FIFTY years is a long time to stay true to one cattle breed - especially when new breeds of cattle offered into the beef market promote the promise of genetic and management gains and the lure of better bottom-line financial performance.
But for John Locke and his wife Val, son Rodney and Rodney's partner Tanya Hill, Adina Grazing, Esperance, this has been the case since they discovered the benefits of the Angus breed in the mid 1950s, when the family was farming at Bruce Rock.
While the location of the farm may have changed their belief in the Angus breed has never faltered.
Today, the family farm 4799 hectares at Merivale and Condingup, east of Esperance, after moving to the South Coast in 1961, when the area was still bush and had no roads.
And like building up his Angus herd from scratch, John spent many a day clearing the property and developing it into prime farming land.
Cattle were never a major part of the family's Bruce Rock operation in the early 1950s when a small herd of Australian Illawarra Shorthorns were run for milking.
But it was during this period that John started to notice the success the Angus breed was having in carcase competitions and thought the breed was worth exploring.
"At the time, Angus were winning a number of carcase competitions and it was basically this success which made us look at the breed and make the change," John said.
"Also during this period my brother was doing a bit of work at the Perth Royal Show with Angus so we got to know a bit more about the breed."
When they purchased their first Angus bull in the 1950s they used it over Shorthorn and Hereford females and from there they started to head towards a purebred Angus herd.
By the time they moved the cattle to Esperance the family was running 50 Angus cross breeders and this number was quickly added to when they purchased another 80 breeders at a dispersal sale at Serpentine.
They initially sourced their Angus bulls from Harry Trefort in Narrogin and subsequently from Epasco Farms and continued doing so until Epasco Farms stopped selling bulls about 28 years ago.
It was at this stage that the Lockes decided to set up a nucleus breeding herd to breed their own bulls through AI and was also the time they started using Te Mania genetics, which is now what the majority of their herd is based on.
There were two reasons the Lockes decided to go down this path - the first was they could no longer source bulls from Epasco and secondly, their bull requirements had grown substantially so they decided it was easier to breed their own bulls using AI in a nucleus herd as opposed to buying in large teams of bulls annually.
Along with using Te Mania genetics in their nucleus herd, the family in more recent times has introduced Blackrock genetics, firstly through semen in the mid 1990s and now through sires which they purchase every two years from the stud.
Over the years the family has built its herd up to purebred status with the number of breeders peaking at 2200 head.
This year they have mated 1850 breeders as well as 125 breeders in the nucleus herd.
With such a long association with the Angus breed John has certainly seen many changes over the years.
"It has gone from a short, squatty animal to more a larger-framed, more productive type," John said.
"The improvement in the breed's genetics has played a big role and we have seen this for ourselves in the weights of our calves when we sell them.
"Sixteen years ago we would be selling calves into the feedlot at between 270kg and 280kg but now they are going in at more than 300kg.
"It just gives an indication of how the breed has improved in terms of genetics over the years."
But it is not only the changes in the breed which John can talk about comfortably, he also certainly knows the benefits of the breed.
The main traits which have impressed John the most are their easy care and low maintenance traits.
"They are very easy care cattle and very good doers," John said.
"We never have any problems getting the calves to the right weights to sell and the cows never lose a lot of condition unless it is a really tight season.
"They also are pretty easy calvers and we never have any major calving problems, except with the heifers when it is a good feed season.
"And we have never had any real problems with temperament either."
The aim of the operation has always been to produce a yearling animal for the grainfed market, while in terms of their cows, the Lockes' objective is to breed a medium-framed cow with good maternal traits.
With these objectives in mind the main traits the Lockes look for when selecting sires to use in both their nucleus and commercial herds are a low to moderate birthweight, above average 400 and 600-day weights, around zero for fat and also the Shortfed index, as this is the market the Lockes are targeting with their calves.
They also pay special attention to feet and structure.
"We see EBVs as a big part of our selection process," John said.
"Because without measurements and figures you don't know what you are doing."
As a result of this thinking all the cattle in the operation's nucleus herd are recorded on the Angus Performance Register and due to their strong attention to detail, their 2011-drop of bulls all performed above breed average.
Their 60 bulls for 2011 averaged +3.5 for birthweight, +37, +75 and +93 for 200, 400 and 600-day weight, +5.3 for EMA, +1.5 for IMF and +$79 for the Shortfed index, which is $12 above the breed average.
When it comes to selecting replacement females the Lockes do this when the heifers are 11 to 12 months of age in January and they use fellow Angus breeder Noel Willing to help with selection as John said doing this takes out any sentimental selections.
"Noel is very savage on feet and structure," John said.
Annually the Lockes retain 330 heifers for their commercial herd and 10 heifers for the nucleus herd.
Heifers are joined on the property at 15 months, for six weeks from May 1, to two-year-old bulls at a rate of five per cent.
Cows are mated two weeks later in mid-May, for nine weeks, to three and four-year-old bulls at a rate of between one to 40 or one to 30.
Pregnancy testing is also an important part of the breeding program on the property with the heifers and cows pregnancy-tested in August and September.
