Lincoln and Lisa Job of Marellan Shorthorns have cemented their place in the competitive bull breeding landscape of Central Queensland by having a single focus: breeding high-quality Shorthorn bulls suitable for use over Bos Indicus females.

The couple will host their twelfth on-property bull sale in Emerald on 30 September, offering Shorthorn bulls produced for the Northern Beef Industry.

Lincoln explained that “The focus of our breeding program is 100 percent on the Northern Beef Industry.”

This single-minded focus leads the Jobs to make hard selection decisions to breed bulls that not only survive but thrive in their environment. This ensures that the Marellan herd produces genetics that contribute to the betterment of our clients’ herds and the Northern Beef Industry.

Tropically Adapted – Selection Pressure

For Lincoln and Lisa Job, the focus on extreme selection pressure (for British bred cattle) is essential.

Selection pressure shapes your product and allows genetic progress. The beef industry has been moving north for decades. For the Jobs, having their bulls bred and raised in an environment that is closely aligned to their clients is essential to ensure their bulls contribution to this northern based industry.

“We have been able to accelerate genetic gain by putting northern environment pressure on our cattle. We demand northern survivability. Environmentally relevant Shorthorn cattle are what we want to produce,” Lincoln said.

It is this unparalleled selection pressure of being bred and raised in the north that has allowed Marellan Shorthorns to produce a unique product – British bred cattle that can survive – and prosper – through the ticks, heat, flies and humidity of central and northern Qld. They recognise that bull survivability is paramount for their clients; the fertility, meat quality and performance gains from a bull will never be realised if he doesn’t survive and thrive.

Marellan Aslan (P), sells on September 30th at the Marellan Shorthorns “Bred for Bos Indicus Cows” Bull Sale

Single-minded focus on breeding cattle for the Northern industry

The old saying ‘don’t put all your eggs in one basket’ is a piece of advice that the Jobs reject.

“We have a single-minded focus of breeding cattle for the Northern Beef Industry”.

For the last 16 years the Marellan herd has had a discipline and single focus of breeding cattle for suitability to the Queensland environment. Their cow herd is run on buffel country with large areas of black soil that increase the tick burden on cattle, and mirror the environment and conditions found throughout central Qld.

Through careful selection of genetically advantageous bloodlines, Lincoln and Lisa’s breeding philosophy over time has led to lower tick burdens and higher heat tolerance in their cattle; in other words, a unique line of Shorthorns that have proven that they belong in central and northern Queensland.

This Tropical Adaption combined with good, old-fashioned Shorthorn meat quality means Marellan Shorthorn bulls can offer the economically valuable traits of fertility, performance and meat quality to Queensland beef herds.

No grain – not ever

Marellan’s long-term attitude towards sale bull preparation has caused the Jobs to operate one of the very few on-property bull sales where the bulls have had “No Grain – Not Ever.”

Their attitude is that “Our business model is to bring about genetic gain in our client’s herds. We want our bulls in good condition, and ready to work. We want our bulls to transition seamlessly to their new environment after sale day. The long game is the only game that counts for us, as the big picture of increasing northern options and meat quality in the Australian beef industry by blending with northern bos indicus cattle is what ticks our boxes.”

While Marellan bulls are given a very good opportunity to finish on grazing crop, they don’t get the opportunity to enter their clients’ herds without rigorous selection pressure.

Tropical Performance

The purpose of Tropical Adaption is rigorous selection to find lines that perform in the north. According to Lincoln, “Adaption is only part of the story, that survivability must lead to performance for our clients”.

Pictured above is F2 Shorthorn cow with her F3 calf at side at Appleton Cattle Co’s “Craven” Alpha. The calf weighed in at 390kg, now that’s tropical performance. Both cow and calf are sired by Marellan Shorthorn Bulls.

Callide Dawson Beef Carcase Competition.

This year, the prestigious Callide Dawson Beef Carcase Competition at Teys Biloela provided a great opportunity to benchmark the performance of the Marellan Shorthorn cattle.

