HICKS BEEF. AUTUMN BULL SALE: THURSDAY 1ST MARCH pm Annandayle South Holbrook NSW AUTUMN 2018 NEWSLETTER

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1 HICKS BEEF AUTUMN 2018 NEWSLETTER Annandayle South, Holbrook, NSW 2644 Andrew Hicks: Tom Hicks: Web: Follow us on Facebook AUTUMN BULL SALE: THURSDAY 1ST MARCH pm Annandayle South Holbrook NSW CATALOGUE COMING SOON Autumn 2018 Red ABC sale bulls 202 Black ABC heifers competing to stay in the herd at preg testing. After a 6 week joining, including a synchronised AI, 94% stay at the farm 2018 Autumn Newsletter Page 1

2 NEW SIRES PROGENY FEATURING IN THE 2018 AUTUMN SALE It s an exciting time to be in the beef industry. Genomics and more complex modelling are enabling real and measurable progress to be made with genetically enhanced performance data. This rapidly improving system identifies new sires faster and more accurately. CCR Boulder 1339A Sim Angus A thick, easy doing type with total balanced performance. Great calving ease in top 2%, great carcase with good muscle and top 1% marbling. His All-Purpose Index is well in the top 1%. ABC K500 Sim Angus Couples top 10% calving ease direct with top 2% maternal calving ease He is from one of the best cow families at Hicks Beef. His grand dam is the mother of Hicks Indexer E538. Thomas Grade Up - sire of ABC K500 KCF Bennett X514 Gelbvieh A growth Gelbvieh bull from one of the best herds in the U.S. Offering top 2% growth and top 5% muscle. His index is relatively low as his calving ease and marbling are low, but we believe his type, growth and hybrid vigour makes him a useful addition to our sire team. Brown Premier X7876 Red Angus Brown Premier is in an elite group of proven sires that rank in the top 2% for both grid Herdbuilder and Gridmaster Indexes. Progeny are thick made, well balanced and structurally correct. Exceptional EPDs, packaging low birth weight and high growth with added carcass merit. We believe his Breedplan figures will catch up to his high accuracy US EPDs Autumn Newsletter Page 2

3 Hicks Emperor K3 Red Angus K3 brings the top black Angus Te Mania Emperor into the Red Angus EBVs show top calving ease, great growth and marbling, all backed by high profit indexes. This bull is one of the most attractive bulls we have bred. Te Mania Emperor E343- sire of Hicks Emperor K3 Hicks Redemption K44 Red Angus Top 1% calving, top 20% 400day weight, top 5% marbling Attractive phenotype and very sound, backed by a great pedigree. Brown JYJ Redemption Y1334 sire of Hicks Redemption K44 ABC K713 Red Composite A Hicks Beef composite bull that combines a leading Red Simmental with one of the popular Gelbvieh sires. He delivers balanced performance and top 15% indexes. RESEARCH4RINEY Hicks Beef would like to congratulate Catherine Ross and her family for their great fund-raising efforts of the Research4Riney project. So far, they have raised over $40,000. All funds raised go directly to Bowel Cancer Australia and the Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre for research into bowel cancer treatment. At our 2017 Spring bull sale, we donated the proceeds of Lot 2 to Research4Riney. As well as fund raising the aim is to increase the awareness of bowel cancer in the community. We would like to encourage our clients and friends to visit Research4Riney on the Everyday Heroes web site and make a contribution. Catherine Ross 2018 Autumn Newsletter Page 3

4 COW PA I was told when I became a grandfather that the grandchildren would call you what they wanted. Eva, our oldest granddaughter, enjoys the farm and loves animals, especially cows. Eva has given me the title of Cow Pa. CowPa01 has become my Instagram handle (I welcome more followers). Right: Eva the Cowgirl 92% preg test over 6 week joining for these ABC heifers UNTIL NEXT TIME... Annandayle South, Holbrook, NSW 2644 Andrew Hicks: Tom Hicks: aahicks@bigpond.com Follow us on Facebook 2018 Autumn Newsletter Page 4

