John and Margaret Lloyd purchased their first Droughtmaster bull from Peter Taylor of Booralee stud Delungra in the very early 1970’s. They then attended to The‘Mimosa’ stud sale and purchased the highly regarded Mimosa Pancho. Several other Mimosa sires were subsequently purchased over the next few years.
A continued breeding programme was combined with further purchases to compliment the Heitiki herd including sires from Sunnyview, Alcheringa, Wingfield, Warralee, Garthowen, Karragarra, Clonlara and Swan Heart and females from the Coominga dispersal and Wingfield sales.
The University of Queensland Vet School owned ‘Harloe’ was purchased from the Droughtmaster Society by tender where he had been used for semen collection. ‘Harloe’ continued to be used extensively by ‘Heitki’ for many years and his legacy is still revered by breeders of Droughtmasters to this day.
The successful family run enterprise became the partnership of JS, MA & TS Lloyd commencing in 1981 when Tim joined his parents enterprise following time spent overseas and working away from the property.
Heitiki has continued to be innovative in its breeding programme incorporating the use of artificial insemination to broaden its genetic mix using semen from Swan, Crusader , Severnell, GlenLands and Karrangarra studs.
Heitiki was registered as a stud in 1980 with inspectors travelling down from Queensland to inspect the locally bred females. Heitiki is run as a commercial cattle operation, however all of the females are registered with the Droughtmaster Stud Breeders Society. The females have to perform annually.
Emphasis has always been placed on the ability of the mother to be able to feed and rear a good calf. Bulls are weaned onto grass, lucerne or oats (when available) and grown out on the same. They are finished for the last few months on oats.
Annual Heitiki Droughtmaster Stud bull and female sales commenced in 2003 offering the increasing number of quality bulls and females produced by the stud to a wider market. A new balance was needed to maintain the equilibrium between available feed and breeder numbers and the annual sales have proved to be a very successful introduction to Heitiki Stud calendar and the commencement of the annual Spring selling season.
Heitiki Droughtmaster Stud has had many interbreed successes in the show ring over the years. We have exhibited at the Royal National Exhibition in Brisbane where we have won numerous individual prizes. Cattle have been exhibited at Gunnedah Ag-Quip and sold in the Rockhampton National and Roma Bull Sales. Other numerous individual and Interbreed Breed Group prizes have been won at local shows including Inverell, Glen Innes, Guyra (New England Beef Show 2009), Texas, Warialda, Bingara and Goondiwindi shows, many of which have included Droughtmaster Feature Shows.
Breeding lines from Heitiki Droughtmaster Stud have been sort out in the international arena with sales and export of stud breeding stock to Mexico in the early 2000’s and New Calendonia in 2008 and 2009.