Shorthorn X Brahman F1 Milk Tooth Bullocks. Part of the Marellan team in the 2024 Clermont Cattlemen’s Challenge. This year’s peers went into the Callide Dawson Beef Carcase Competition.

In class 5, the pen of grain fed steers, the Marellan Shorthorn X Kiaura Brahmans females took out the weight gain section. With 2 steers equal topping the weight gain section, gaining a mammoth 3.72kg per day.

The Marellan team averaged 3.48kg compared to the peer average of 2.45kg. No other entries had a higher weight gain than the Marellan average.

Lincoln insists the credit must be shared, “we were fortunate to purchase some very good quality Kiaura Brahman females a few years ago. Our bulls are only ever half the story”.

Figure 1. Callide Dawson Beef Carcase competition, class 5, Average Daily Gain.

It wasn’t just in the weight gain section that the Marellan Shorthorn X Brahman steers excelled. They received well above average for Marbling points. What was particularly pleasing about this was that there were no entries with more Brahman Content.

Figure 2. Callide Dawson Beef Carcase competition, class 5, points for Marbling.

Another highlight for Marellan was their entry in class 10, single grain fed Trade heifer. Their Droughtmaster X Marellan Shorthorn heifer scored the top MSA Index of 62.06, in a class of 45 heifers.

Shorthorn Meat Quality

The eating quality of Shorthorn cattle is well documented. “Just about every old ringer I’ve ever met says the best steak they ever had was from a Shorthorn” Lincoln adds.

“Their unquestioned meat quality allows producers with Shorthorn-infused cattle to access more market options; whether that be feedlot demand, fitting into the high-end of grass fed and organic grids, or allowing producers to increase MSA indexes regardless of their finishing system.

“Our clients are consistently achieving MSA index scores over 60 with cattle that combine Marellan Shorthorn Bulls with Bos Indicus females. We see ourselves as an ally to Bos indicus herds – Our bulls are produced to excel over Bos Indicus blood females. But there is no meat quality without survivability”

Economic Marbling

As markets mature, they tend to segment on quality; a characteristic beginning to emerge in the grass-fed sector.

Having cattle with high meat quality ensures market demand and consumer satisfaction, but according to the Jobs:

“The hard part has been to breed them with northern survivability. When meat quality and survivability go together it opens up whole new possibilities. The old model of marbling and meat quality only coming from the feedlot sector means that the economics of marbling are most often associated with higher cost systems. The emergence and growth of higher meat quality segments within the grass sector is going to create huge opportunities for the beef industry and our clients.”

Lincoln predicts that ‘Economic Marbling’, marbling with a lower cost of production is going to be a huge win for our industry. The great thing about the best Shorthorns is that they can be tremendous performers in the feedlot as well as able to fit into elite grass-fed markets.

Your Opportunity

The performance and meat quality gains from Marellan Shorthorns gives producers more market options, as well as increasing on-farm efficiency through fertility and performance gains from hybrid vigour. The F1 and F2 Shorthorn Female is a special product and utilising them allows producers to tap into Hybrid vigour gains for the long haul.

Marellan Shorthorns will hold their on-property ‘Bred for Bos Indicus Cows’ Bull Sale on Tuesday 30 September at “Emerald Downs”, Emerald.

On offer will be 55 bulls, presented in working condition, semen morphology tested, and ultrasound scanned. The bulls come back by independent genomics through Black Box, using a northern Australian reference population. The comprehensive performance data analysis is done through BreedPlan.

This sale presents northern producers with the opportunity to benefit from the performance, fertility and market access that their Shorthorn bulls add in addition to the selection pressure that Lincoln and Lisa apply in the Marellan herd: “Tropically Adapted for Tropical Performance”.

Click here for sale details or to request a catalogue

Marellan Apocalypse (P), sells on September 30th at the Marellan Shorthorns “Bred for Bos Indicus Cows” Bull Sale

Marellan Ardi (P), sells on September 30th at the Marellan Shorthorns “Bred for Bos Indicus Cows” Bull Sale