Fairy Springs Brahman Stud is a family operation owned and operated by Eddie and Debbie Streeter. Established in 1967, the stud herd is based on over 40 years of careful breeding and selection with a focus on fertility, temperament and traits important for productivity under northern Australia conditions. Emphasis has been placed on polled breeding over the past 15 years, resulting in a large percentage of the breeder herd now being polled or scurred.
Fairy Springs operates over two properties in Queensland. The breeder herd consists of around 450 red stud females, and 300 grey high-grade commercial females producing herd bulls. All breeding cows are located on White Kangaroo Station, which is a 5600 hectare property west of Bowen in North Queensland. The country is tough, and cows must produce calves on a low quality diet, and sires have to cover extensive country. Male progeny and other sale cattle are grown out on ‘Narbethong’ at Monto, in the north Burnett region.
We approach the breeding of our cattle with an open mind and are continually looking for ways to improve the overall quality and efficiency in our herd. The herd is control mated, and all cows, including commercial cows, are udder scored and birth date recorded at calving. In our breeding objectives, we place primary importance on fertility characteristics, as it is recognised that fertility is far more profitable than any other trait. Pressure is placed on our cows to be consistent breeders, to ensure that the progeny entering the commercial and stud cattle industries from our herd will breed on this reproductive precocity. We keep a keen eye on current genetic research. As we are in the animal breeding business, it is our job to ensure that we are breeding cattle that have been selected for heritable traits that will ensure the productivity of these traits is passed on to progeny for our clients.
While we have enjoyed great success at auction in past years, Fairy Springs cattle are now mostly marketed from the paddock. This has allowed us to present all animals without grain preparation and fit to go straight to the paddock to breed. All bulls are grassreared, and are fed silage for a short sale preparation. Semen for domestic and international use is available from some of our elite sires, mostly polled. Fairy Springs genetics have been exported internationally to the Philippines, Namibia and Thailand.