Shop owners in Walcha had a kick to their sales with this year’s Ausmectin Northern Beef Week, when stud cattle breeders had to dash into town to buy extra food and cups to satisfy their hungry and thirsty visitor crowds on Tuesday.
Just 10 minutes from town, Erica Halliday’s Ben Nevis Angus stud was kept busy, with Mrs Halliday saying she lost count at about 75 visitors.
“I did 75 brochures and they all went,” she said.
“We ran out of steak and went through 10 loaves of bread. Then we ran out of milk and went through 150 coffee cups – it was amazing.
“Lucky we were only just out of town and could get more stuff.”
Mrs Halliday said her stud, Ben Nevis Angus, had attracted a larger crowd each year, but this year was much bigger – she received orders for 30 bulls from new clients alone.
The bulls on show were nine months old, as Mrs Halliday sells her bulls as yearlings, and were shown with some of their sires, plus heifers from the previous year’s drop which were due to calve.
She said the stud’s yearling bulls had a bit of a following, as clients said they were getting lower breakdown rates and the bulls were generally quieter.
She said part of the demand could have been for their outcross genetics, as Ben Nevis was using sires such as Banquet Zealful – a bull Mrs Halliday found using contemporary group data while searching for marbling – and Baldridge Nebraska.
* Click here to view a slideshow of photos from Beef Week.
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