Commercial
Herd
Our family have been breeding commercial cattle here at “Toorawandi” Ulamambri on the banks of the Castlereagh River since the 1950’s.
When we married in 1986 and took over the management of Toorawandi, we were running Hereford cattle, and then as now, we were targeting the feedlot market.
In the early 1990’s we moved into the Angus breed as there was a 10% premium for our cattle if they were Angus.
The premium has only increased over time, and our commercial cattle sired by Isla Angus bulls continue to be highly sought after and rewarded by feedlotters, meat companies and restockers.
Benchmarking
& Results
We like to benchmark ourselves against other beef producers by entering our cattle in feedlot and carcass competitions with pleasing results usually being achieved.
In the dark days of drought in 2019, we received a gold medal in the RAS Beef Challenge for our beef, a real affirmation of our decision to keep on feeding our breeders rather than sell them. You just can’t replace those genetics in 5 minutes at a sale.
In 2023, our domestic entries in the RAS Beef Challenge won the team weight gain, and of the top 10 animals for weight gain in the domestic competition five were sired by Isla bulls. Isla Angus progeny also took out the carcase competition and the taste test.
Calving & Carcass
We initially began breeding Angus bulls to use in our commercial herd and so we chose breeding attributes that suited our operation
We believe that there is no use in targeting a high 600 day weight index if the calf doesn’t survive its first day, so we pay very close attention to calving indexes and as a result our heifers give us very little trouble when they are having their first calf.
Then we need our calves to have good growth without leaving us with oversized cows that cost too much to maintain when the season turns tough.
We want to reward our customers with a good eating experience so that they continue to buy beef, so we pay attention to the carcass merits of the bulls we put over our commercial cows.
Friday 30th August
2024 Annual Bull Sale
Open day 1st August: 11am – 3pm
Sale commencing at 1:00 pm
846 Merryula Rd, Ulamambri NSW, Australia
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