"Quiet, early maturing, feed efficient, outstanding mothers, deep red colour- crosses exceptionally well with other breeds. Twenty years on, we breed polled, medium framed, soft easy muscled Maines for stud and commercial use. Maine-Anjou's have it all"

“In the twenty four years of breeding Maine-Anjou cattle we’ve found them to be very docile cattle with easy calving, and pink eye is very rare”

Temperament:

"I do 90% of the handling, at 5ft 3, the quiet temperament is a huge plus"

Fertility and Calving Ease:

"We were looking for cattle that were hardy doers in the fresh climate of Kyneton. The low birth weight of these calves make for ease of calving, it’s great not having to pull calves"

Feed Efficiency:

To get the combination of low birth weights, fast growth and feed conversion, I thought I was going to make some compromises. Then I found Maine-Anjou

The Wises breed for easy fleshing, moderate frame size and ease of calving. Maines won the family over with their docility and were so easy to work with and they did get to see all the other breeds when they had the fitting service and test station.

Wise Maines

Doug Price is the President of Echo Sands Ranching which is the cattle division of Sunterra Enterprises Ltd. Sunterra has three feedlots with a total capacity of about 45,000 (feeding 80,000 annually). The cow herd consists of primarily British breeds- Angus, black baldies and Herefords. Doug will breed 3200 head this year year with 2000 of them being bred by Maine-Anjou bulls. Maine bulls have been added to the bull battery and he seems to be satisfied with the Maine sired cattle in his feedlots. "Maine cattle in the feedlot in competition with other breeds and crosses 'kick butt,'" said Price, adding that Maine bulls seem to 'click' with his Angus cows.

Price has few calving problems with Maines - less than one half of one percent. In a recent expansion phase, he added several hundred replacement heifers per season and bred them Maine as well. The Maine bulls have "added gain, yield and muscle," said Price. They have performance and that's very important. Calving ease in not a concern, "we're breeding lots of heifer to them - they work better on heifers than our Angus bull."

The excellent market for black half blood Maine heifers has prompted Price to sell the bulk of them at a premium. "Our Maine calves have great length, thick tops and big butts," he said. "We pull our calves right off the cow and go directly to the feedlot. They have got to perform."

Doug Price

The recent AMAA steer feeding trial provides compelling evidence that MAINE ANJOU sired cattle have the genetic ability to meet today's beef industry needs; namely superior feedlot performance combined with high cutability carcasses that can grade CHOICE with an ideal weight range. The data clearly indicates the MAINE bulls have the potential to add significant value to virtually any commercial cowherd.