A GROWING sense of anticipation is building for Brangus breeders Mark and Amanda Salisbury as 2012 clicks over.
They're excited not only at the prospect of being a part of the 6th World Brangus Congress at Rockhampton in May, but at the inroads the Brangus breed is making in the beef industry.
Mark and Amanda (pictured) operate Bimbadeen Brangus Stud, Eidsvold, with Amanda's father Bruce Burnham, who established the stud stud No.9 when he was just 18 in the late 1950s.
Today it is the oldest continuously run Brangus stud in Australia, running both stud and commercial herds side-by-side.
Visitors undertaking one of the pre-Congress property tours will have the opportunity to visit Bimbadeen before converging on the beef capital of Rockhampton.
Amanda is wearing the hat of promotions officer for the World Brangus Congress, working with fellow Brangus breeders throughout Queensland, NSW and Victoria to make it an unforgettable event.
"We're really excited about it and we'll have a great presence at Beef Australia 2012," Amanda said.
"Internationally, we've got strong interest from North and South America and South Africa.
"It's an exciting time to be part of the Brangus breed.
"The achievements of the breed are already there on the board but I think we're on the cusp of something really big.
"The industry is aware of the potential of Brangus and just how much the markets love them and I think it's just a matter of lifting our marketing game a little bit.
"What we have in the show ring represents what we have in the paddock. "People are starting to recognise how incredibly versatile they are because the association accepts a wide variety of percentages and you can tailor them to your own country."
"We sell them to extreme climates - from the far north of Queensland to way down south and west, and a lot of breeders regularly send cattle to Western Australia.
"They're really adaptable cattle and being poll is important."
Bimbadeen runs both stud and commercial Brangus herds and right now, the cattle are basking in a landscape blinding in its vivid green hue thanks to some long-awaited pre-Christmas rain.
"We had remarkable rain at the start of 2011 but it was a reasonably dry winter," Amanda said.
"We went through a couple of months without any decent rainfall at all so it was looking very dry before we got rain in the last couple of weeks.
"We're on granite country so it just springs back to life as soon as there is any rain.
"The colour of the fresh grass almost hurts your eyes sometimes, it's just glorious.
"It's definitely easier to head out into the heat and do work like the needling and the branding when it's green like that."
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