St
John's School from Dubbo completed the double at Adelaide Royal Show by taking
out the Champion Domestic Carcase. The pure Limousin steer was bred by the Kirk
family of Wilworril Limousins at Rylstone, NSW. Wilworril Limousins also took
out the Reserve Champion Export Carcase with a Limousin steer.
Limousins
finished in third place in the O'Conner Team Competition for three purebred
steers. The steers were bred by the Evans family (2) and David and Alison
Galpin.
Limousin
and Limousin cross animals won five of the six carcase classes but not the
Grand Champion in the Quirindi (NSW) Prime Stock Competition which is dominated
by entries from schools. The steer which won the remaining class and was the
Champion Carcase was entered as an Angus X but with a dressing percentage of
59% and an 86 sq cm eye muscle scoring maximum points I think I can guess what
the cross might have been. However, to be fair the exhibitor Carinya Christian
School the steer was probably purchased from the sale yards and they did enter
it as an Angus X rather than an Angus.
Class
placings were as follows:
Class 1 Junior Led Steer 308 to 413 kg liveweight
1st
Angus X Limousin, Wellington High School,
2nd
Limousin X Hereford, Narromine High School,
3rd
Angus X Limousin, Gloucester High School.
Class 2 Junior Led Steer 416
– 467 kg liveweight
1st
Limousin X Murray Grey, Narromine High School
3rd
Angus X Limousin, Quirindi High School
Class 3 Junior Led Steer 468
– 634 kg liveweight
3rd
Limousin X Hereford, St Josephs, Aberdeen
Class 4 Open Led Steer 326 –
438 kg liveweight
1st
Limousin X Angus, Umina (BWSC)
3rd
Limousin X Angus, Peter McGilchrist
Class 5 Open Led Steer 441 –
552 kg liveweight
1st
Limousin X Angus, Temi Partnership
Class 6 Open Led Heifer
329-512 kg liveweight
1st
Limousin X Murray Grey, Narromine High School
2nd
Limousin X Murray Grey, Umina (BWSC)
3rd
Limousin X Angus, Umina (BWSC)
Over
the six classes Limousin and Limousin cross took 13 of the 18 ribbons and 21 of
the top 30 positions down to fifth place. Not a bad result!
In
an up and down sale 24 of 39 Limousin bulls sold to a top of $12,000 (twice)
and an average of $4,760 in the AgShow sale at Toowoomba last week.
The
first bull to make $12,000 was John and Rosemaree McCarthy's Rosehill Z436, a
Wulfs Rambler son from Lanacoora Gabrielle 1 which sold to Landmark at Taroom,
Qld. The second bull to sell for $12,000 was Rosehill Z451 another Wulfs
Rambler son from Lanacoora Gabrielle 3 which sold to the Crawford family from
Kingaroy who were featured in the last Limousin Australia magazine. Rosehill
Z411 a Harvest Olympus son of Bilgola Williamette sold to RM and LA Sperling
for $11,000 and Rosehill Z456 a black bull by Rosehill Weston from Rosehill Uno
sold for $9,000 to P Stace. Rosehill averaged $7,687 for eight bulls.
Another
high seller was Ro-Maree Zed, another black bull offered by Robyn Nobbs which
sold for $7,750 to Landmark at Ballendean.
David
and Leonie Washband sold two bulls to a top of $6,000 and an average of $4,750.
The $6,000 bull, Tarampa Downs Zonice went to Tony Abbott.
The
Southern NSW Breeders Sale was solid but not spectacular. Twelve of 16 bulls
offered sold to a top of $4,500 and an average of $2,958 and 11 of 13 females
offered sold to a top of $3,000 and an average of $1,909. Although there were
58 registered buyers the prevailing dry conditions in spite of good rains on
the nearby coast impacted on buyer competition.
The
top priced bull was Reg and Margaret Bower's Calderwood Upper Class Z167, a
polled, black, September 2004 calf weighing 775 kg and with a scrotal
measurement of 38 cm. He sold for $4,500 to Jim Hindmarsh of Bowral as agent.
Reg and Margaret purchased him as a calf at foot when he was about a month old.
Second top price was Don and Cecile Bourke's French Pure Ionesco son Kaludabah
Acceptibull. He weighed in at 625 kg at 17 months of age and had a scrotal
measurement of 37 cm. He sold to Ike Demetrious of Kunari Limousins from
Toulijooa, Gerringong.
Top
priced female was Ramornie Sizzler Y062, a Ramornie Explosion U13 daughter
offered by Rick and Sandralyn Tindal. She sold PTIC to Ramornie Sentinel W16 to
Mark Chapple's Piralillia Limousins at Kangaroo Valley for $3,000.
The
commercial Limousin sale held prior to the stud sale was strong with cows and
calves selling to $1,350 and yearling heifers selling to $1,250.
The
catalogue for Graham and Lorraine Brand's Fernlea Female Dispersal with 112
bull, female and embryo lots is on the web.
Limousin
judging at Melbourne Royal will commence at 9.00 am on Friday 29th
September in the brand new Livestock Complex at the completely rebuilt
Melbourne Showgrounds. Led steers will be judged on Tuesday 25th
September.
A field day targeted at commercial breeders will be
held at Mandayen Limousin Stud on Sunday 1st October commencing at
10.00 am. The field day will cover a range of speakers and topics including
Jono Spence from Elders on domestic market specifications and yours truly on
using EBVs to increase profit and docility scoring of Limousins.
National
Beef will be on again in Bendigo from 18th to 20th May
2007. It will include stud judging, a hoof and hook competition and trade
displays.
Well
known Limousin figure in the UK, Mike Keeble is involved in setting up a
website to recognise the skills of our forefathers on the land. As he says
"not too many generations ago 80% of the population in the UK were
involved in farming. Now it is 2%". Assuming we are not all from convict
stock. Please let me know if you can help Mike Keeble with this project.
Yours in Limousin
Alex McDonald