BATHURST region cattle producers Ross and Dimity Thompson are among 13 families selected for a new calendar celebrating innovation in Australian farming.
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The 2019 NAB Agribusiness Calendar features 13 NAB customers who have dramatically grown their farming businesses through innovating in different ways.
Some have focused on the enormous potential of new on-farm technologies to increase yields or improve the bottom line.
The Thompsons, who farm prime angus catte on their property Millah Murrah, north of Bathurst, have focused on “meticulous genetic research” to make their herd one of the best in Australia.
READ MORE: Holy cow: Thompson scores angus record
Millah Murrah produces 400 registered calves and 300 embryos each year and its genetics are now used globally, from New Zealand to Europe and South America.
The stud has set a slew of records in the past decade, including raising the angus breed average bull sale price five times. Millah Murrah has also raised the average cow sale price for any beef breed twice, as well as selling the highest priced angus bull and the highest priced female of any breed in October 2017.
With “front-pen-quality bulls in the back pen” as his mantra, Mr Thompson focuses on “visioning and blending” individual animals.
By setting eyes on animals personally before he mates them, the stud can create the ideal phenotype, or overall physical appearance.
It’s an objective that sees him regularly travelling throughout Australia, New Zealand and the US, where he can see potential new sires for his breeding program in situ, and ultimately create the ideal angus phenotype – “an animal with more length, depth and width than most”.
NAB agribusiness customer executive Neil Findlay said the calendar would celebrate some of Australia’s finest farmers.
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“One thing all these stories demonstrate is that no matter how much technology is involved, sustainable growth is always underpinned by strong long-term relationships – something that’s also essential to NAB’s way of working,” Mr Findlay said.
“We’re very proud to partner with these businesses, many of them for decades and, in some cases, generations.”