5 A FEW WORDS FROM KATE I grew up on a fine wool property on the East Coast of Tasmania, where I developed a love for agriculture. After high school I went on to study Animal Science at the University of Melbourne. Tom and I met in Melbourne at an infamous pub while he has having a well-earned study break from Marcus Oldham Ag College. After university I worked at the Australian Wheat Board for 12 months before joining Fox & Lillie in the wool marketing and brokerage areas. I moved to Holbrook in 2014 and have traded the wool clip for cows and am enjoying learning about the cattle industry and being involved in the farm. Our daughter, Henrietta, was born last July and I am beginning to work with Anne in the office on the financials. I m looking forward to this year and becoming more involved in the business while living with my family in this beautiful spot. Above: Kate and Henrietta Hicks MEETING THE PEOPLE BEHIND THE NUMBERS Forty years ago, I could handle the bookwork for our registered Poll Hereford herd in about 30 minutes while I watched Maxwell Smart on TV. Today the collection and processing of data takes a lot of time. The emphasis on accurate scientific measurement now steers the course to profitability. The importance of our data made it particularly worthwhile to catch up with 2 of the wonderful people who design and handle the figures at the American Simmental Society; Leoma Wells and Jannine Story. Meeting with them gave us an insight into future developments of the genomic inputs which will mean better, more accurate EPDs. Thank you, Leoma, and Jannine for your help and valuable advice. It was great to meet you both. Andrew, Anne and Tom and Jon Wright with our ASA visitors, Leoma Wells and Jannine Story INDEXING YOUR WAY INTO PROFIT When it comes to calculating the profitability of an animal there are a lot of traits that have to be weighed up against each other. Often, we get too fixated on the output traits such as growth and carcase data rather than the true drivers of profitability such as maternal and efficiency traits. How do they work? Economically calculated indexes are a valuable tool to assist in the selection of the most profitable genetics available. Profit indexes consider and put an economic value on each trait and then incorporate this into a single value. The main index for our composite cattle is the All-Purpose Index (API) which is a maternally based index that has a heavy weighting on maternally relevant traits as female performance is the main driver of profitability. This is similar to the supermarket index used with the Red Angus. It is important to select the right index for your program. For example, if you are not retaining any females the Terminal Index (TI) is much more relevant as it does not factor in any maternal traits Autumn Newsletter Page 5

6 COW HERD DNA ROUNDUP Genomics is the mapping of genomes using high throughput DNA sequencing to establish the function and structure of an entire genome. The evaluation of beef cattle genetics has remained unchanged for the past 30 years. More traits have been added and indexes have been formed but the way in which the analysis has been done has remained the same. This is all about to change with the implementation of genomics and single step data analysis. It is one thing to gather genomic data however it is another thing to incorporate it into the system. Until now computers have not been powerful enough to do this in a single step. The use of genomics has revolutionised the dairy industry in recent years. It is now possible to identify superior genetics much earlier than was previously possible. The reason for this is the industry adopted the technology early and like anything; the longer the system has been running the more data that is collected and therefore, the more accurate the tool becomes. The American Simmental Association has offered the Cow Herd Roundup (CHR) to increase the flow of genomic data. The CHR is offering 60% off the price of the 50k test and a further $5 discount for the submission of mature cow weights at the same time. This is enabling more producers to submit samples to the database. Hicks Beef will be submitting DNA on all females. We see this as a great opportunity to improve the genetic evaluation of our herd. RED ANGUS SOCIETY VISITOR We recently had a visit from Kate McDonald, Executive Officer of the Red Angus Society. Kate was in Albury attending the Angus Youth Round Up and took the opportunity to visit local breeders. Kate said she enjoyed getting out of the office and meeting Red Angus breeders on their farms and seeing Red Angus cattle in the paddock. We communicate so much by these days that sometimes we don t realize how much stronger the relationship can be when we have actually met face-to-face. We thank Kate for taking the time to come and see us. Andrew and Kate McDonald AWARD FOR CLEVER CLIENTS As we say at Hicks Beef, we enjoy clients awards better than getting them ourselves. It is proof our bulls are working for our clients, and that we have some very clever clients. The Tinks family of Goolwa won a NSW Excellence in Eating Quality award, presented by the MLA. When asked about the award night Angus said he enjoyed the event and managed to drink a little of his levy out. Congratulations to Angus and Jeff for presenting cattle that excel in meat quality. Angus and Andrew 2018 Autumn Newsletter Page 6