About Us
Strathmore Santa Gertrudis is a hands on business owned and managed by the Walker family.
The stud comprises approximately 1000 Breeders run on the properties ‘Ravensbourne’ at Blackall and ‘Chatham’ and ‘Westquarter’ at Tambo, in Central Western Queensland.
The Walker family strives to produce bulls to suit the commercial market as well as seed stock producers not only in Central Western Queensland but also Australia wide.
A strong commercial herd comprising of 1600 Santa Gertrudis breeders is run parallel to the stud herd. This keeps the family in touch with and abreast of the commercial market.
In 2013 Ian, Kerry, Andrew, Amanda, Ben and Carly made the decision to undergo the then three year process of having ‘Ravensbourne’, ‘Chatham’ and ‘West-Quarter’ certified organic by Australian Organic Limited (AOL). The decision made sense as there isn’t a need to treat the herd for worms and ticks and the operation wasn’t in the practice of using hormone growth promotants.
Breeding Philosophy
As a business whose livelihood is dependent on cattle we know how important it is for the herd to perform financially. With this in mind strong emphasis is placed on maintaining high standards of feeding efficiency, fertility, good doing ability, temperament, muscle, softness and structural soundness in the herd.
Strathmore Santa Gertrudis also recognises the commercial demand for polled and dehorned cattle. Accordingly, the Stud is increasing its polled genetics, but not to the exclusion of all other traits.
Steers bred in the commercial herd are either grass-fattened for the US and Australian Organic markets in a good season or finished in feedlots in marginal seasons.
The Walkers take particular note of how their cattle perform with regards to the processors’ kill sheet specifications and make sure their breeding objectives are in line with what the market wants. Strathmore cattle consistently kill at the top end of the processors specifications.
Ian, Kerry, Andrew, Amanda, Ben and Carly continue to strive to improve the productivity of the Strathmore Santa Gertrudis Stud and Commercial Herds. The family annually retains a selection of their top performing 2-year-old Strathmore bulls to use in their herds. In addition to this they annually seek bulls that are young, structurally-sound, that have good breed-character, tidy sheaths, muscle and softness from other Santa Gertrudis Studs nation-wide.
Our Stockyard team in the yards have made positive comments that Strathmore cattle have a great temperament for cattle from a free-range environment. The boning production team have also expressed feedback on the quality of the consistent bodies, Yield and grading results.
