GENETICS SNAPSHOT: Russell and Donna Lethbridge, ‘Werrington’, Townsville and ‘Rainmore’, Alpha, Queensland Area: Werrington 19,500ha; Rainmore 27,500ha Enterprise: Brahman steers for the Japanese feeder market and heifers for the domestic feeder market Livestock: Werrington – 3,000 adult equivalent (AE); Rainmore – 4,500 AE; up to 10,000 depending on agistment availability Pasture: Werrington – natives, stylos, open forest; Rainmore – buffel, stylos, natives Soil: Werrington – light alluvial to heavy i ht ranite; Rainmore – heavy brigalow scrub, red loamy soil, lighter as us. Clearly, making the demands eucalypt country on our females was only improving More information Rainfall: us so far.” Werrington – 700mm; Russell does not consider growth Russell and Donna Rainmore – 525mm traits directly when buying bulls, Lethbridge but has found that selection using russellanddonna@ breeding values and indexes has bigpond.com helped improve carcase weights (taking them to 220–240kg Watch Russell tell the carcase weight). story of genetic progress in his herd He believes improved female genetics.mla.com.au/tropical reproduction also translates to improved adaptation to the environment, with their breeder mortality rate having fallen from 5% to 0.5% over 25 years. ■ 7