CELEBRATING 150 YEARS SINCE IT BEGAN

Blessed with superb Autumnal weather, the Warialda Show celebrated 150 years since its inception in its 118th show from 11 to 13 May. A culmination of work by the Pastoral and Agricultural Association (P and A), Gwydir Shire Council, and a plethora of workers, volunteers and supporters, the show is the hallmark of the town.

From the ubiquitous baking competitions to the more quirky weed compilation competitions to the “you know what I mean” announcements over the microphone, the entire show was one the town can be proud of. Certainly that was the collective thought of those who were questioned by The Gwydir News.

Friday events included cut-outs, school cattle competition, heifer show, rodeo, yard dog trial, sciene education shows and pyrotechnics. The Showground was abuzz in every nook and cranny, surrounded by dozens of horse floats from near and far.

Saturday is always the largest crowd day, and attendees were offered a wide line-up of entertainment over the course of the day and evening. Events included cattle judging, a pet show, more horse events, a Mini Rural Girl competition, the grand parade and an unforgettable display of spectacular fireworks..

Please find following the Warialda Show report, submitted by David Coulton, Secretary of the Warialda P and A.

In the Hack events Sarah Young of Moree cleaned up all three majors - Grand Champion Hack of Show (Col Cleal Memorial Trophy) on Extra Rushes of Sefton: Grand Champion Rider of Show (Norma Cleal Memorial Trophy) and Grand Champion Show Hunter Hack on Macarthur Park Regal Secret.

Not to be outdone, Abby Young collected the Grand Champion Bird of Show in the poultry Section with a brown/red Pekin Pullet.

Stud Cattle saw a record entry of 154 animals and this year conducted a feature Braford Show with 10 Braford studs from Coonabarabran to Kingaroy (Qld) and across to Casino represented. Little Valley Grazing Co. Casino cleaned up by winning the Supreme Braford Exhibit and then went on to win Grand Champion Beast of Show with sire Little Valley Nathan.

Prime cattle featured 70 entries with Grand Champion Beast won by Tyson & Courtney Will’s exhibit and long time exhibitor David Schouten from Gravesend was once again the winner of the Most Successful Exhibitor trophy, a trophy he has won many times over his years of exhibiting.

Prime Sheep featured only a small complement of exhibitors with John & Kerry Coulton exhibiting their Aussie White Lambs to collect Champion Pen of 3 and Champion Lamb of Show.

Grand Champion Photo of the Show was won by Jenny Trigger from Bingara.

Grand Champion Painting in the Art Section went to Stephen Tann’s Landscape.

Grand Champion Fleece of Show was exhibited by R. E. Kent from Koloona with the Champion Pair of Fleeces exhibited by K & E Brown of Gravesend.

The Most Successful over the five Pavillion Sections went to Louise Jackson who had great success in the Horticulture and Farm Produce sections to record 37 overall points with the next best point score being 28.

After no Campdraft events at the last two Warialda Shows there was a welcome return at this year’s Show with a one day event being held on Friday with excellent entries. The Open draft was won by Robbie Bloch and the Jackpot draft prizemoney was collected by John Saunders.

In the Showjumping arena there were excellent nominations competing for increased prize money this year.The four open events that were contested were AM5 Open 1.1 to 1.2 metre and this was won by Jacqueline Coombes on Rainman (Bingara); AM5 1.25metre went to Sammy Moffitt riding Sausalito: Light Horse memorial 6 Bar went to William Wood riding Joselands Patrick and the feature event Grand Prix was won by Emily Patterson and her mount Libertarian.

And last but by no means least was the Yard Dog (Sheep) Competition which didn’t get the competitor numbers for previous years due to a clash with a competition in Armdale but what dogs did come were of excellent quality and performed accordingly. In the open section Matt Eshman’s nomination Wazza with Matt were the winners with a point score of 187 out of 200 (over two runs) to pip the second placegetter by one point.

Crop Competition winners, for crops grown in the 2022 season, were David Smith (Bristol Farming - Crooble) winning both the Wheat and Barley comps. The Sorghum comp was a very tight contest with the judges being unable to split two growers so joint winners were added to the trophy they being Millgalarr Past Co (D & A Horne) and I J Davidson & Co (Peter Davidson) with both growers in the east Yallaroi area and almost next door neighbours; The Chickpea competition went to the Woods family from Rockwell, Yallaroi.

The Show was officially opened on Saturday by Mr. Larry Acton, Patron of The Australian Braford Society with other members of the official party being Hon. Mark Coulton (Federal Member for Parkes), Hon. Adam Marshall (State Member for Northern Tablelands). A couple of special presentations were made during the opening ceremony with David Moor being presented with a plaque & certificate to commemorate his 50 years of continuous service to Warialda P & A. Presentations were also made to Clayton Taylor for his many years of loyalty in bringing Sideshows to our Show and Pam Bertalli and her father who have been selling potato chips as well as sponsoring events for almost 40 years.

Don Stevenson, in his final year as President of Warialda P & A, heralded the Show another great success and sincerely thanked the hard working committee and volunteers that brought it all together.

Weeds as Indicators

Northern Slopes Landcare Association and the North West Regional Agricultural Landcare facilitator (RALF) invite you to join us for this informative workshop. Learn how to use weeds to help diagnose soil issues, and how they can help us better understand our soil health, and how to transition your soil to it’s ultimate health and productivity. We will take a close look at a range of weeds, both in the classroom and in the paddock, to increase our understanding of the messages they are sending us in relation to of soil health.

We will delve into how to take a soil test and various the methods of helping diagnose your soils and we’ll start you on the journey of developing a holistic soil health restoration action plan.

A bit about our presenter:

Kim Deans loves working with innovative farmers who are disillusioned with the high input, industrial farming model to tailor a unique strategy for reinventing their agricultural business.

The reinvention process has been a recurring theme of Kim’s 30 year career in agriculture and she has worked closely with hundreds of farming businesses through processes of change. Alongside her work with farmers Kim and husband Angus have been implementing methods now known as “regenerative” agriculture on their property in NSW over the past 17 years.

Morning teac and lunch will be provided,.