About Droughtmaster Beef Breeds

The Droughmaster cattle  (meaning  Drought Tolerance Master or  Drought Tolerant God[1]) also known as  Australian cattle is a breed of beef cattle bred in Australia in the state of Queensland. This is a cow breed with 50% blood like ShortHorn (England) and 50% blood like Brahman. Adults can reach 700–800 kg. Good weight gain and meat quality, high carcass percentage[2] Cow resistant to ve  and blood-borne parasites, well adapted to grazing conditions in hot, humid or arid regions.

Characteristic

This breed grows well in North America, suitable for hot conditions. Take advantage of poor pastures very well. Easy to give birth, healthy, good parenting. It is a medium-sized breed, with a long, round body, short, sparse, smooth hair, thin skin, good elasticity. Coat color from light yellow to dark red. Most cows have no horns, small dorsal tumors, and strong and strong legs and hooves. No sunburn, eye catching, eye cancer, anti-mites, parasites. The time from November to April in Australia is in the rainy season, thanks to which grass grows a lot, thanks to that natural food source, cow farms are entering a nursing cycle to increase weight for cows.[3 ]

Cows are red, with or without horns. Males have moderately broad heads and more prominent muscles than females. Medium to large ears, deep bib, strong jaw, wide nostrils, short, shiny coat, soft and elastic skin. Moderately long legs, deep eyes, medium height, long body, round butt with lots of flesh. Mature and fat males can reach a weight of 900-1,000 kg, females 650-700 kg. Each Australian cow has an average weight of 500 kg, while the golden cow breed of Vietnam, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, and Myanmar weighs only about 250 kg. Australian beef production is higher than that of some types of beef such as Vietnamese beef. Australian cows give 55% of the meat ratio after slaughter, and  Vietnamese golden cows  achieve about 45-50% of the meat percentage.[3][4]

Cows are well adapted to the tropics because of their ability to sweat through their skin. Early maturation. Heifers are first mated at 15-18 months of age. Young bulls put to work at nearly 2 years old. Cows that are fertile, easy to give birth, are well cared for, and can give birth to one litter per year. Under good feeding conditions in Australia, calves weaned at 6.5 months average 260kg in males and 190kg in females, well-fed can achieve higher weights. Cows also have the ability to graze in grazing conditions that lack grass and water in the dry season. The resistance to ticks is higher than that of temperate cow breeds[5].

The main food is elephant grass, each animal needs 20-30 kg of grass a day, 5 animals spend more than 1 quintal; 1 month costs 3.5 tons of grass; 12 months lost about 40 tons of grass. Planting 1 hectare of grass locally, the yield is over 300 tons, so only 2 sao of land (2,000 m2) is enough to raise 5-10 breeding Australian cows[6]. While Australian beef cattle are fed freely, in addition to grass, bran, molasses, corn stalks are added in addition to grass, etc. to gain weight quickly in the style of “instant noodles”, while cows have to “use” for a long time for 10 years or more, so they have to nutrition, bran rations only “buffer” more, because eating a lot of bran quickly spoils the womb, so the main food is still natural grass. In general, feeding depends on the growth stage, but Australian cows cannot be fed fattening like beef cattle, so they should not be too fat[7].

At birth, the calf weighs 20 kg and is as small as the local Sind and Bo cows. But it must be said that Australian cows gain weight very quickly, in just over 10 days, the calf weight has doubled, it is expected that after 1 year, it will give about 200 kg of a calf, while with this weight, it takes Sind cows. up to 2 years. The average weight is 375 kg/head (about 2 years old), the purchase price is over 50 million VND per head, the total cost is about 1.2 billion VND. Now rearing for more than 6 months, weight gain is 400 kg per head [8].

Australian beef with large body, high carcass ratio, is favored by Vietnamese consumers. The two types of Australian and domestic beef are currently priced at the same weight, but the proportion of domestic beef is less, the amount of fat is more, the quality is not as “fashionable” as making it completely inferior, Australian beef has a lower weight. one and a half times bigger, twice the size of domestic cows, each weighing about 4-5 quintals, the carcass rate is about 55% (while domestic cattle are only 45-50%), Australian beef is softer and sweeter than domestic cows. although the taste may not be as fragrant) as pushing domestic cows into the door, it is difficult to compete[9].

