Some pictures of cattle from the Royal Canberra Show

[Keren]

Third attempt at posting this cos my puter is giving me grief. Hopefully its third time lucky.

Just some shots of cattle etc at the recent Royal Canberra Show. Finally got around to uploading them.

Apologies in advance for the random breeds represented here - I was looking after the dairy cows during the beef interbreed, and I sent the kids out with the camera asking them to take a photo of the winners of each beef breed. Well, they came back with pictures mostly of the minority breeds lol ah well

Champion beef bulls in the interbreed - for those interested, the Limousin bull won the bull interbreed and the overall interbreed, the charolais cow won the female interbreed, I thought the cow should have beaten the bull but oh well. She was the closest I have ever seen to an ideal female.

Poll Hereford

Angus

Belted Galloway

Charolais

Dexter

Lowline

Parade of champions

Some of the Speckle Park champions

The Murray Grey champions

Miniature Galloway champions - that dun bull up the front was as good as any mainstream beef bred bull - he was very impressive

A not very good picture of our 16 mth old baby bull

Our 15 mth old heifer

Lovely Illawarra cow

Nice 10 mth old friesian heifer

One of the novely events is the Canberra Calf Capers - the calves that were brought along to be shown 'at foot' with their mothers, are dressed up in costumes and brought into the ring by themselves. Started as an event for the real little kids - toddlers up to about 7 or 8 yrs old - but now they have a class for older kids and adults as well

The princess and the frog

Vancouver

Rubber duckie

Other costumes were Dr Jekyl and Mr Hyde, School kids, Milk tanker and farmer, princesses, fairies ...

Black and coloured sheep in the animal nursery

Large white x landrace piglets in the animal nursery

Mini donkeys in the animal nursery

Goats in the animal nursery

Poddy calf in the animal nursery - looked a bit brangus

Giant display made from fruit and veges

Wool competition

 

[cmf1]

That looks like a great ag & family day.

Is that particular string of Speckled Park what got your interest up in the breed?
They do look fine.

 

[Keren]

I had seen the speckles last september at another of our major shows, and they are being promoted pretty heavily in newspapers etc

there certainly were some very good speckles at this show

 

[hillsdown]

Very neat display.. :clap:

Also you made me look up the breed Illawarra ,so yet again I learned something new by reading posts on CT.. :lol2: ;-)

 

[Keren]

they are brilliant cattle

 

[thunder downunder]

Some more pics from Canberra.....

Shorthorn/Limousin steer- champion open steer on the hoof

Limousin/Hereford steer- champion school steer on hoof (did not perform at all well in carcase judging)

Limousin cross steer- divisional champion, can't remember which one

Dexter bull- supreme exhibit for the breed

Poll Hereford bull- grand champion PH bull and supreme exhibit for the breed (Canberra was a whiteface feature) This bull was robbed in the interbreed judging

Poll Hereford cow- grand champion PH female

 

[townfarmer]

Thanks for posting the show photos. I can't wait for the ekka to come around now after looking at those pics.

Dexter bull- supreme exhibit for the breed

Is it an optical illusion or is that bull's brisket 10cm off the ground?

Andrew

 

[2/B or not 2/B]

Very fun pics, Keren, thanks for posting them! We have a large county fair that has amazing produce displays. I love looking at them on opening day when they're still fresh. The livestock aren't as diverse though and they're shown indoors where it gets pretty stuffy. I much prefer to see them out in the open in the sunlight and fresh air.

 

[waihou]

What's the breeding on your 15 mth MG heifer Keren?
What did she win, is that Yearling heifer class, is it split into Junior and Senior yearling?

She looks lovely.

 

[thunder downunder]

Thanks for posting the show photos. I can't wait for the ekka to come around now after looking at those pics.

Dexter bull- supreme exhibit for the breed

Is it an optical illusion or is that bull's brisket 10cm off the ground?

