Hi Redgully,
My plans are to bring the breed back to life in Australia. I like the look of the breed, it's uniqueness and that it is said produces tender beef wile still having traits like a hooded eye.
I live in northern Victoria near the Murray River. It's not Queensland but we still suffer 45+C day in summer, summer drought, lots of dust causes pink eye and spring born calves can struggle some years.
I work on our family farm where we sell Bio-Dynamic beef. I hope to eventually introduce some Afrikaner blood to our herd to help Spring calves with Summer as long as the meet our beef quality standards. We calve in spring and Autumn to ensure constant supply of 18-24 month old steers. Even if they don't meet our meat standards I will still breed them.
I have a passion for rare breeds and with Afrikaner cattle being some of the first cattle in Australia I believe they should be bred here again.
I know at the moment the Afrikaner isn't a very profitable breed but Sahara Afrikaner in South Africa have achieved improved efficiency and daily by infusing it with Bonsmara. I would need to cull vigorously on fertility as well.
If I can secure semen straws I would breed up from Bonsmara cows. Bonsmara being 5/8 Afrikaner I would be partly there at the start. I would hopefully eventually end up with similar cattle to the Sahara stud.
I think if the beef quality is as good as the Afrikaner society says it could be used in more crossbreeding programs for domestic beef production in Northern Australia. Bull breeders could breed F1 Hugenootes and AfriSim bulls to use over Brahman cross cows and complement Belmont Red and Bonsmara breeding operations.
I don't expect this to happen and if it does it would take time.
I have been contacting several different cattle genetics businesses and have found one that has clients with Afrikaner semen in storage in Queensland. I have contacted one of those clients and I am waiting to hear back. Hopefully I will find someone willing to sell me some and I'll start the process.