Welcome to Brinsley Square Meaters!
Deb and Tony Cotter of Brinsley Square Meaters would like to welcome you to our new website. Please look in often to check on our progress. We hope to continue to make regular updates to help keep you informed of any interesting news or events. Thank you for visiting Brinsley Square Meaters. Please feel free to contact us with any enquiries.
November News 2010
Come and talk to us at the Farming Small Areas Expo on Friday 12th and Saturday 13th of November at Hawkesbury Showground at Clarendon. Our site number is 99 and we are positioned on Groves Ave next to the MetalCorp display. We will have some cattle on site and stud and commercial stock for sale. Have a look at some of the cattle added to our sales page over the next couple of days.
We will be offering a number of females from our top families including some of our elite foundation bloodlines. Our decision to reduce numbers and focus on a commercial Square Meaters herd provides a wonderful opportunity for astute buyers to acquire some much sought after genetics.
Tony and I look forward to catching up with existing and potential clients.
April/May News 2010
We exhibited only one head at Sydney Royal Show this year and brought home the Senior Champion Bull Award. It was to be another year off from showing but after a call to boost exhibitor numbers we entered Brinsley Catalyst on the closing date for entries. At this stage Catalyst was an unbroken 2 and a half year old bull out earning his keep covering a number of cows. He had never even had a nose ring put in!! He was removed from the cows the next day and an intensive breaking in process began. Unfortunately he was still a good 100 kg under his ideal show weight at Sydney and became ill whilst there requiring veterinary treatment. I now realize that it was a big ask for a mature bull to be put through a breaking in and full preparation in the space of a few weeks but an excellent testament to the bulls temperament that he handled it so well and paraded like a well seasoned show animal.
Catalyst is heading back out with the girls in the next month and we look forward to his first drop of calves this August. A return to the show ring is not out of the question albeit with an adequate preparation next time.
Limousin News
Our Limousin herd has increased, firstly, with the purchase of the top priced heifer at the Southern NSW Breeders Sale held at Camden. Birubi Drachma is a moderate red polled heifer by Stevens Top Gun.
The next addition was with the arrival of a polled apricot heifer calf out of Premier Vixen by Premier Dodge Ram A78. We feel fortunate to be starting off our Brinsley Limousin prefix with such a high quality calf.
We attended the Limousin National Show and Sale held at Wodonga on the 30th April and came home with two lovely Donna Valley heifers to add to our small herd.
Donna Valley Poll Elizabeth is an apricot polled heifer by DV Poll Bring It On out of a French Pure cow. She exhibits all the qualities we desire and we see a big future ahead for this 13 month old heifer.
Donna Valley P. Krystal Dazzle was the standout animal of the show and took all before her progressing from Jnr Champion to Grand Champion female and was then duly awarded Supreme Limousin Exhibit over the Grand Champion Bull. She is a full sister to the in-house Donna Valley sire DV Poll Bring It On . Krystal was also a class winner at this years Sydney Royal Show. She is a more growthy type than we were looking to purchase but her structural correctness and balance was too good to ignore. If all goes to plan we hope to use Krystal as a future donor cow.
Feb/March News 2010
Autumn is always our busiest time and this year has been no exception.
Cows are calving, weeds need addressing, pastures require mulching and seeding, cattle are yarded and drafted for drenching and weaning, show cattle need feeding and preparation, sales lists are compiled and then 3 day sickness hits town just to top it all off!
Keep your eyes on our sales page as we will be offering a number of registered stud and commercial cattle for sale over the next month to reduce our stocking numbers over winter. Due to heavy rainfall and flooding we have been unable to sow down our winter pastures as early as usual and as a result we will be selling some of our current stock.
We will be exhibiting at Sydney Royal Easter Show this year. You are welcome to call by and have a chat to us between the 10th and 13th of April. Judging day is Sunday the 11th of April at 10am.
6 commercial heifers for sale click here for details.
January News 2010
WAC Brave Harmonica, dam of Mandalong Brave T22, Brinsley Zambezi and Brinsley Braveheart is still producing and looking a picture of health at 14 years of age. She has delighted us once again with the arrival of a lovely grey bull calf by the illustrious sire Wongonbra Pablo. We envisage a big future ahead for this little fella who looks set to follow in the footsteps of his older brothers.!!!
November/December News 2009
FAREWELL - BRINSLEY ANZAC
We would like to wish Gordon and Olena Newton good luck with their newly founded Neusa Vale Stud and congratulate them on their selection of Brinsley Anzac as foundation herd sire. Brinsley has continued to retain a semen share in Anzac for future use and has a couple of his young bull calves ready to step into to fill his shoes next year.
