We first started using Santa Gertrudis bulls back in 1992. Our first Santa bull purchase was Gungel D444, who we named Monty. He was purchased from Vic Johnston & Sons, Tenterfield. Monty's sire was King Ranch Kenway and his dam Gungel 17. Monty was a big frame, tidy bull with a wonderful temperament. He was used over a herd base of Hereford X and Angus X cows. We were absolutely amazed at how well his progeny grew out. Our second Santa bull came from Norm & Penny Whitaker, Newton Boyd Stud, near Glen Innes. With these two bulls our Santa herd grew over the next few years. Monty stayed with us until he reached the age of nine. He made a huge impact with our herd. His females also became large framed, tidy navel, good udders, great temperament and very maternal mothers.

 

     After Monty and the Newton Boyd bull were sold our next purchase was Hunter Eugene, who's sire was Nungaroi Laramie and his dam Nungaroi Lyn. Eugene was purchased from a sale at Singleton along with 10 Santa Heifers. By the year 2000 our herd was almost completely purebred Santa Gertrudis. Then, Ian decided to crossbreed with Charolais. We purchased a Boongatti Charolais bull to join with our Santa cows. The calves from this crossbreed were amazing. The calves had good growth and were solid at weaning. We kept the offspring until they were 2yr olds, the steers weighing incredibly at sale, most of the heifers were kept as replacements because of their size and fertility.

 

     In April 2006 we purchased a large consignment of 111 PTIC heifers from Webster/Mahony (Joyce) families from Theodore, QLD. Out of these 67 were Gyranda registered heifers and the rest were mostly Gyranda bred. We calved out the heifers until December 06, then weaned in April.

     July 2006 at the Casino all breeds Sale we purchased Leefalls Apollo. Apollo was purchased for his growth, tidy underbelly and was a Poll bull. At that same sale, Felicity purchased Allendale H205 and Allendale H577 as a cow and calf unit. H205 had 9 calves, 5 are classified.

 

     At the Toowoomba Ag Show in September 2006 we purchased another 3 classified bulls to add to our sire list. They are, Felton Park 539 , Felton Park 544 (PS) and Happy Valley 404.

 

     2007 purchases include Hardigreen Park Juggler and Tookey Creek 8705, both purchased from the Santa Central Sale in September. Unfortunately we only had one breeding season with H P Juggler, as a permanent injury made him unusable, so he had to be culled. Although disappointed, we had seen some of our best calves in 2008 produced by Juggler.  His four daughters have classified and are in the herd.

 

     Our only bull purchase in 2008 was from the Toowoomba Ag Show Big S Group Sale. Dundee Ureka a son of a great bull, Kendara Uni. We liked Ureka for his frame and tidiness, he had great bone structure and was a huge bull when he reached a mature age. Ureka has been a great asset to the female herd.

 

     In October 2008 we aquired 7 Hartwood cows, 5 with calves, from the dispersal sale held on Hartwood property at Nymagee, near Cobar.  

 

     In May 2009, at the Warenda Major Reduction Sale we purchased 2 cows, 1 with a heifer calf at foot. They both calved in spring and were rejoined again. They are producing some excellent calves and are breeding well.

 

     In September 2009, we purchased Rosevale Decathlon D116 from the Rosevale Sale. He is a very tidy, complete bull. His EBV’s place him in the top 1-15% for 12 of his traits, including Domestic & Export Indexes. His first drop of calves have hit the ground running. Although the calves are born small, they have had the most growth amongst the all of the calves this season.

 

     In August 2010, we made our biggest purchase of all. We paid the top price of $25,000 for Watasanta Big Banana (P) at the Watasanta Sale, Tamworth.

 

     We also purchased Wilgaroon Duntroon D520 (ET)(AI)(P) privately from John & Liz Manchee’s Wilgaroon Stud in 2010. He is a polled ET son of Wave Hill Major (P) who sold to the Strathmore Stud for $44,000 in 1999. His dam, Murrumbo Sapphire 1310/1 (P) was a 19 year old cow who had 15 calves, she is also the dam of  Murrumbo Beaumon (P) and Wilgaroon Kokoda (P). Duntroon is an exceptionally long bull that carries a tonne of muscle, has an excellent sheath, a smooth topline and moves freely. He has plenty of sire appeal.

 

     In 2015, we purchased Moongana Iron Man I2376 (P) for $20,000 from the Moongana Sale at Springsure.