Lavarta Bazadais - Tender Meat Machines
Mervyn was first introduced to bazadais cattle by Arthur Hiscock at just 9 years of age. Arthur and Mervyn spent many hours talking about which animals Mervyn liked and why. He offered to teach Mervyn and his mum how to do an embryo program. Their first calf born was OakTrees Gallipoli and he still part of a breeding program. From then Mervyn helped with many programs, often out of bed at 5 am to help inject cattle before school and he would have the donor cattle ready in the afternoon when Janet got home from work. He would have all the paperwork and injections ready for the final check. All programs were done by Ced Wise who was and is extremely patient with Mervyn’s many many questions.
He then progressed to learning to prepare and show cattle and led steers. He and best friends Matthew Kenafake and Courtney Matthews became the three musketeers travelling to many shows and gaining an increasing reputation for his developing skills and presentation of his stock. He was not allowed on the school team as they said he was too young. He first assisted with the showing of OakTrees animals in 2005 at Brisbane EKKA where he won places with most of his cattle. Ron and Sue Garrett were extremely helpful and supportive themselves having been involved with Bazadais cattle since soon after they arrived in Australia. The following year the three musketeers returned to Brisbane EKKA with 4 junior animals. All animals won placing’s including 2 champions, 1 reserve champion and the breeders group. Again Ron and Sue were the first to congratulate him and show how proud they were of his achievements.
This year he has prepared 11 Bazadais cattle to compete at BEEF 2009. Some animals from OakTrees and for the first time animals from his own stud “LAVARTA”. His next major goal in regard to showing is to take Lavarta Bazadais cattle to the Sydney Royal.
He now has 15 fullblood Bazadais cattle and awaiting his next drop of calves. He has trailed different crosses and prefers Angus, Santa and Simmental. He has kept a number of first, second and third cross females. He also has 9 registered Simmental cattle as these are his preferred composite animal, blending both genetic and performance traits. Mervyn has a number of repeat buyers of both his stud and commercial cattle. He is a strong believer in real information about the beef he produces and has all his animals DNA, Gene Star and where possible Falkirk tested. He was first introduced to Gene Star Dna testing in 2006 by Ashley Adams founder of TenderBeef.
All of his stud animals are also parent Verified. This is a small price to pay to be able to guarantee genetics. He believes the way of the future is not only what the eye can see but what is under the hide. Performance equals dollars at all stages of production and you need real information not just guess work to achieve maximum returns and satisfy consumers.
His long term goal is to own a much larger property with a highly productive cattle enterprise. I’m sure you will agree he is well on his way.
Lavarta - Tender Meat Machines - Bazadais Mean Business.
|