The sale of Anzac has left an opening for a Spring joining herdsire and after the great success of last years joining we will once again be using Braveheart as our dominant bull. The remainder of the cows will be joined to the young bull Brinsley Catalyst , a half sibling to Anzac by Mandalong Upshot. We are sure that he will bring lots of muscle and plenty of extra length to his calves.
October News 2009
VALE Brinsley Isabelle 11.06.09 22.10.09
It was with much sadness that we had our lovely, long awaited Belle humanely put to sleep after she sustained serious nerve damage to her off side shoulder.
Belle was the result of nearly 10 years of breeding and selection and as close to perfect as I have ever seen.
As a result of her loss we will be rejoining her dam to Braveheart and go on to flush her after the arrival of the next calf.
LIMOUSINS
October also saw the arrival of our first purebred Limousin cattle purchased from the Premier Dispersal sale. The work that has been put into improving the docility of Limos is obviously paying off if the stock we have bought is any indication. They have been a delight to handle. We will be running a small Limousin stud herd under the prefix Brinsley alongside the Square Meaters Stud. Next year will also see the start of our Limo/Square crossbreeding program with the intention of selling the weaners through the yards at Camden.
August/September News 2009
A single sire natural joining last Spring has achieved the results we were hoping for. It is lovely to see the dominance of Brinsley Bravehearts genetics shown to full effect in this drop. All cows calved down within the first 4 weeks without assistance.
June News 2009
SHE HAS ARRIVED!!!
We have finally welcomed the much anticipated first heifer calf of our elite female Baldry Isabelle (after 6 bulls and 44 embryos). To add to our excitement this gorgeous grey heifer is also the first calf of our exciting new herdsire Brinsley Braveheart who has managed to stamp his mark with young Belle already exhibiting the extra frame and pigmentation we had been hoping for.
As a result of this successful joining we will be entering into a third and final embryo flushing of Baldry Isabelle in 2010 with hopes of emulating our previous results. This will help to ensure the continued influence of this little cow in not only our own herd but throughout the square meaters breed.
May News 2009
May saw the weaning of our spring calves with some lovely heifers retained as future breeders. We have been particularly pleased with the progress of our autumn calves by Brinsley Anzac. They are already exhibiting the B+ muscle scores with strength and width along the top line that is so typical of this family.
April News Update
It was my privilege to be asked to attend Sydney Royal Show as one of the selectors of the Square Meaters Stan Hill Trophy team of 3 steers along with Kylie McKinnon of Mabelie Stud. The standard of most of the 10 square steers entered was very high this year making selection a rather challenging process. The 3 steers chosen all performed well not only on the hoof (coming 1st, 2nd and 3rd in their respective classes) but also finished a creditable 4th overall in the Stan Hill combined carcass results defeating breeds including the Angus, Murray Greys, Herefords and Galloways to name a few. This is the equal highest result that the breed has achieved to this date and quite a feat considering that first place was filled by a breed with 34 head to select from.
It is very rewarding to see such a result when we are competing against long established mainstream breeds. I feel very confident that this years result can be improved upon with continued education on the selection and preparation of suitable entries by breeders and we will soon see Square Meaters in the top 3 Stan Hill carcass results where they belong.
April News 2009
Brinsley Square Meaters wishes to congratulate recent purchasers of two of our best homebred sires.
Brinsley Zambezi has been sold to Kylie McKinnon and Matt Brown of Mabelie Stud at Narromine. Zambezi was selected as a replacement sire for Brinsley Alchemy (purchased from us in 2006). Kylie and Matt have retained daughters of Alchemys and will be joining them to Zambezi this year.
Zambezi is a frame score 5 bull with explosive growth rates and amazing weight for age whilst still retaining the desirable early maturing type. We feel that these attributes along with his exceptional length of body, sound feet and extremely quiet temperament will be a wonderful asset to the Mabelie Square Meaters Stud.
Brinsley Benchmark has been selected as an outcross sire by Fiona Battiste of the well respected Woolaringa Square Meaters Stud at Goulburn. Benchmark will be used over the daughters of the very successful bull Woolaringa AL1 . He will also be joined to Woolaringa Leane C6 (Supreme Sq Meaters Exhibit Canberra Royal 2009) later this year.
Benchmark (and Brinsley Anzac) were described by Mr Ric Pisaturo of Mandalong Studs as two of the best examples of Square Meaters bulls he had seen in a long time. We are confident that this young sire will live up to his expectations and pass on his desirable traits including structural correctness and impressive eye muscle area.
Brinsley Square Meaters holds both Zambezi and Benchmark in high regard and has retained a semen share in each. We would like to wish Mabelie and Woolaringa Studs all the best with their future breeding programs using these bulls from two of our most successful families.