Andrew

10cm would be very close to the mark

 

[Keren]

and thunder would know, being kindof up close and personal with that bull :lol2: :lol2:

that heifer is Moorabinda Stardust D24. By Temar Venturesome, a bull we purchased several years ago who was also Grand Champion bull at Canberra royal, cant remember the year off the top of my head. He has bred some beautiful replacements for us. Her mum is Moorabinda Stardust Z3 who is out of a Monterey Mannequin cow (brilliant female family) and by our other main sire, Waverley Sarpedon who has sired most of our show winners and a significant portion of our herd.

Here's her pedigree:

http://abri.une.edu.au/online/cgi-bin/i ... 9=5B5F505F

She was junior champion at melbourne last year, this year at canberra she was overlooked. she placed first in her class but missed out on the champion, although many people said they thought she should have got it. She is wearing the champion ribbon from the breeder's group - best three head class which she led out and we were very pleased to win

Our little bull is Moorabinda Billabong D15. He is by Iceberg, who was a bull we bred by Venturesome and out of that same Mannequin cow as above. Billy's dam is Bonita, whose paternal grandmother is again that Mannequin cow.

Billy's pedigree:

http://abri.une.edu.au/online/cgi-bin/i ... 9=5B5F505C

thanks for posting those other pics, thunder. love that pollie cow. the bull I wasnt that excited about, personally

 

[thunder downunder]

and thunder would know, being kindof up close and personal with that bull :lol2: :lol2:

thanks for posting those other pics, thunder. love that pollie cow. the bull I wasnt that excited about, personally

Not funny Keren!!! Still not impressed about that- don't worry, as I said, sh!t went down!! lol

I thought the Pollie bull was the best of an ordinary bunch- there wasn't too much out there that excited me, and when 3 of 5 judges put him first... well, he deserved to win. It was just that R.M. buried him which prevented him coming up. Oh well, that's judging :roll:

 

[Keren]

oh I disagree, your reaction was very funny indeed

I've gotta admit I didnt watch the interbreed judging I was lookin after the dairy cows and trying to stay awake, wondering how on earth I was gonna drive home ... lol just didnt have the energy to go up and watch it. But I thought the female champions were much stronger than the bulls. Except that dun mini galloway bull I REALLY liked. He caught my eye on wednesday when I arrived at the showgrounds, and he was just on a tie rail. good bull. pity he gets overlooked because of his breed

 

[thunder downunder]

Reaction = not at all amusing!!!

Yeah that Mini Galloway bull was pretty good, just not quite impressive enough to mix it with the bigger breeds. Oh, and his owner told me that Galloways were the foundation for Murray Greys..... I didn't bite, decided it wasn't worth it!! :roll:

 

[Keren]

:shock: oh my god - was he serious?

 

[thunder downunder]

Yes, yes he was... scary ey?!

 

[Keren]

:shock: scary indeed

 

[eagle ridge]

and his owner told me that Galloways were the foundation for Murray Greys..... I didn't bite, decided it wasn't worth it!! :roll:

There needed to be a dun animal in the murray greys makeup to give it its colour, scottish greys (dun galloways) were prevalent in the birth place of Murray greys, so it makes sense. If you do the maths, chances are the galloway was used on purpose or a bull jumped the fence

If you go back a bit further, galloways and angus were in the same herd book in scottland, so I don't really see what the problem is, or why Murray grey breeders would want to believe otherwise ;-) The old newspaper cuttings in the link below are interesting. I thought it was a given, but there would be plenty more evidence out there.

A typical description of the Murray Grey cattle breed would say something along the lines that Murray Grey's were developed from Angus bull and a roan Shorthorn cow – and as NSW Department of Agriculture say, "13 such calves of the same colour being kept originally as curiosities". Lots of breeders wonder why the production of a grey calf from Angus bull and a roan Shorthorn cow could never be repeated. There have always been rumours that Galloway cattle were involved in the development of the Murray Grey. There are the old Galloway breeders who will still quote the bull involved. It makes sense; you look at the Murray Grey and the Galloway and there are a lot of similarities. Look at the ears, the colour pattern, the head…And then you start researching and you find some interesting articles. Here's a few articles on 'Grey Galloways' from the Upper Murray region which were published in a prominent rural publication around the time of the Murray Grey's beginning.

http://galloway.sauceopen.com/images/Ar ... loways.pdf