This Maynard Senepol steer entered in this year’s Callide Dawson Carcase Competition produced the second highest average daily gain in the event’s 37 year history, tracing back to 1988. He went into the feedlot at 459kg, closing-out 100-days later at 822kg – for an ADG of 3.63kg/day.

TEMPERAMENT plays an important part in feedlot weightgain potential, one of the competitors whose cattle have performed consistently well in the annual Callide Dawson Carcase competitions believes.

Former Meat & Livestock Australia boardmember Geoff Maynard and his family have over many years produced exceptional weightgain performance in the annual Callide Dawson Carcase competition staged by Teys Biloela. And he is convinced that temperament has a lot to do with it.

For 15 of the past 16 years, the Maynard family has topped the growth rate section of the competition for either bullocks or heifers (sometimes both) in the feedlot/carcase performance trial, against hundreds of entries of other breeds and their crosses.

In fact the top four individual weightgain steers recorded in the 37-year history of the Callide Dawson competition have all been Senepol and Senepol crosses bred and entered by the Maynards.

Topping the all-time standings for entries was a Senepol x Angus steer exhibited back in in 2018 by Clayton and Sarah Maynard that produced an average daily gain of 3.71kg/day in the feedyard, over 100 days.

The next best in the event’s history was a three-quarter Senepol steer entered in this year’s competition (pictured above), which gained at 3.63kg/day. That steer entered the feedlot at 459kg, and closed-out 100 days later at a phenomenal 822kg.

In a somewhat ironic side-effect of the steer’s prodigious weightgain performance, he had to be disqualified from the overall competition, because his carcase weight blow-out above the competition’s dressed weight spec between 300kg and 420kg.

The next two on the all-time Callide Dawson competition performers list are also Five Star Senepol or Senepol x Belmonts, both from the 2018 competition, producing ADGs of 3.32kg and 3.3kg/day.

Among this year’s 412 head entered in the grainfed classes fed at the Warnoah feedlot near Moura for the 2024 Callide Dawson competition, the Maynard’s 100-day steer entries – 17 head in total, covering singles and pens of three – produced an average ADG of 2.8kg, some 12.5pc above the competition’s overall average of 2.49kg.

Among the heifer portion fed 100-days, 24 Maynard Senepol heifers gained at 1.9kg/day, against a class average of 1.68kg across the 130 heifers involved. The best of their Senepol heifers and the highest performer in the class produced an ADG of 2.31kg/day.

Another trade steer class including 16 Maynard entries gained at 1.83kg/day, an 8pc advantage over the class of 155 steers, which had an ADG of 1.69kg. Both the first and second placed individual trade steers, averaging 2.43kg and 2.39kg, carried Maynard genetics.

In all, Maynard Five Star Senepol-bred entries topped the weightgain statistics in five of the six steer and heifer classes in this year’s Callide Dawson competition, against a wide genetic spectrum of entries from across Central Queensland, including plenty of F1s loaded with hybrid vigour.

“I firmly believe that temperament has a lot to do with it,” Geoff Maynard told Beef Central.

“Logic suggests that cattle that can settle quickly into a feedlot program, and not be bothered by closer interaction with people in the feedyard environment, will produce good results, in terms of their overall performance,” he said.

“Senepols, as a breed, have an excellent reputation for temperament.”

Growth potential is a significant consideration in genetic selections within the Maynard’s Five Star Senepol bull breeding operation, but it was not selected-for out of context with other traits, Mr Maynard said.

“There’s not all that many Senepol cattle about, but like all breeds, there’s obviously a range within them for traits like growth rate – good and bad,” he said.

“This year’s competition steers – the leftovers from our bull breeding program, not only grew exceptionally well, but hung-up really well in the chillers,” Mr Maynard said.

• Five Star Senepols sell their 2024 bull offering at CQLX Gracemere on 23 September.