History of Telemon

The name 'Telemon' comes from a holding of 60,000 acres along the Flinders River that John Stewart-Moore purchased after returning home from World War II. This station adjoined the existing family properties 'Dunluce' and 'Annandale', and was purchased with a quality line of poll Shorthorn cattle.

John Stewart-Moore was one of a handful of insightful cattleman that founded the Droughtmaster breed. He became interested in the potential to establish a truly adapted Northern Australian beef breed after seeing Monty Atkinson's show cattle in Townsville, and their ability to thrive across multiple environments. John believed in a meticulous approach to developing the breed based on performance records, with a focus on fertility, weight gains, temperament and tick resistance. 

The opportunity to infuse quality Bos indicus genetics over his Shorthorns presented itself when Lionel De Landelles of Cherokee Brahmans agisted country on 'Telemon'. One of the first pure Brahman Studs in Australia, Cherokee is well regarded as having contributed valuable seed stock genetics all over the country. 

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John selected his first Cherokee bull based on temperament and type, and crossed it with a line of quality polled shorthorn females from Telemon. From there, a breeding program was established, after several generations, the Telemon and Charraboon Droughtmaster Studs were officially founded in 1957. 

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Charraboon Droughtmasters was moved to the Brisbane Valley soon after establishment, when John and his wife Joanna relocated to Toogoolawah. Sister stud Telemon remained at Hughenden, and was subject to the same high standard of performance criteria and culling.

Under John's management, these studs bred quality Droughtmaster cattle that enjoyed both commercial success and show ring accolades, with 5 Grand Champion Exhibits from 6 years at the Royal Queensland Show. The Charraboon stud was sold in 1965 to the Ferguson family.  

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From the beginning, there has been strong emphasis at Telemon on producing cattle suitable to commercial operations. Originally heifers in the stud were always joined at 15 months, and culled if they has not calved by 30 months. This was not only a test of fertility, but allowed quicker progress in the quality of the herd by judging progeny earlier. The stud set the early criteria of females then having to produce a calf every year, and performance records showed a 'days-to-calving' interval of less than 12 months across the herd. 

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In terms of weight gain, heifers had to reach 213kg at 220 days of age to be retained in the stud. This not only ensured good growth of progeny, but was also an indicator of the mothering ability of their dams. The best bulls were weaned at 295kg at 220 days. 

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Straddling the tick line at Hughenden placed importance on tick resistance in the Telemon stud. Both tick counts and minimal dipping was used to naturally select for animals with higher resistance to the parasites. 

Meticulous record keeping has always been an important aspect of Telemon since establishment. Across fertility criteria such as pregnancy rates, weaning rates and weight at puberty, to productivity standards such as weight for age of progeny and fat cover measurements of steers at sale, this data was used to select the best of the best from the stud to continue breeding quality.

During his first term as president of the Droughtmaster Society, John encouraged increased performance of the entire breed through paddock based bull trials based on temperament, weight for age and parasite counts. 

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Passing on stewardship of the Telemon Stud to John's son Ninian Stewart-Moore and his wife Ann several decades ago, John remained an active member of the breed society, serving a second term as president and then becoming patron of the society in the 1990s. 

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Ninian and Ann continued to focus on the four key criteria of temperament, fertility, weight gains and tick resistance in the Telemon bull breeding unit. Breeding mainly commercial bulls for the northern cattleman, they were the source of quality paddock sales of Droughtmaster bulls for many years. They incorporated genetics from other proven studs to continue to build the desirable traits seen in the Droughtmaster breed. 

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When Jack Stewart-Moore returned home in 2010, the family undertook a large reduction in stud numbers in order to refine the quality of cattle produced and finetune the traits required in seed stock for cattle producers across Northern Australia. 

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Today Jack and his wife Kylie, a cattle veterinarian, operate the Telemon Stud. Building on generations of quality genetics with a practical approach and meticulous attention to detail, they continue to develop the herd to produce the highest standard of stud and commercial animals possible. 

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