2019 World Shorthorn Conference: Meating the future
Eight breeders from the UK travelled down under to Australia to join the World Shorthorn Conference tour, starting in Adelaide on 25 September.
From left, Jemima Horton, Charles Horrell, Gill Nye, Sally Horrell, Chris Nye, Trevor and Julie Brown and Charles Horton
From Adelaide Station, we travelled to the York Peninsula to the Thompson Families Bayview Shorthorns. This mixed farming operation produces bulls for sale up country and the prize winners from the Royal Adelaide Show were on display. From here they sell 40 to 50 bulls per year, which head north to South Australia and New South Wales. Cattle were worked into the arable rotation and grazed on Medic Pasture, an interesting clover with a sweet burr seed capsule.
The next day we paid a visit to the Ashby family at Bundaleer Shorthorns run by Matt Ashby, president of Shorthorn Beef Australia. As expected, plenty of first-class cattle to be seen here, also Merinos from their stud which were the most profitable part of the farming operation! With fleeces fetching £100 each twice a year and fat lambs commanding nearly £200, even the dead sheep are shorn. In the evening, there was dinner in Adelaide where we tasted the Thousand Guineas Shorthorn Beef for the first time. This is similar to our Morrisons Shorthorn Beef Scheme with all cattle going to one feed lot and slaughterhouse where the majority is exported to Japan and China. The qualifying criteria: cattle are 75% Shorthorn and they reach a set standard on intra-muscular fat thus ensuring premium eating quality.
Stock bull at the Bayview herd
Andy Withers’ Belmore herd heifers
Our next visit was to the Carlton Stud, a fabulous lakeside setting for a seed stock stud in the scenic Adelaide hills, where we were treated to a splendid dinner in the Carlton Club hosted by Lyn and John Nitschke. The next morning, we travelled on to see their commercial operation on irrigated land 70km away, where we saw a lovely level group of 190 pure bred bulling heifers. Not able to sell these for breeding due to the drought in NSW, they were all destined for the feed lot. We were starting to realise the effect the drought was having on the Australian cattle industry.
Down the road to Bellmore, home of Andy and Sally Withers. A chance to see this influential stud and more recent winners from the Royal Adelaide Show. There were plenty of bulls to admire here, some sold privately and others go to exclusive Shorthorn auctions at Naracoorte and Dubbo.
After an interesting overnight stay in Mount Gambier where hotel stars are a bit scarce, we travelled out to the coastal flats at Telang. Here, Rob and James Starling farm 10,000 acres with 8,000 Merino ewes and 600 Shorthorn breeding cows. They were shearing when we arrived (a five-day job) but they manage the whole unit with only a little part time help.
Driving across this flat and productive ground we were impressed with the groves of River Red Gums, they were so magnificent and scenic they are used as a wedding venue. We saw some impressive groups of Shorthorns grazing in the 150-acre paddocks and, on leaving the property, we went past their lamb sale pens where they sell approximately 8,000 lambs a year in one sale.
As they are penned in 250 lamb lots, this only takes 20 minutes, albeit a very tense 20 minutes! As was becoming usual, all the steers from this property went to the Thousand Guineas Shorthorn Beef Scheme.
Good locomotion is very important to Australian breeders (Eloora herd)
Day 6 saw us at Dion, Ray and Jill Brook’s Eloora Shorthorns where we saw, amongst other things, the progeny of Ellora Baker, a bull that may soon have an impact in the UK. After wonderful hospitality amongst the scenic Red Gum trees we moved on to Melbourne.
Royal Melbourne Show would not be what most of us would recognise as an agricultural show, it is fundamentally a fun fair with a cattle show attached! However, in the cattle shed we watched a fascinating day’s showing with 20 heifers in the yearling heifer class – the prizes were dominated by the Royalla and Nagol Park herds. Several members of our group were invited to ‘sash’ the winners.
Judging at the Royal Melbourne Show
At this point, some of us split from the tour to check out the surfing (or surfers) in Noosa, leaving Chris Nye to represent us at the conference in Waga Waga. On the way to the conference location there was there JBS Prime Feed lot – 35,000 head capacity. This is where the Shorthorn Premium Beef known as the Thousand Guineas Shorthorn Beef is finished before processing by JBS for the mainly Asian export market. The Thousand Guineas refers to the price paid for Comet, the founding bull of the Shorthorn breed. Additionally, a very pleasant evening was spent at Gerald and Lynden Spry’s with a BBQ, following the viewing of their first-rate cattle. There was a judging competition to choose the best three out of a bunch of 40 bulls, this taxed some of the brains!
The conference was held at Waga Waga. Next stop Dubbo and the Shorthorn Youth Expo, with a very impressive turnout of enthusiastic youngsters – 120 in total, some very young accompanied by ‘buddies’ to pass on the skills of the showring – concluded with a hospitable dinner raising $20,000 for the Youth Group in the breed.
Onward to the Job family at Royalla where the famous flies really got into gear! There was a chance here to view some influential sires and also some visiting herds such as Morellan, Warraberry and Ronelle Park. It was here that the impact of the drought hit home, effectively no rain for two and a half years and entering the summer dry season. There was minimal feed in the paddocks and the kangaroos were fighting for that. All herds in this part had reduced numbers and were buying expensive feed for their stock. Some farms had now started to completely de-stock and suspend operations, the Merino sheep in the area seemed to be unaffected and carried on growing wool.
On through the flies and dust to Terra Shorthorns and then onto the Catt’s futurity stud. Here they sell 60 to 80 bulls a year with on farm and private sales. Next year’s candidates look really well and showed the benefits of feeding despite the conditions.
Young bulls in dry conditions at Bunalla Shorthorns
An 18-year-old cow at Calrossy Anglican School, in calf for the 16th time
Day 17 and it’s the Bungulla Herd of Peter and Lou Capel. There were even bunches of 20 or so bulls penned by sire for us to see here. A highlight was a camp cutting demonstration by Matt Capel picking out one cow from a bunch of 60 with a horse and keeping it separate - this is a highly competitive sport between young people in the area.
The end of the tour was insightful, we headed to Nagol Park to see Roger and Naomi Evans and, amongst other things, the supreme champion heifer from Melbourne Show. This was followed by an afternoon at Calrossy Anglican School, where the children are encouraged to learn about farming, breeding, performance recording and show preparation. There were stud bulls raised for sale and steers for a carcass competition where they are shown live and then graded on the hook. The children were very informative and quite unfazed by the fate of their steers. There was considerable speculation on the reaction of trying to do this in the UK! The school was blissfully unaware of the connection between their name and the Shorthorn breed, even though there was a spelling difference between the two Calrossies/Calrossy’s.
A mob of 190 bulling heifers at the Carlton herd
In conclusion, we were all hugely impressed by the strength of the breed in Australia, particularly the numbers on the farms and the sizes of the units. It was especially interesting to see the market for bulls for crossing onto subtropical herds in the north of the country. Very noticeable was the enthusiasm and numbers of young people involved with Shorthorns and the feeling of the ‘Shorthorn family’ in Australia. We would like to thank all the herds we visited for the phenomenal hospitality, especially in the dire climatic conditions some were enduring.
Charles Horton