New gen Brangus breeder rises from the ashes at Beef '24

Annalee works for her parents' commercial cattle operation Godwin Cattle Company, located 100 kilometres west of Springsure.

In November last year, bushfires engulfed 10,117 hectares of their properties, in what the Godwin family described as a one-in-100-year event leaving 4000 head of cattle without feed.

The family carried out weeks of preparation on their two properties Tanderra and Welcome, but it was no match for the trail of destruction that would follow, with fires destroying 85 per cent of pastures and infrastructure at Welcome and 25pc of their property, Tanderra.

While their stud Brangus cattle survived the infernos, Annalee said a lot of their breeder paddocks were completely wiped out.

"We were pretty lucky, we were able to keep all those stud cows, obviously we tried to make sure they had enough grass," Annalee said.

"We were really lucky that a month after the fires, we got a lot of rain and that really kicked things off.

"We lost quite a large amount of land and mostly breeder paddocks. It had a fair impact on our business but we've been pretty busy fencing nearly non-stop.

"It probably meant that our show team has probably been neglected a little bit because we've spent a lot of time redoing fence lines and returning cattle to feed."

Annalee established her stud, Black Label Brangus, after she graduated university five years ago.

"When I turned 18, I bought two of my foundation stud heifers, Yaraandoo Audrey and Ascent, at the Brangus Society Sale that year off John Collins," she said.

"I've slowly collected a few stud heifers from Forest Hills and Telpara, as well as foundation enrolment heifers off my parents just out of their commercial herd."

The family runs a commercial operation, consisting of 50 per cent Brangus and the rest of Droughtmaster and Simmental genetics.

Beef 2024 marked the first time Black Label Brangus exhibited stud cattle at any show, with Annalee and her family bringing five head to Rockhampton this week.

"I'm happy with how they exhibited at Beef and while they're not world beaters, they represent me and they've done a good job at that," Annalee said.

"We took our stud cattle to the Springsure cattle camp earlier this year and the kids did a great job of getting them broken in for us.

"We didn't come to Beef expecting anything, we just came here to put a face to the name and get ourselves out there.

"There were some strong studs exhibiting at Beef, so it was nice to be able to brush shoulders with some of the best and be compared against them."

Annalee's rising Brangus heifer, Black Label Miss Bouquet 051, claimed reserve junior champion female.

"She's pretty special," she said.

"The heifer is pregnancy-tested-in-calf to Lunar Rhodes, a bull we purchased from the Comiskey family at Lunar Brangus for $110,000 last year, so we're really excited for that.

"She's seven months in calf, but she's always been a bit of a favourite."