Beef Week to roll out
SOUTH-EAST Australia’s stud beef cattle breeders are gearing up to provide displays of their herds and sale bulls during the 24th Stock and Land Beef Week from January 27 to February 4.
The 224 studs representing 30 breeds are involved in the nation’s biggest on-farm open day beef industry event.
Beef Week now runs for nine days to accommodate the number of properties wanting to be involved and allow more time for visitors to search for the best herd improving genetics, according to Beef Week director Geoff Phillips, who has been managing the event for the past 23 years of the event’s 25 year history.
“While the Beef Week formula hasn’t changed much over the years, the on-property displays have with stud breeders reacting to visitor demand for bigger herd representations,” Mr Phillips said.
The RASV Beef Week Heifer Challenge has added to the broader interest of displays on properties, with pens of 10 two year old replacement stud heifers competing for the $4500 prize money on offer.
Visitors have commented on the high standard of the heifers in this competition and those who have entered have used the competition to demonstrate the quality of their breeding females.
The difficult job of visiting the 50 properties with entries in the heifer challenge and coming up with the winners will be with the ebullient Scottish born Jack Woodbourn.
He has a wide experience in the Australian stud and commercial beef cattle industries as a stud breeder, royal show judge, and stock and station agent.
The first Stock and Land Beef Week in 1992 ran over four days with 50 studs and only a handful of breeds involved.
Starting on Tuesday, January 27 in the north-east Riverina, a cavalcade of beef cattle enthusiasts will follow the Beef Week trail for nine days concluding on Wednesday, February 4 in the Goulburn Valley-Western Riverina.
Beef Week is a great opportunity for seedstock and commercial producers to compare breeds and studs within breeds before making buying decisions, according to Mr Phillips.
“Beef Week allows both big and small operations to display their stock. Many sell privately on the day and for many studs it is their major marketing day of the year, while others display the bulls catalogued for upcoming on-property sales,” he said.
As in the past, Herefords and Angus studs make up over half the studs involved with 72 whiteface studs and 53 Angus studs opening their gates.
Other breeds with strong representations are Limousin with 16 studs, Charolais with 13, Simmental, including Black Simmental and Simangus, 11 studs and Lowline with six herds on display.
Multi-stud displays at the showgrounds at Mount Gambier, South Australia (15 studs with 10 breeds on day 8) and at Hillview Beef Shorthorns at Streatham (seven studs with five breeds on day 7) allow smaller studs without the facilities and numbers to host an on-property display to be involved in Beef Week.
The success of Beef Week has attracted major South Australian based studs that are trucking displays of cattle at Mortlake and Hamilton.
“For over two decades Stock and Land Beef Week has been the premier event of its type in the nation and promotes the excellent seedstock herds in Australia’s south-east,” Mr Phillips said.
Details of the studs in Beef Week 2015 are available on www.beefweek.com.au
Agricultural highlight: 24th Stock and Land Beef Week director Geoff Phillips.
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Posted by Sarah Vella on Jan 20 2015. Filed under Rural News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry
