ANGUS cattle have had pride of place on Campsie at Penola for more than 15 years and Duan Butler sees no reason to change.
He has been managing the 310-hectare property since 1989 for Ian and Annie Leask, who are based at McLaren Vale.
When the Leasks first bought the Lower South East property, they traded cattle but soon moved into breeding, forming a top-quality self-replacing herd targeting the European Union bullock market.
In the late 1990s, they bought 40 Angus heifers from local breeder Neil Engler as the foundation herd. It comprises 140 spring-calving females, down slightly from 160 because of a below-average spring in 2014.
The aim is to turn-off 300-kilogram carcaseweight steers about two years of age.
"They have gone over-hooks to Teys at Naracoorte for the past few years but it comes down to whoever has the best money when we are ready to sell," Mr Butler said.
Late last year, the below-average spring forced them to sell some steers earlier at 14-15 months. They topped the mammoth Naracoorte combined agents steer sale in mid- December.
The top 16 steers weighing 454kg made $950 - a strong result before the price rise.
Campsie has been EU-accredited for many years, giving it another marketing option.
"You can go into every other market being EU but if you are not EU you can't go into the EU market which has a 20 cents/kg to 50c/kg premium at most times," Mr Butler said.
In another tick of approval to the quality of the herd, the Leasks won reserve champion carcase in the commercially orientated Southern Grassfed Carcase Classic in 2011. This was no mean feat, with more than 200 entries.
Campsie moved its calving from autumn to late winter in a five-year period to better utilise the phalaris and clover-based pastures. The calves are weaned depending on the break but then have the growing season in front of them.
Bulls are joined to the females for a 12-week period to calve in August-September.
"As the neighbour next door I moved to spring lambing and was turning-off good trade lambs in late November to late December," Mr Butler said.
"The lambs grew faster and better because their mothers were always on good tucker even in a late break.
"It worked for the sheep so we thought it would work with the cattle."
Each year the top 15 to 20 heifers are kept as replacements and the remainder sold as weaners.
Many producers are now calving at two years old but Mr Butler continues to calve heifers at three years old to give them a chance to grow out.
The Leasks livestock agent, from Thomas DeGaris & Clarkson's Jamie Gray is heavily involved in bull selection and marketing.
Bloodlines from a number of SE and western Vic studs have been used but in the past three years, they have bought solely from Glatz's Black Angus stud, Avenue Range, impressed by the consistent quality of its on-property bull sale catalogue.
"When you look through the pens before the sale they are nearly all the same," Mr Gray said.
"The bulls stay true-to-type too. The next year they still look like the bull we bought - only bigger."
Their bull buying philosophy is simple - buy the best bull at an affordable price.
"We are really looking for length and thickness because length and thickness give you weight when you are producing EU bullocks," Mr Gray said.
Mr Butler and Mr Gray said visual appraisal was their first and last selection tool.
"If we can't decide between two bulls then we look at the EBVs but the bull has got to have the muscle pattern, length, width and be structurally sound on feet and legs," Mr Gray said.