rc Charolais/Brahman a Magic Mix in Old Graham and Roslyn Bauer believe matching your cattle to your country and they say there could not be a better mix for their country than Gharolais bulls over Brahman females. Graham and Roslyn Bauer use Charolais cattle in their beef operation at "Greendale", Tambo in Central West Queensland. The family has been involved in breeding purebred Brahman cattle since 1955 as they were originally based in Queensland's coastal area. Graham said the lighter country complete with ticks and other parasites, made it necessary to use Brahman cattle to maximise returns. They registered their Brahman stud in 1960 and have carried on with the breed ever since. in "We try to keep a stud herd of about 300 cows and sell the Brahman and Charbray bulls we produce without grain feeding, straight to producers in our region and further north," Graham said. The Bauers moved to "Wahroonga" in 1985 on the Darling Downs, an area which was tick free, so they decided to experiment with the Charolais breed. "Over the years we had shown cattle all over the country and had seen the early Charolais cattle as we travelled the shows," he said. "Our first Charolais bulls were purchased in 1986 and we have been using the breed in our operation ever since. "Our program involves using Brahman cows after they have had one Brahman calf and mating them to Charolais bulls. The female first-cross progeny are retained for breeding and joined to Santa Gertrudis bulls as terminal sires." The Santa progeny are sold directly off their Charbray mothers to a fattener in the Roma district or through Roma saleyards. A percentage ofthe first- cross males are kept as Charbray bulls and the rest of the steers sold. "The fatteners at Roma, John and Anne Martyn, keep accurate records of these cattle and it is their belief they get more weight from the first-cross cattle but the Santa-crosses are inclined to carry the fat Charolais Australia July 2006 - Page 56