Charlie and Louise Clemson from Ardlethan in Central and Southern NSW, are using Renard Blonde bulls over Angus, Hereford, and Black Baldy Cows and Heifers with great results
A terrific result was achieved when they sold 131 rising yearling heifers in late August 2017 at Wagga Wagga. The calves that were progeny from Blonde Cross breeding averaged around 20 cents per kilo better than their mates, which were sold as Angus breeding. The Blondes made $3.62 per kilo (Live Weight) and were all heifers. This I think was the top price in NSW for that week. It just shows, if you use a Blonde bull you can get excellent prices for your heifers, and sometimes even better for heifers than the steer portion.

Charlie and Louise Clemson have moved out of just cropping completely, after they met up with Ian Fox from the Renard Blonde stud during the Henty Field Days. Charlie said he was sick of just smelling diesel fumes and driving cropping machinery. “What breed is best suited to the use with the Blonde bulls” he asked.
“It depends on your district climate” I said. Because of the district 15 inch (380mm) annual rainfall, it was felt British bred cows would do the job to keep the fat cover up to market requirements. It has been so successful they have now purchased another 20,000 acres at Condobolin NSW, about 200 km’s away, which is pretty tough country for cattle. The property was bought WIWO with 700 Drought Master cows, since taking over they have purchased an additional seven Renard Blonde bulls, with the intention of using the resulting F1 Droughty Blonde heifers as their future breeding herd for the new farm. They are also already using their Angus Blonde and Hereford Blonde females on their Ardlethan farms with outstanding offspring. The offspring from the Blonde cross dams are gaining much improved prices per head against their other breeds of calves.

--- Ian Fox

Maximizing Profit by Crossbreeding with a Blonde d’Aquitaine Sire and Red Poll Cows.

I currently run approximately 50 Red Poll breeders with a Blonde d’Aquitaine bull on my 93ha property Grünerfeld at Mt Molar which is 6kms west of Clifton between Toowoomba and Warwick. When purchasing my cows, they were all in-calf to various bulls. The weights of the various breeds of calves have been compiled by Landmark Toowoomba at the time of sale which was generally 10 months. I do not have scales on the property, therefore few individual weights have been recorded at the time of sale, these weights are an average of the lot sold. The calves were sired by two pure bred Red Poll bulls, one ½ Red Poll x ½ Droughtmaster bull, one pure bred Angus bull and one pure bred Blonde d’Aquitaine bull.

--- Peter Muller

In April 2016 we purchased our first Blonde d'Aquitaine bull from Esther Ruffo at Boulevard Blondes. At the time we were running approximately 100 head of Brahman X and Charolais X breeders on our property near Kilkivan, swapping between Brahman and Charolais bulls every few years. We wanted to change the direction of our business and produce calves that were more appealing to the market and different to what others were breeding and selling at the time.
Our first season of Blonde X calves were born in 2017 and they were little rippers, we noticed straight away the difference between them and the Charolais X calves that were born at the same time. Since adding Blonde d’Aquitaine to our herd we have noticed our calves are lovely big framed calves with great length, they are born smaller, are growing quickly and have a very calm temperament. These qualities ticked all of our boxes and are what we were looking for when searching for a bull. We are incredibly happy with the improvement we have been seeing within our herd and can not wait to continue to grow our business with Blonde d’Aquitaine cattle.

--- Glen Wason