearling weighed 520kg 26/06/2017. The progeny are deep thick and easy doing, they move well. His cohort 3 data (40 in group) supports his growth performance.

Frankel’s Cohort 3 carcase data – 40 sires represented

It should be pointed out that beef producers are paid by carcase measured performance and Frankel has excelled in this department. Importantly we should look at the ‘raw data’ too, as rankings, which are used to generate EBVs are misleading particularly for fatness.

TRAITUNITRANKNOTE
CarcaseEMA93.3 sq.cm5th
CarcaseRump Fat18.1mm30thRight on specification yet pointing to highly negative and so undesirable for fatness EBVs. He was ranked 24th for scanned IMF%
CarcaseRib Fat15.4mm34th
CarcaseMSA Marbling5517th

Note re marbling: 551 is right on the point of change from a AUS-MEAT 3 to 4, Frankel does Marble.

Frankel to the Fore

The three traits requiring attention by the beef industry to improve the position of beef re consumers expectations are eating quality, retail beef yield and feed efficiency both influence price competitiveness at “the counter”. The carcase data as measured in cohort 3 highlights the eating quality component, marbling helps promote juiciness and flavour and ossification assists understand tenderness – less physiological age i.e. lower ossification score the more tender.

The carcase data also positions Frankel well from a retail beef yield perspective, note he scores well for EMA and fatness, remembering fatness needs to be even and adequate, its not about more fat, more fat reduces RBY% thereby adding to the cost of production and reducing price competitiveness at “the counter”.

Feed Efficiency – Frankel ranked No1 for feed efficiency in his cohort group. More work needs to be done to understand the biology of feed efficiency and its relationship to other economically imported traits particularly eating quality. Importantly Frankel’s sons and grandsons will carry the preferred sets of genes for feed efficiency into the future.

Frankel is represented by 5 sons and 8 grandsons and 2 great grandsons in the 2017 Dulverton Angus Sale.

Remember Frankel is growth, carcase quality, RBY% and feed efficiency positive.

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