In 1990 Robert Smith and Chris Braithwaite attended the EKKA in Brisbane to see the cattle judging. At this show we saw for the first time the new breed called Gelbvieh which caught our eye at first sight. We decided to investigate this breed and found that the figures issued by the Clay Centre in Nebraska USA ranked the breed very highly in all areas.

We then decided to invite other participants into a joint venture to breed Gelbvieh. With this Mike Agnew and Graham McAllister joined the team.

Cattle were bought from people such as Lionel Busquests and Steve Sullivan in New South Wales, and were transported to our property near Murgon in QLD. Embryos were purchased from Jerry Mettler in USA thereby using the latest genetics available. A herd of approximately 60 stud females was built up over the following 6-7 years with bull sales to all parts of Queensland.

In 1998 each member of the group were being pressured by their other commitments and therefore could not apply enough time to the venture so the female herd was distributed evenly amongst the group and Chris Braithwaite took on the Midas Stud name.

Since then Chris has been building numbers again and with the introduction of new genetics the herd has improved dramatically.

In 2004 Chris started to show his cattle at the country shows with a small team shown by the Wondai State School. With this we have achieved great success with many wins locally and in 2006 won the Champion Gelbvieh Cow at the EKKA and Supreme Female Exhibit at the Wondai Show.

In 2007 Midas Brutus won the Champion Gelbvieh Bull at the Toowoomba Royal Show and has just won the Champion European Bull and Midas Miss Wind the Champion European Cow at the Emerald show.

Since the success at Emerald, Midas Opal Z011 took out the champion cow at the EKKA with Midas Brutus taking Reserve champion bull. After the EKKA our next show was Wondai with Midas Miss Wind taking the Supreme exhibit for the show the second year running with Midas Calista taking junior heifer champion and also 5th in the interbreed at 6 months of age.

2008 saw Midas Gelbvieh exhibiting in the local shows as well as shows in NSW with Midas Calista taking the championship at Glen Innes and again Reserve Junior Champion at Sydney. Midas Collossus faired well at Sydney winning his class 12-15 months and then coming 3rd in the interbreed at Warialda at 14 months of age.  Midas Gelbvieh performed well again taking out Champion bull with Midas Collossus and Reserve champion cow with Midas Calista at the EKKA. This continued the success of the stud having had Champion cow for 2006 and 2007 and Reserve champion bull for 2006 and 2007.

2009 has been an exceptional year for Midas Gelbvieh in the show ring. The year started with Midas Collosus having his first outing since being out with the cows last spring at Sydney Royal. He took the Senior and Grand champion Gelbvieh and culminated the show with being awarded the INTERBREED CHAMPION Bull of Sydney Royal 2009 adding to his success as Champion Bull at the EKKA 2008.

Beef 2009 started a week later and Collosus stood tall again and took Senior and Grand Champion Gelbvieh bull.  Midas had a very successful show with taking the Calf Champion Bull with Midas D-Bolt and Reserve Junior Champion heifer with Midas Windlass C010.

A week later Chris took a team to the Biggenden Show with great success.  Midas Windlass C010 was awarded the Reserve Champion Cow and Midas Cossack was awarded the Junior Champion Bull, Grand Champion Bull and finally the Supreme Exhibit of the Show.

In July Midas took 5 bulls to the Ag-Grow sale at Emerald and were very successful with a 100% clearance with all going to new customers in the Gelbvieh breed. The next assignment was the EKKA where Midas Collosus was defending his crown from 2008. He did this with flying colours and took out Senior and Grand Champion Gelbvieh bull. Midas D-Bolt took out his 16-20 months class as well.

The Gelbvieh National Sale was our next assignment where Midas presented 4 females and 6 bull lots. We were very successful with all the females selling and 3 out 6 of the bulls selling. The highlights were Midas Collosus selling for $13,000 for ¾ share and full possession and Midas Cossack with second top price of $8,000. It appears that poll bulls are in demand and next years crop of bulls will all be polled.

Midas Gelbvieh continued the success of 2009 by taking out the jackpot at the Dubbo Junior Heifer show from approx 150 entries by Midas Windlass D008 her first ever showing – she is a full sister to our great champion bull Midas Collosus C002 who is breeding very successfully in the Midas herd.