Case study: Kainton Farms reducing bull breakdown
- ASHEEP & BEEF
- May 1
- 7 min read
Riley Curnow runs Kainton Farms alongside brother Tom and mother Rosanne, a mixed cropping and beef enterprise in the Esperance region of south-east Western Australia. Riley has been a participant in ASHEEP & BEEF’s Preventing Bull Preputial Breakdown by Vaccination, a Producer Demonstration Site (PDS) project funded by Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and facilitated by Dr Enoch Bergman (Swans Veterinary Services).
As the project draws to a close, ASHEEP & BEEF spoke with Riley about his experience in the PDS and the value of using vaccination as a tool to reduce bull preputial breakdown.
PDS background
The Preventing Bull Preputial Breakdown by Vaccination PDS ran over three breeding seasons (2023–2025). The project aimed to demonstrate that the use of a commercial bovine herpesvirus vaccine (either Rhinogard® or Bovilis MH + IBR®) prior to mating can reduce the incidence and severity of bovine balanoposthitis, and hence reduce bull wastage, in virgin British bred bulls. During the PDS, more than 150 producer survey datasets covering approximately 3,500 bulls were collected. Results consistently showed a lower proportion of vaccinated virgin bulls breaking down due to penile or preputial injury during joining compared with unvaccinated bulls. Virgin bulls were more likely to break down during joining with penile issues whilst older bulls were more likely to break down during joining due to lameness. Find out more about the PDS results here: Final results of 3-year bull breakdown PDS
What is balanoposthitis?
Infectious Balanoposthitis (IBP) is a condition caused by herpesvirus in cattle. The disease results in ulcerative inflammation of the penis and prepuce in bulls and can also affect the vulva of cows. As with other herpesviruses, infection is permanent. The virus may remain dormant and reactivate during periods of stress. Virgin bulls can become infected during joining through sexual activity, contact with older infected bulls, or exposure to infected cows.
Interview with Riley Curnow (Kainton Farms)
Farm Overview
“Kainton Farms includes properties in Scaddan, Neridup and Merivale. We have always been croppers and only moved into cattle in 2022 when we purchased the Merivale property, where cattle are a really good fit for the heavier country and higher rainfall.”
“The business is owned by my mum Rosanne, and my brother and I manage the farms. Tom’s partner, Tameka, works with us, along with full-time staff member Kade.”
“Our main focus is cropping. We grow cereals and canola. The farms are a real mix of different environments and are spread across different rainfall zones. It adds travel but it’s good risk management. Scaddan and Neridup are 100% cropping, while the Merivale property runs a wheat and canola rotation alongside self-regenerating pastures for the cattle. We’re also trialling 200 hectares of Koala oats at Merivale this year and hosting a SEPWA oats trial comparing Goldie, Koala, a new unnamed variety, using Banister as the benchmark.”
“The pasture feedbase is mainly clover and ryegrass. We’ve been working to improve it through tillage, sowing some tetraploid ryegrass and balansa clover, as well as manipulation with herbicide to take out weeds. Compared to where we started, there’s a really good pasture base.”
“When we first took on the Merivale property, we had zero experience with cattle and initially wanted to get rid of them. We now realise how good a fit they are in the heavier country where it can get really wet.
This year has really opened my eyes to not having all eggs in the cropping basket. At the start of seeding, we were unsure about fuel and fertiliser supplies for the year. In the midst of it, we were going to drop out all our winter crop at Merivale and run the cows over the cropping paddocks and put in spring barley as it requires less nitrogen. We have been able to get our fertiliser and fuel for this season thankfully so we didn’t have to do that. It’s useful having the option to run livestock over all of our Merivale block in years where input costs for cropping increase or even supply for inputs becomes tight or completely unavailable. We have the ability to control the input costs a lot more with our cattle enterprise.”
“We run around 300 Angus breeders and sell steers at about 350kg and up, typically in January. It’s been a tough few years pricewise getting into cattle - we bought in when prices were high then they collapsed. We started with a good base of cows but also had to buy in some poorer genetics. We’ve since on-sold a lot of those animals and are now retaining a lot of our own heifers, both for breeding and we’ve got the quality to a point where we’ve been able to start selling some of them preg-tested in calf.”
