GENERATIONS of the Hauschildt family have successfully run cattle in Tallegalla for 160 years.
Shane and Sarah Hauschildt own the award winning View Field Droughtmaster stud and run their cattle on the original property owned by Shane’s forebearers and more recently, expanded their operation onto a nearby block they purchased.
“Originally, [the home property] was an Illawarra Shorthorn stud, View Field was the name of the stud on the property and that goes back to my great-grandfather August Hauschildt,” Shane said.
“I found a box of registration certificates of cattle in the old house that are 100 years old and handwritten.
“We are keeping them as a keepsake … View Field was the stud prefix all the way back to then.
“When my wife and I decided to start a Droughtmaster stud in 2016, that’s the name we decided to use.”
The home property takes in 72 hectares (180 acres) and their recent purchase of 32 hectare (80 acre) property is nearby at Minden.
The new property gave them the opportunity to expand their operations.
“It’s made it possible for us to free up more land here to grow our bulls out, that was the main reason,” Shane said.
“It helps us do that a little cheaper rather than having a 10 acre paddock to rear bulls, now we have 40 or 50 acres.
“[The cattle] pasture graze, we grow a small amount of oats to graze off for our sale bulls and supplement with Bremer Stockfeeds.”
Shane’s grandfather bought in Droughtmaster bulls over the years.
“He had commercial Droughtmasters,” Shane said.
“We are in scrub country and ticks have always been a big problem so that’s why we selected the breed.
“Their temperament is wonderful too and there’s so many different types to choose from … the higher content types that we prefer, as in Brahman content, through to the flatter back, low content Droughtmaster, which we find gets a lot more ticks.”
He said only show or sale cattle were given tick treatments.
“We do the West Moreton and Brisbane Valley sub-chamber circuit and have done for many years,” he said. [The sub chamber includes Marburg, Boonah, Ipswich, Kalbar, Toogoolawah, Lowood, Rosewood, Laidley and Esk shows].
“We’ve won quite a few ribbons over the years with our cattle.
“A few years ago, we had a bull named View Field Gambler who took out the Grand Champion Tropical exhibit and Tropical bull in the West Moreton sub-chamber.
“Generally, we always do well in the tropical side of things.
“Mostly Grand Champion Tropical bull or female at shows but we’d never taken out Supreme Exhibit of Show before because it’s difficult to beat some of the European and British breeds.”
Their bull View Field Issac is getting a lot of attention right now.
He claimed the Supreme Exhibit Award at the Droughtmaster Futurity Show in Toogoolawah in March and has continued to win the tricolour ribbons.
Marburg Show was the first on the West Moreton and Brisbane Valley show circuit and this year, View Field Issac took out Supreme Exhibit of Show, Champion Interbreed of Show and Champion Tropical Bull of Show.
He was also judged Grand Champion Tropical Bull at the Ipswich Show.
“The bull we won with [Issac] is pretty much what we are trying to breed,” Shane said.
“He has good bones for a Droughtmaster bull and he’s double polled which seems to be the preference these days.
“He also has beautiful tropical skin and a wonderful temperament.”
Issac is 21-months-old and weighs more than 780 kilograms.
He is a good weight for his age.
The Hauschildts have even higher hopes for Issac’s six-month-old full brother which they believe is “going to be even better”.
Understanding genetics and bloodlines are key to a successful stud beef business.
“We haven’t done IVF but we will be moving towards that in the next couple of years, especially with some of the genetics we have now,” Shane said.
“We use a lot of Billabong genetics, they’re a higher content type of genetics and that seems to be working very well for us.”
The Hauschildts were mentored by the late Bruce Wilson who was highly regarded in the industry for his knowledge and experience with Droughtmasters.
“He taught us the ropes as far as showing and stud cattle goes and he’s put us ahead 10 years to where we should be,” Shane said.
“We have quite a few of his bloodlines here and we sell bulls in Rockhampton every year at the Droughtmaster National.
“We also sell bulls at the Diamond Genetics at Silverdale.”
Bruce taught the Hauschildts the importance of female bloodlines.
“He taught us that female bloodlines were very important and we have a lot of the Phillips Sunny View Fancy bloodline among our cattle,” he said.
“Sunny View are not a stud anymore but they won year after year at the Exhibitions and Bruce said ‘that Fancy bloodline, you won’t get any better’.
“We have done a fair bit of research and Issac’s father goes back to a very good dam line, and also back to Sunny View Fancy in the background and his mum goes back to Sunny View Fancy.”
Their success in the breed continued with View Field Ali winning Champion Junior Heifer at Esk Show last weekend.
