Ron with one of his Champion Carcases

Nebo beef producer and principal of Wyoming Romagnolas, Ron Pullen, says the question cattle people should be asking themselves at present is –  how will my slaughter cattle rate be altered with Meat & Livestock Australia’s (MLA) revolutionary plan to install Objective Carcass Measurement (OCM) technology across the red meat industry?

Mr Pullen thinks this technology may well be closer than most people think.

“The Dual Energy X-Ray Absorptiometry (DEXA) technology is planned to go into 90 slaughter facilities across Australia with MLA borrowing $150 million to do so,” he said

Cattle producers who wish to maximise their returns will have to seriously look at their genetic herd make-up.   The Pullen’s operation has a strong commercial focus and Mr Pullen believes that cattle people who have been producing high yielding slaughter cattle will at last be paid for their efforts.

“As a producer, I cannot wait for the day when I will be paid for those kilos of saleable beef my animals may produce, and move away from the old system where you are paid for carcass weight.” he said.

“I feel the present system has served the industry well over the past several decades, but we need to move on to be a more competitive exporting force.”

Over 15 years ago, Ron Pullen and his family participated in VIAscan trialling.  The intention was to use the technology to estimate the saleable beef yield.  The bullocks that were trialled were a large number of Romagnola/Brahman cross that were bred from the Pullen family’s high content Brahman breeder herd by their Wyoming Romagnola stud bulls.

Mr Pullen said the result was outstanding, with the consignment yielding several percent higher than what Researchers considered as a top end percentage.

“We have continued to breed Romagnola/Brahman cattle using our home bred Romagnolas and have sold 2000 of these fat cattle during the 2016 calendar year.  Coupled with a reasonable season, best beef prices in my 45 years in the industry and the present system – weight for age – I believe it was a result very few people could match.  I am extremely satisfied that I have continued to follow my belief in Romagnola genetics as I feel that we will continue to see the benefits of the breed in crossbreeding programs as these new technologies start coming into place.” Ron said.

*Story written by Ron and James Pullen and published in the Queensland Country Life as “Pullen All For Future Beef Technology”.