The Kynuna Composite came in the mid-1990s when the company reviewed its requirements beyond the Alexandria Composite.
The Kynuna Composite program saw a greater emphasis on meat quality. The objectives now were:
- optimum growth rates
- maximum reproductive rates
- environmental adaptation to the hot dry conditions of north-west Queensland
- carcass characteristics that would meet the higher quality meat market.
The herd had to be self-sustaining and produce sufficient sires to use with Alexandria Composite cows on the northern breeding properties to produce terminal progeny for domestic and export markets.
When considering the makeup of the Kynuna Composite, NAPCO evaluated the breeding stock already at its disposal. These included Tuli cattle, the East African Sanga breed that NAPCO had been running and breeding on Kynuna since 1991.
As a member of the CSIRO consortium that introduced the Boran and Tuli breeds into Australia, NAPCO was now able to capitalise on its investment. The Tuli broadened the genetic pool for tropical-bred cattle, increasing the options to generate tropically adapted animals exhibiting hybrid vigour and high breeding potential.
In addition to the Tuli, the Red Angus and Shorthorn breeds were utilised to increase marbling in the meat. Red Angus were used over Brahman/Shorthorn dams, Tulis over pure Shorthorns, and the first-cross progeny joined. Thus the final breakdown of the Kynuna Composite was 1/8 Brahman, 3/8 Shorthorn, 1/4 Tuli, and 1/4 Red Angus.
The Alexandria Composite had been designed primarily as a maternal line at a time when there was not the emphasis on meat quality that later markets demanded. The Kynuna Composite used a higher proportion of Shorthorn to enhance meat quality traits, linked with the Red Angus (for growth and marbling potential) and Tuli (for fertility, adaptability and marbling).
In 1999, the first full composite calves were bred at Kynuna.
