Since purchasing Bygana Station, the Kiernan family has continued to concentrate their efforts on producing high-quality, grass-fed, EU accredited Droughtmaster cattle for entry into the backgrounder feedlot and finisher market.
Ross Kiernan purchased the property, situated 150 kilometres north-west of Clermont, four years ago, though it is his son Dean and Dean's wife Bree who live on Bygana and run the commercial breeding operation, while also raising their young son Cash.
The Belyando River runs through the western side of the 9501 hectare property which features a mix of developed gidgee and brigalow country, intersected with bloodwood and box forest land, and improved Buffel pastures.
Dean Kiernan said the family had been running Droughtmasters on a property in Beaudesert before his father made the decision to purchase Bygana.
"I got into the breed because of Dad. I've always found the Droughtmaster to be a good, hardy animal considering their softness. They also do well in this climate," Mr Kiernan said.
He said the Droughtmaster performs well in any season and that the breed ticks a lot of boxes from their perspective as commercial producers.
"They're sought after for the feedlots, at the sales, and they're an easy animal for those who're wishing to crossbreed with them."
On Bygana, the Kiernan's young cattle are educated then put in the paddock until they're 12 months old. They're then either sold to restockers or finishers targeting the grass-fed EU premiums.
"We sell lines of steers to that market, and we either retain the heifers or sell them on as breeder replacements.
"We sold our last lot of steers to a finisher at 320kg bordering on 12 months old, while the heifers were sold to a restocker."
While Bygana has a carrying capacity of 1500 head, Mr Kiernan said they like to keep numbers closer to 1250 breeders, at a ratio of one bull to 25 females.
"Not fully stocking allows us to turn our young cattle off for a bit to develop them."
Mr Kiernan said in optimal climatic conditions their joining period begins in October, however, due to the dry they're currently putting the bulls in the paddock in mid-November and taking them out at the end of April.
For as long as the Kiernan's have been producing Droughtmaster cattle, they've been purchasing bulls from the Glenlands and Medway studs.
"We frequently attend the Glenlands and Artesian sales, as they do a good job with their bulls, and produce nice, even lines each year.
"We prefer bulls with bone and length, horn isn't an issue for us. If we like the frame, we then go into analysing a bull to see if it will work in our operation."
Mr Kiernan said the biggest change they've made to the breeding program has been the incorporation of a loose supplement feed in combination with their buffel, so they can continue to turn their young cattle off quickly.
"We required a feed supplement to keep the cattle moving forward without compromising on any of our markets, so we've been using Graze and Grow from AgSolutions, which still allows us to maintain our grass-fed EU status."
"We've been very happy with the weight gain results. In the past, we only averaged around 0.6kg per day on average, but by using the supplement we've nearly doubled that, the last line of steers doing 1.1kg/day."
While the Kiernan family are still establishing their operation on Bygana at present, they're keeping an eye towards the future.
"Now that we have good stock, we're focusing on getting our name out there. Once we have that recognition and we have that confidence around the cattle we produce, we'll then look at entering our steers into feedlot events and shows."
