The Commercial Herd
Whilst our stud herd gets the publicity, our commercial herd forms the backbone of our operation. We calve over 500 commercial cows across two seasons, spring and autumn, focusing on producing steers for the feeder steer market, which are turned off at 420-500kgs (920-1100lbs) at around 14 months of age. Surplus commercial females are finished on pasture and sold as finished animals into a grass-fed, ‘never ever’ program. Within our commercial herd, every female is single sire mated, allowing us to sire identify every calf. At calf branding, each calf receives an earmark that corresponds to their sire, and through the National Livestock Identification System (NLIS), we can identify each individual animals along the entire production chain, thus, identifying their sire. By running two distinct joining seasons, we can use the same sires across both the stud and commercial herds, ensuring they are evaluated in realistic commercial settings. Our system allows us to monitor how a sires progeny performs in the feedlot through to hanging on the rail, as well as how their daughters perform and last within a commercial environment.
Sire identification system
Three cows and their earmarks
In terms of management, functionality and robustness are non-negotiable traits in our cattle. Operating in steep and often challenging terrain, our cattle must be able to graze and forage efficiently, maintaining body condition and productivity. To manage them effectively, we rely on horses and dogs for all our stock work. We have all grown up riding and developed a trust for our horses and their capability in steep country! This traditional, yet effective approach ensures that stock are moved in a calm and low stress manner. As a result, we have a positive interaction with our stock, meaning they are easily managed and handled in future settings.
We also place great emphasis on setting our commercial cattle up for long-term success. Calves are yard weaned at around six months of age, typically weighing between 250 to 320 kilograms (550–700 lbs). We wean in multiple mobs, keeping numbers under 100 per group to reduce stress and improve individual attention and handling. During weaning, all calves are feed and bunk trained using a pasture beef cube manufactured from almond hulls. This ration supports rumen development and trains them to transition to bunk feeding, while critically maintaining access to grass-fed markets. By avoiding grain-based feeds, we retain eligibility for grass fed and finished beef programs, while still setting the steers up for success across a wide range of feedlot pathways.
James taking a TSU sample from a steer
In both our stud and commercial herds, we use scientific tools and programs to the best of our ability to progress our herd. We have had a long and large involvement with the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program (ASBP), the world’s largest Angus progeny test program. Sires such as Bowmont King K306, Wattletop 458N E11, Lawsons Rocky R4010, Farrer Maxwell M99 and Knowla Revolution R190 have been selected for the program. They are also walking sires at Knowla in both the stud and commercial herd. Carcase performance and marketability have been a long-term focus at Knowla, dating back to the times of the Devon cattle we used to run. The ASBP is a tool that we have used to gain insight into the performance of a sire’s progeny on the hook, to ensure that we make decisions that benefit our commercial herd (and by extension) our client’s operations.Ten years ago, our steers reached 450kg at 20 months; now, thanks to genetic and feed base improvements, they hit the same weight at 14 months.More recently, we have employed the genomics tool, SteerSELECT in our commercial steers. We were proud to be the first commercial users of this tool worldwide. This tool gives insight into the predicted genetic merit of steers, giving predictions of nine feedlot, carcase and health resilience traits. Ultimately, all these tools provide us valuable insight into our stock’s likely performance, enabling us to make educated assumptions of the performance of sires in a commercial setting.
Weaners in the yard getting fed a pasture beef cube
Ted and Breakout, 1992​
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Advertisement for Knolwha Devons, emphasising the importance of caracse performance back in 1991!