Performance Recording
The Te Mania Angus herd has been performance recorded with Breedplan, since its inception in Australia in 1971. Today, performance recording is the backbone of the breeding strategy and management program at Te Mania Angus.
Te Mania Angus has dominated the breed's EBVs for many years - with more than twice as many Angus Group Breedplan trait leaders as any other stud.
Adding to that success is Te Mania Angus' insistence all sale bulls are stringently - and independently - assessed for structure. With the results published alongside each bull in all sale catalogues.
Te Mania Angus can deliver calving ease and be commercially profitable with the fast-growing, high-marbling bulls wanted by the feedlot industry, processors, and, most crucially, consumers.
Te Mania Angus has been going to great lengths - lengths above and beyond that expected by the rest of the industry - to further improve that accuracy.
Te Mania Angus does this in many ways, such as keeping animals together in large contemporary groups to achieve more effective progeny in each group which can then be compared in one environment.
The phenotype (what you see) is made up of the genotype (inherited factors) plus the
environment (all other factors). If we put animals in large groups where the environment is the same, then we can compare genotypes.
Te Mania Angus also progeny tests a significant cast of sires each year - both on-property and through the Team Te Mania commercial progeny test herds.
Sires such as Te Mania Berkley B1, Te Mania Africa A217, Te Mania Yorkshire Y347, and many others, have sons in this year's spring sale team as well as steer half brothers in the Team Te Mania herds, spread across SA, Victoria and NSW.
These progeny test herds contribute valuable information on sires, which further increases the accuracy of the of the sale bulls, through the sire line. While this is a time consuming and expensive program, Te Mania Angus remains committed to this principle - and its success is clearly reflected in Breedplan and in demand from major feedlots for Te Mania Angus blood steers.
As we all well know, EBVs can change as more information comes to light, because EBVs are estimates of the animal's genotype. The more information made available, the more accurate the estimates and the reason why an EBV may change.
In our breeding program these short generation interval, high accuracy animals also give us the opportunity to make faster genetic gain, therefore improve our herd and the herds of our clients at an ever-accelerating rate. It also means we can use more of our own-bred sires, which we practically know much more about.
With this extra accuracy we can make more specific breeding decisions than the rest of the industry, for example keeping a lid on birth weight.
And because of the number of bulls in the sale, we have large numbers of very low birthweight bulls while pushing growth hard while keeping mature size at a viable limit. We can also do this while boosting marbling and other important carcase traits. Parallel with its genetic progress is Te Mania Angus' focus on structure.
The stud is continually expanding its structural assessment program to optimise soundness and performance in its stock. The program involves an independent assessor from BEEFXCEL analysing the structural composition of the herd on an individual basis. The program comprises of an annual assessment of all sale bulls, an annual assessment of all breeding females and donor cows and any animals deemed inadequate are immediately culled.
Pictured - Te Mania Unlimited U3271
Performance tested through the Team Te Mania program and other herds, totalling 128 herds.
Over 3,000 progeny by Te Mania Unlimited have been analysed and recorded with Group Breedplan.
Te Mania Unlimited was sold to a NZ syndicate headed by Turihau, New Zealand's oldest Angus herd, for $60,000 in 2003. His sons have topped bull sales on both sides of the Tasman.
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