New Charbray Society president sees breed's popularity growing in other states
The new president of the Charbray Society of Australia believes the breed's rising popularity could see it tap into two emerging state markets.
At the 48th National Charbray Bull Sale at CQLX Gracemere on Monday, September 29, Trevor Ford, Wattlebray Charbrays, Chinchilla, was announced as the new president.
He takes over from Glen Zeimer, Cedar Park Charbrays, Mt Larcom, after three years.
Mr Ford, who has been vice president for the past three years and on the board for the past 12, told Queensland Country Life that the implementation of the society's breeding plan back in 2009 was the catapult to get the breed rolling, as well as the success of the national sale.
He said that went hand in hand with the introduction of its Certified Charbray Breeder Trademark in 2015 at Beef 2015.
"We are on an upward trend, and we can continue to grow, hopefully by pushing the breed further into more areas," he said.
Mr Ford said there did not appear to be as many challenges for the beef industry when the market was as good as it was, and they had good seasons.
"You talk to people here and there and there's still a few areas that are quite dry, but on the whole, I think, the seasons have been fairly good," he said.
"So hopefully we can continue marketing our cattle throughout Queensland, and they're becoming quite popular in WA as well in the Territory, so I think we've got avenues there."
Mr Ford said feedlotters definitely loved feeding Charbray cattle.
"The feed conversion efficiency and just their easy doing ability and growth for age have us in the box seat for most markets," he said.
"It's little wonder most people are coming over and trying Charbrays."
At this year's sale, one of the 17 bulls offered by Mr Ford and his wife, Lolita, fetched the top price.
Mr Zeimer said that as a society board member for the past seven years, he had noticed an improvement in the quality and consistency of bulls being presented at sales.
"I think they've come a long way," he said.
He said this year's National Charbray Sale was a great result for the breed.