For each Australian cow, on average, if you eat fresh grass for 1 day, the weight of food will be equivalent to 10% of your body weight, so for a 500kg cow, the amount of food will correspond to 50kg of fresh grass, and if you eat food Eating starchy foods, the amount of food needed is more than 20kg for 1 cow. A cow’s excretory capacity will be about 3 to 5 kg/day. If the herd is 300,000 cows, it will yield from 900 tons to 1,500 tons of manure/day. At the price of cow manure, one cubic meter can be sold for about 600,000 VND, the total income is from 540 million VND to 900 million VND/day, it is expected to sell 300,000 cows each year, in addition to the total permanent herd is 300,000 fish, everyone should also add about 300,000 fish with enough weight to sell to the market, so we double it, every day earn 1.08 billion to 1.8 billion dong[10], with 300,000 beef and dairy cows, earning more than 20 million USD per year from cow dung[11].

Hybridization

Droughtmaster crossbred cattle: The result of economic crossbreeding between Droughtmaster bulls and Sind crossbred cows to create F1 hybrid cattle for meat. This is a breed with a high carcass ratio. F1 Droughtmaster x Hybrid Sind: short face, round head, small shoulders, moderately long neck and ears, slightly short legs (average birth height 59.2 cm, weight 20 kg), well developed bibs and navel, The feathers are dark yellow or cockroach-colored, the eye and nose edges are light brown, some have light black eye rims, nose mirrors and hooves. Newborn calf weight 19-22 kg. The F1 Droughtmaster crossbred achieved a very good weight gain, 128.5 kg at 6 months, 214.7 kg at 12 months; 18 months old reached 298.8 kg. The percentage of carcass is 50 – 52 %. The percentage of refined meat is 41%.

Consume

This cow is exported from Australia to many countries, the  Indonesia  market consumes 400,000 Australian cows per year for Indonesia, Australia and Indonesia have reached an agreement to sell several hundred thousand cows to Indonesia. The punishment is the abuse of animals during slaughter (using a hammer to beat the head of a cow to death). Since the fourth quarter of 2013, because Indonesia has overcome this drawback, it has re-imported Australian beef. Indonesia increased imports of Australian cows in large quantities, so Australia gave priority to selling cows to Indonesia, the time to transport cows from Australia only took 4 days.[3]

Beef imported from Australia is becoming more and more popular and familiar to consumers because it is considered by consumers to be of better quality and the price of Australian beef is not much different from the price of domestic meat, which is cheap. partly because it is imported from whole animals, without going through traders, so the price can be controlled when going to the market, the new Australian beef price is cheap.[16] Australian beef is being sold in supermarkets, shops, restaurants, and hotels at competitive prices, a business in Dong Nai imports more than 1,000 Australian cows per month on average, and there are more beef trading companies. Australia with a sudden increase in imports, up to 6,000 – 7,000 heads per month.,[15] Vissan company, on average, Vissan slaughters about 1,500 Australian cows (weight 500 kg/head)[4]

Despite the burden of taxes and fees, Australian beef is still cheaper than Vietnamese beef. There is a record of the retail price of Australian fresh beef at food stores and supermarkets in Saigon at 244,000 VND/kg of lean thigh product (domestic beef price is 230,000 VND/kg), 180,000 VND/kg bucket (price of domestic beef at 200,000 VND/kg). Australian beef tenderloin and fillet is priced at 320,000 VND/kg, while the price of beef of the same type in the country is sold for more than 280,000 VND/kg (2013).[13][17] However, 10 tons of “dirty Australian beef” were also discovered imported into Vietnam, all the beef the authorities concluded was contaminated and did not meet the standards for human food. However, two products (cow meat and beef with a total weight of 5,566 kg) failed to be used as human food.[18][19]