BEEF BONANZA

By Karinne Gelderman, various schools, and Limousin Youth Australia Photos: UHBB and Schools

Gumboots and Grins were the standard attire for the Upper Hunter Beef Bonanza. A total of 520 kids, 254 prime cattle and 40 stud heifers turned up to compete with others unable to make it through flood waters to attend the event.

Limousin and Limousin x cattle, as usual, had a fantastic show winning both the champion and reserve champion titles in every led prime division.

Major results:

The Champion & Reserve champion lightweight steers were both owned and exhibited by the MacRae partnership. They were purchased from a Coonamble commercial breeder, Matt Mackenzie, and were out of Oakvale Limousin cows and sired by the Benjarra Question Time bull.

The Champion Light Middleweight, and overall Grand Champion, was exhibited by Keajura Park Limousins. He was bred by Brentvale Limousins in SA and was sired by Brentvale Nitro N13 out of Brentvale Fifi P4 He was sent over to the Maclure's and fed for 120 days and Jason Foote of Brentvale Limousins, was full of praise for how the Limousin Youth Members prepared and showed the steer

The Reserve Champion Light Middleweight steer was exhibited by JA and CM Adams

The Champion Heavy Middleweight was awarded to Calrossy Anglican School Breeding to follow

The Reserve Champion Heavy Middleweight was exhibited by W Davis and J Davis and was bred by Deepfields Limousins He was sired by Greenwood Fernando

The Champion Heavyweight was a purebred Limousin bred and exhibited by Flemington Limousins He was sired by Flemington Quicksilver Q6 and out of a Oakwood Cutmasta heifer

Reserve Champion Heavyweight awarded to Scots All Saints College with a Limousin X steer that was purchased through the Carcoar (CTLX) saleyards

Prime Heifer:

Champion awarded to PRB Livestock (Limousin X) Reserve Champion awarded to Calrossy Anglican School (Limousin)

Congratulations to;

LYA Member Sarah Randle who took out the Grand Champion Parader with her recently purchased female King Creek Sieana 258.

Jack Robson of Flemington Limousin and Angus awarded 12/13 year old Champion Parader.

School and Stud Success at Scone Beef Bonanza

Clients of Col & Lorna McGilchrist of Back Creek Limousins have had a very successful year in the show ring with the stud adding breeding the supreme carcase at the Scone Beef Bonanza to their list of achievements this year The steer was sold as Lot 37 at the annual Glen Innes potential steer sale in March and the steer judge, Steve Martin, purchased him for Wellington High.

The steer sold for $14/kg ($3700) and was sired by a homebred bull, Back Creek Payabull (Harlees Mr Jock) out of a Mandayen cow. The steer went on to win the champion led steer at Wellington, Dubbo and Warren shows as well as being reserve champion at the national all breeds JNR heifer show. At Bonanza the steer was 2nd in the led section but easily won the supreme carcase with a massive 91.36 points, receiving $4,905 in prize money. Wellington High school agricultural teacher, Rob Dimmick feedlots 10 steers at a time with roughly 20 - 25 being shown by the school each year. He said that they focus on good quality carcase cattle and that Limousins have a big part to play in achieving that.

The school has purchased Limousin steers from the Blue Ribbon sale in Toowomba, The Glen Innes sale and most recently the Golden Opportunity Cattle sale at Coonamble.