Last year the operation achieved pregnancy rates of 83pc (heifers) and about 95pc (cows) and in some mobs of cows the rate was as high as 97pc.
To ensure they are maintaining the fertility in the herd anything not in calf is culled.
The Lockes are also advocates of fertility testing bulls before mating and have been doing this testing for the last couple of years after having a lower than expected calving in 2010, due to using infertile bulls.
Calving on the property starts in early February with the heifers while the cows start in the middle of the month and most of the time 75pc of the calves are born in the first three weeks.
The calves are then weaned at the end of November/early December, at 10 months and at this time, usually average more than 300kg.
The Lockes wean their calves into a cell grazing set-up and run the steers and heifers separately.
After performing a yard weaning program for a number of years, the Lockes made the switch to the cell weaning set up three years ago after having problems with Pink Eye while yard weaning.
Rodney said the calves rotate through the cells every three to four days depending on the size of the cell and they usually settle down after about 10 days.
"There is certainly less stress on the calves," Rodney said.
"The most important thing in this type of weaning is to make sure they have plenty of feed and they can easily find the water."
After about a five week weaning period and once harvest is finished, the steer calves and cull heifer calves are generally sold off in lines of about 110 head to a lotfeeder where they go through a short feed regime.
Last year the majority of their calves sold averaged 328kg.
But this year the Lockes have already sold the tail of the heifer calves (223 head) to China, in a live export order which required heifers under 300kg.
The 330ha of cell grazing set-up on the property isn't only used for weaning.
The Lockes also run their first calvers and calves in it once the weaners have been sold.
The pasture mix in the cell set-up is very similar to the rest of the property with a mix of annuals and perennials with the major species being kikuyu, clover, ryegrass and serradella.
To ensure they are getting maximum productivity out of their herd the Lockes pay careful attention to animal health.
All calves receive vitamin B12, copper and selenium at marking and all the cattle are treated with Ivomec Pour On while the cows are annually vaccinated with 7 in 1 at pregnancy testing and the heifers receive this treatment twice.
Copper and cobalt are also added to the cattle's water.
Also to ensure they are on top of BVDV, all the breeding heifers are ear-notched and tested for the Pesti Virus before mating, as part of the selection process.
The Lockes don't vaccinate for the virus, opting to run all their heifers together which allows for auto-vaccination and identification of any PI carriers in the herd.
Despite having been in the beef industry for more than 50 years, the Lockes are always on the lookout for new ideas and ways to improve profitability.
As a result they have been involved in the Red Sky Program for the last two years and have been members of the local Better Beef Production Group for the last four years.
John said the Red Sky Program was very beneficial as it helped identify areas of the operation which could be improved but also the strengths of the operation, while the local group was good for sharing ideas and seeing what worked well for others and what didn't.
"It is good to be involved in these type of groups because you can pick up some innovative ideas which can improve your operation," John said.
One idea which has come up recently, which the Lockes will look at next year, is crop grazing.
"I think there could be some real benefits in it, if we do it right," John said.
"If we can graze the crops off lightly it will mean we can lock the pasture paddocks up and allow them to grow and get away a bit better in the autumn."
Along with running their cattle operation, the Lockes also crop 1300ha to wheat and canola and cut pasture and oaten hay.
This year the Locke family will be providing the 10 unmated 2012-drop heifers for the Farm Weekly-WA Angus Society WIN 10 Angus heifers competition.
With the history and quality breeding behind the family's breeding herd, the lucky winners of the 2013 competition will be in for a real treat.
This joint venture competition between WA's biggest selling rural newspaper and WA Angus breeders, which is now entering its sixth year, has seen $50,000 worth of heifers from Keysbrook, Gingin, Coolup, Wagerup and Denbarker won by five lucky Farm Weekly subscribers.
WA Angus Society vice-chairman Andrew Kuss said the competition was a great partnership between Farm Weekly and Angus WA and provided a good promotional tool for the breed leading into the bull selling season.
"This will be the sixth year of the competition and we think it certainly allows us to highlight the benefits of the breed to producers," Mr Kuss said.
"It is a good way of introducing the winners to an exciting breed and help develop their passion for the beef industry if they have never run cattle before.
"But if a cattle producer wins it and they don't run Angus, hopefully by winning the heifers and having them on their property, it will open their eyes to the benefits of the breed.
"We are very appreciative this year of the Locke family supplying the heifers as it will give producers a chance to get into bloodlines of an Angus herd which has been bred up for more than 50 years."
Farm Weekly publisher Trevor Emery said the competition had proven very popular with subscribers to the paper and he was happy to again provide sponsorship.
"From the response we've had in previous years, a line of 10 quality Angus heifers is clearly a sought after prize," Mr Emery said.
"We are happy to again provide $5000, half the purchase price of the heifers, and look forward to working with Angus breeders again this year.
"Esperance offers another new area from which the heifers have been sourced for the competition, which helps in promoting the breed State-wide.
"It has also been pleasing to see over the years that two of the winners had never run cattle before winning the competition, so that is a positive for the Angus breed and the beef industry in general."