For the third consecutive year, Huntley’s Lyn and Roger French have claimed the prize for most successful Maine Anjou cattle exhibitor at the Royal Easter Show.
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When first recognised as a breed in 1908, Maine Anjous were used for both beef and dairy, they have only been used for beef since the 1970s.
The French’s have been breeding Main Anjou cattle for 34 years and have been taking them to shows for the last three decades.
At this year’s Royal Easter Show in Sydney, they won both champion and reserve champion bulls and females.
They also claimed the junior and senior champion bull and senior champion female.
“We’ve done well over the years, and the last three years have been terrific,” Mrs French said.
“We had the supreme exhibit at the Melbourne and Sydney shows for the last three years.”
Mrs French said this year’s winners were the result of embryos imported from France in 2008.
“The bulls and cows are among the best genetics out of France that you can get, we chose them in 2008 and the first ones were on the ground in 2010, 2011 and 2012,” she said.
Mrs French said the show was about encouraging more people to consider Maine Anjous for their commercial and stud herds.
“Hopefully people see the benefit of these new genetics and it gets picked up by commercial and stud breeders,” he said.
“As big as they are, they don’t use that much feed to get there, you can have more kilos of beef per hectare.”
Maine Anjous can be weaned at 450 kilos, and the French’s grand champion bull weighed in at a solid 913 kilos.
Other advantages included a smaller, consistent layer of fat around a carcass leading to less wastage for butchers.
They also had a recessive colour gene allowing them to blend with any other breed of cattle.
She said it all added up to farmers being able to get returns on their investment quicker compared to other breeds of cattle.
Mrs French said it wasn’t only genetics behind the show success, but efforts by Millthorpe’s Kierin Martin who prepared and cared for the cattle during the show.
The next stop for the French’s prize winning cattle will be the Bathurst Show before the Melbourne Show later in the year.