About Us

The Bonsmara Cattle Breeders Society of Australia (BCBS of A) was formed in 2000, and now has 16 members.
Bonsmara are a tropically adapted Bos taurus breed. Performance recording is the cornerstone of their development. They are the dominant breed in South Africa, where some 60,000 registered females are currently being performance recorded with the commercial and seedstock herds, adding to around 4 million head.

Some 400 Bonsmara embryos were first imported into Australia in 1998 from the Republic of South Africa, followed by semen from the USA.

The genetics are a combination of African and British, forming a very productive breed in their own right, but also offer Australian cattlemen an attractive option as terminal sires with Brahman and Brahman Euro breeders. Research continues to show that on average bos taurus meat is more consumer acceptable than bos indicus meat.

The Meat Standards of Australia (MSA) domestic classification currently limits bos indicus content to 25% for graded meat. This has resulted in growing interest from our commercial cattlemen in producing composite slaughter cattle. This and the desire to capture hybrid vigour benefits open up a potential market for tropical bos taurus breeds especially as a cross with the euro Brahman which are very popular at present. This is one of the opportunities for Bonsmara – if it can meet the requirements of the commercial cattlemen.