“We’ve mainly been buying bulls from Arkle Angus and Blackrock Angus. Our current focus is on improving female traits, including calving ease, short gestation length, good milk and strong 200-day weights. We’ve been targeting low birth-weight bulls. We’ll look to get our female traits right and then increase birth weight and growth rates over time.”
“We ran an artificial insemination (AI) program in 2023, but had poor conception rates and it does not work with the timing of our seeding program. We now run bulls-only for a 9-week joining. Heifers are joined from 24th June, cows from 21st July. We aim to wean in mid-December just after harvest. We’ve pushed the timing back this year to fit better around cropping.”
Bull breakdown experience
“When we started with cattle, we didn’t vaccinate against bovine herpesvirus because we didn’t know anything about it.”
“The first year (2022) we didn’t have too much of a problem, then in 2023 we bought in five bulls and several of them broke down. We noticed they had swollen, enlarged prepuces. One was very bad. We got Swans Veterinary Services out and they diagnosed them with bovine herpesvirus (IBP).”
“In 2024, we joined the PDS and started vaccinating our new bulls pre-joining with Rhinogard. It made a massive difference. We have only had two breakdown with IBP since we started vaccinating and it was not severe.”
“Some of the bulls we’ve been purchasing are already vaccinated, others aren’t. That pre-joining vaccination is still needed.”
“The issue mainly seems to be with the young bulls, although we have had one older animal affected.”
“Vaccinating hasn’t added any extra labour; we were already bringing in bulls pre-joining for drenching. It’s a minor cost compared to the benefit.”
“In the past we have had to cull one or two of the bulls that had broken down as they did not recover well enough. So that’s a $15,000 bull lost and over our cattle operation it’s a $50 cost per cow, without considering potential negative impacts on pregnancy rates, so it could have been about an $80 cost per cow across the operation.”
“This year, I’ve got the confidence that I don’t need to go and buy the extra two back-up bulls, which don’t have as strong genetics.”
“Last year we had a 95% conception rate, our best rate yet. We also had great feed so there are probably other factors influencing that, but having less breakdowns during joining could also be a factor.”
“Through the PDS we’ve learnt that we need to monitor the bulls more closely during joining and pull them out early if there is an issue. If we notice a problem with IBP, they are taken out, given antibiotics and anti-inflammatories, and rested for four weeks. If they have not recovered by that point we don’t put them back with the females. Some do recover and can be re-joined. Often the new bulls are going in with the heifers. They are our best genetics, so if they can recover, they can be joined over
the cows.”
“Something else we’ve realised is that although we may think a bull has recovered from IBP, they may have scar tissue that can lead them to corkscrew. Last year we used both jump testing and semen testing to check if the bulls were fit to join. Moving forward we’ll focus on the semen testing, where a vet uses an electroejaculation probe to check the bull’s penis for scar tissue or corkscrewing.”
“The PDS has been useful. It taught us about IBP but also more broadly about monitoring bulls, the process of joining and joining more economically.”
Moving on from bulls, how is the season going?
“Really good. We’ve had one of the best starts that we’ve ever had. All the canola is up and out of the ground. We’ve had a follow up rain now. It has been slightly wet on the coast.”
Where do you see opportunities and challenges, either within the beef industry or on farm?
“I think the biggest challenge for our business is managing cost. The cost of producing something is going up each year. That’s across the board with cropping and livestock.”
“With our cattle program, we’re aiming to push more beef production through better tech, possibly virtual fencing, and improving genetics. I’m hoping it will be a good few years for us. We have bought good bulls and we’re seeing our heifers coming through with marketable quality.”
“It’s a good challenge integrating our beef and cropping program at Merivale. We’ve been running them quite separately but we’re looking at how they can benefit each other through crop grazing, etc. Our cropping program at Merivale is slowly being expanded by installing tile drainage. We haven’t yet figured out how the cattle will fit with it – they love rubbing their heads on the drain outlets and causing damage. We may look at virtual fencing to create barriers. Managing waterlogging is a big focus, even on our pastures, though I’m not yet convinced about the long-term effectiveness of tile drainage in the heavier country where the cattle run. Building drainage systems and land forming have a lot of potential to lift our productivity.”
Many thanks to Riley for his time giving this interview. Find out more about the PDS at www.asheepbeef.org.au/bullbreakdown.