Our Vision

In a cow/calf operation, depending on the age and weight of turnoff, between 60 and 80% of dry matter consumed by the herd in maintaining the cow herd. So when we look at beef production on an enterprise basis, it is a paradigm shift from looking at individual animal performance, to a per hectare approach.

These two approaches are fundamentally different. Our system is designed to produce an efficient cowherd who consumes variable feed quantity and quality through the year.  What this means in practice is that the cows consume extra feed when it is available and utilise the extra condition when feed is limited. The goal is to bring the mature cows through those times without supplementary feeding while the young stock are fed to reach target joining weights for heifers and sale weights in the case of bulls and surplus stock.

The young stock need feed quality and quantity to maintain an optimum growth path to meet sale targets. To achieve these goals, containment feeding has become part of our annual program. Following research in the Beef CRC (Cooperative Research Centre) spring calving cows are early weaned in January. This separation of dam and calf reduces total feed demand across the herd, dry cows halve their intake and young stock can be fed in containment, a ration of silage, high quality hay and a mineral supplement. Bull calves will have a maximum of 10% grain in their ration while heifers are fed a roughage based diet.

Our Approach

The cow herd must be efficient: Efficient, functional, fertile cows. The moderate framed cow will rebreed quickly and calve without any fuss. We define high fertility by the Average Day of Calving*, ADC. All producers can set the herd up for life by joining cows and heifers for a maximum of 6 weeks, after culling empties and minimum culling of heifers.

*Average day of calving should be less than 20 days across the herd which leads to a compact calving in the first cycle. This results in females rebreeding more quickly in subsequent years. At Rennylea our average day of calving is Day 15.

Accessing Rennylea Genetics

Bull Sales are conducted at the sales complex at “Ellerslie Park”, Culcairn, twice a year in March (the second Tuesday in March) and at the end of August (the last Thursday in August). Roughly 380 bulls are marketed throughout Australia by auction, and another 400 through contract sales and private treaty. Rennylea also markets surplus females and genetic products in semen and embryos.