Tarramba Brahmans & Brangus
Tarramba Brahmans & Brangus
Tarramba Brahmans & Brangus is a multi-generational Queensland program with family genetics dating back to 1954. Today, Adam Gunthorpe runs more than 200 breeding females under strict fertility pressure, including short joining periods and culling open females. Cattle are developed on grass without grain and selected for fertility, maternal history, structure, temperament, doing ability, and performance under northern Australian conditions.
Tarramba Brahmans & Brangus is a multi-generational cattle program based at Banana, Queensland, Australia. The Gunthorpe family's cattle breeding history dates back to 1954, when Adam Gunthorpe's grandfather began developing cattle genetics. Adam's parents started their herd in 1979 using genetics from his grandfather, creating the family foundation that continues at Tarramba today.
The program now runs more than 200 breeding females, with much of its new genetics sourced from within the herd itself. This allows Tarramba to build on cattle and cow families that have already been tested through generations of production in their own environment.
Today, the cattle are managed under the conditions of northern Queensland, where heat, flies, ticks, seasonal changes in forage quality, and other environmental pressures are part of normal production. Tarramba does not maintain a show string, and its cattle are expected to function within the same practical grazing system used across the herd.
The current program places particular importance on fertility and the maternal history behind its genetics. Cows are expected to breed consistently within defined joining periods, while potential herd sires are evaluated not only as individuals but also by the reproductive records of the cows behind them. This combination of a family breeding history extending back more than 70 years and continued selection within the Tarramba environment forms the foundation of the herd today.
Fertility is a major selection pressure in the Tarramba program. Yearling heifers are given a 45-day joining period, while two-year-old heifers and mature cows are joined for 100 days. Bulls are turned in on November 1 each year. Pregnant yearlings and two-year-old females calve with the mature cow herd without special treatment, and the entire herd is pregnancy tested at weaning. Females that fail to become pregnant are culled.
Tarramba expects a female to produce two calves by four years of age and then continue rebreeding annually within a three-month joining period. Failure to produce a pregnancy or calf can remove a female from the herd, as can problems with temperament or structure.
The same fertility emphasis carries into sire selection. Adam looks for bulls backed by fertility on both sides of the pedigree. A prospective herd sire should be by a bull whose dam has produced multiple calves at short calving intervals and out of a cow that has done the same. Udder quality, structure, temperament, and polledness are also considered. One of Tarramba's listed herd sires is out of a cow that has produced six calves at a 371-day average calving interval and is pregnant with her seventh.
The cattle are tested under a forage-based management system. Cows remain on grass year-round without hay or grain and are generally rotationally grazed in large mobs of approximately 250 to 350 head. During summer, cows receive phosphorus and salt supplementation. During the dry season, a 20% urea lick may be used to help them utilize low-protein mature forage. Herd sires are also run together on grass when they are not being used and may receive the same type of dry-season supplementation.
Calves spend three to four days in the yards on hay at weaning before being combined with older cattle in grass paddocks. No grain is fed during their development. Tarramba reports that its steers grow and fatten readily on grass and are generally sold into the feedlot market at approximately 420–470 kg at 17–18 months of age.
Tarramba also collects extensive performance information. BreedPlan EBVs, genomic data, DNA parent verification, weights, scrotal measurements, sperm morphology, fat and muscle scans, and Days to Calving are among the information used in the program. Tarramba describes this data as one part of the selection process rather than the only measure of an animal. Phenotype, fertility, structure, temperament, doing ability, and performance in the actual environment remain part of the evaluation.
The overall program is designed to identify cattle that can breed regularly, maintain condition, and perform under northern Queensland conditions without being protected from the environmental pressures under which their progeny will be expected to work.
