THE first line of Alcoa Farmlands' calves to be offered for sale this year will hit the saleyards this month.
The draft from its winter calving program will be featured at the Elders Boyanup store cattle sale on Friday, March 20 and will be followed up with more lines of both steers and heifers in the coming months.
The offering for the sale will consist of 135 Angus steers and 25 Murray Grey steers which will weigh between 340 to 380 kilograms, as well as 30 Simmental cross steers weighing 300-350kg.
The May/June drop steers and are from Alcoa's 3700-head breeding herd made up of Angus and Murray Grey females, run across properties at Wagerup and Pinjarra.
The operation has been using predominantly Koojan Hills Angus and Melaleuca Murray Grey bloodlines for more than 15 years, while the Simmental bulls used in the herd come from the Bonnydale stud.
When selecting bulls, the operation focuses on 200 and 400-day weights, eye muscle area (EMA), intramuscular fat (IMF) and docility.
Alcoa Farmlands manager Vaughn Byrd said their aim was to breed an animal suitable for the grain and grassfed markets.
"We want to breed quiet animals with good muscling (high EMA) and high marbling (IMF) to meet the needs of the local slaughter markets," Mr Bird said.
Elders Waroona representative Michael Longford said the Alcoa steer line-up would provide buyers an opportunity to get a jump on the market with some advanced store cattle that would suit either of the two markets.
"They are well advanced and past drafts have received positive feedback from buyers," Mr Longford said.
"The Alcoa Farmlands cattle have a proven history, year-in and year-out we get lotfeeders and grassfatteners coming back to us with positive comments."
The calves on offer were yard-weaned for seven days in December/January and have been running on irrigated pastures and supplemented with hay and silage since weaning.
At weaning the steers received their second 7in1 vaccination along with Multimin, Vitamin A, D and E plus a Eprinex drench.
They will also receive another drench prior to the sale with Ivomec.
