You know Brett Nobbs sells record price bulls and knows a thing or two about cattle but did you realise he started out by shearing sheep at 11? Or how he came to source the world famous JDH Mr Elmo Manso 309/4?
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AnimalsTranscript
00:00 I'm Brett Nobbs, I'm NCC Brahmins, living in Baraya, Jaringa.
00:07 When I was about 11 I used to have, of all things, crossbred coloured sheep.
00:17 And I used to shear them, I got a set of electric shears for my birthday and I used to use them
00:29 to shear the different coloured sheep and take it to the local spinning clubs and sell it.
00:35 And I saved up enough money from that to buy my first Troutmaster stud cattle when I was about 13.
00:43 And that was four heifers and a bull.
00:55 When we started off, the cattle were a bit underprepared, but I'm a pretty quick learner
01:01 and was pretty determined to only make the same mistake once.
01:08 I remember going to my selling bulls at the first National Troutmaster sale,
01:15 I think I took one bull, I'm not sure how old I was, probably 15 or 16,
01:22 I think the bull got no bid and I decided then and there that I'd never let that happen again.
01:29 And things grew from there.
01:32 It was a little surreal, it seemed to happen quite quickly and I guess when I'm in the ring
01:43 I'm sort of just focused on the animal and making sure that he's doing what he's supposed to do
01:51 and looking the part.
01:53 But yeah, I guess when it got to about a bit over 200 I had a little bit of a tear there for a fleeting moment.
02:03 And yeah, I was probably a little bit numb more than anything.
02:09 I had seen him as a calf, he caught my eye, but you never know, not to that level anyway.
02:19 It was just him and I guess it was the whole sale, the strength of the sale right through.
02:25 To have that depth of bidding and that number of people here
02:31 and just all being in such a positive frame of mind
02:37 and really almost clambering over each other to get one, it was quite surreal.
02:48 A lot of our regular clients missed out on bulls this year simply because they went over budget.
02:54 So that's a challenge in itself is to try and honour those clients and keep them coming back.
03:02 So we're looking to ramp up our offering, increase our offering by probably 50% next year.
03:14 Just to try and get more bulls out there at a more affordable price.
03:20 Over the years I've noticed that that is the challenge after a record sale is always that following year
03:27 to get people to come back and realise the buying value in the second year around
03:35 because often they can come back in value quite dramatically
03:40 simply because of the perception that they're unaffordable.
03:44 But there's not a lot we can do about that other than increase our numbers, market them the best we can
03:51 and hope that a lot of our long-time customers will still be in the stand prepared to support us again
04:02 even though they may have missed out this year.
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04:38 I keep a notepad beside my bed and little things just pop into my head.
04:43 I wake up in the middle of the night and I'll jot something down and it might sit there for 12 months before it gets used.
04:49 But yeah, it's just little things that I dream about and sometimes put into practice and sometimes don't.
04:59 I don't think that the beef industry or agricultural industry is any different to any other industry.
05:05 There's people warm to a little bit of flair and attention to detail.
05:12 And yeah, I guess it's just a little bit of my artistic side that comes out and I like to mix that with cattle
05:22 and people seem to warm to that sort of thing.
05:27 And with Congress, I've been to a lot of events all over the world
05:32 and there's some amazing things done around the world and I thought, well, this is our chance being a...
05:40 We only hold the Congress every 16 to 20 years so it was our chance to show the world what we can do
05:48 and gave it a pretty good shot.
05:52 I think it was about trying to do things to the best of my ability
06:01 and really throw everything at it to make sure it was a world class event.
06:08 Not just a near enough is good enough sort of approach.
06:13 That's just how I operate and anything good has to have maximum effort put into it
06:21 and really go the extra mile to deliver something that's pretty spectacular and that's what I tried to do.
06:31 Ever since the closure of the live export in the Gillard years,
06:38 you never know what's around the corner with the change of government.
06:46 It's all quite stable at the moment but we get a left wing, green orientated government come into power
06:53 anytime in the future and decide to phase out live export.
06:57 You just never know quite what's around the corner and I just like to have a few eggs in a few different baskets.
07:05 I guess more than anything it's just the extra challenge of another breed.
07:11 I get bored quite easily and I like to challenge myself.
07:17 I just see a challenge there in breeding good Simmental cattle.
07:22 Like I said earlier they're a breed that I had a bit of exposure to when I was a kid and I really enjoyed Simmental cattle.
07:31 I've thoroughly enjoyed the process so far in the last two and a half years of putting a herd of Simmentals together.
07:40 I guess I've identified a type of Simmental that mainly is of South African type descent that are pretty adaptable to Queensland.
07:49 I think if they're supplied in some numbers to the market in Queensland I'm hoping that they'll be fairly well received.
08:00 I realise that there's probably not going to be a $325,000 Simmental bull but that's not the objective.
08:09 The objective is to breed a line of industry suitable cattle that are accepted by the market and achieve a good average result.
08:22 It's not about records or averages or top prices or anything like that.
08:28 I just enjoy breeding cattle and I love the challenge of breeding a line of cattle.
08:35 Hopefully there will be a dollar in it that people will appreciate it and I can make a dollar out of it to keep going on with it.
08:45 Is this the end of the... you know, being there done that with the Brahmins but certainly not.
08:50 They'll always be the backbone of my business.
08:53 I love the breed and I love the people within the breed.
08:57 The camaraderie and the friendships that are formed with breeders all over the world has just been tremendous.
09:05 It's a lifelong commitment to breeding Brahmins and hopefully Simmentals as well in the future.
09:13 Probably my least favourite part of the whole process is actually selling them and marketing them.
09:24 But the best part of it all is laying awake at night and thinking of the matings and which cross to do with what.
09:35 And looking forward to the next set of calves to hit the ground and watching those calves grow and mature.
09:45 And seeing whether they mature the way that you hoped that they would.
09:51 That's the thrill of it, is breeding them and then breeding the next years and the next years.
10:00 And seeing those, developing those cow families and that's the real strength of my operation is cow families.
10:09 And building on those families as years go by and finding it very rewarding at the moment.
10:17 My program is getting mature enough now to really see those cow families take a strong hold and really start showing their real potential.
10:31 It's not about 325,000, it's just about breeding the cattle that you like.
10:40 Whether that particular bull made 50 or 350, it's nice either way but it's more about that bull going out and doing the job for the people that bought him.
10:54 Whether they paid 50,000 for him or 325,000, I just want the bull to do what they purchased him for and had faith to go that high for.
11:08 And that's the real reward for me is to see those calves coming back and people doing well with the bulls that you produce.
11:17 I think that's what gives people the confidence to keep coming back and buying more is when they're breeding on and people are making money out of them.
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