September 29, 2016
by Dafyd Martindale
Three droughtmaster cattle raised near Murgon sold for an average $8500 a head at the annual Droughtmaster National Sale in Rockhampton on September 13-14.
Their owner – George Sanderson, from Brigalow Park Droughtmaster Stud – said he was very pleased with the result.
Just a short time earlier he’d sold two of his other droughtmasters at the Coolabunia Saleyards for $5500 each.
But he said these weren’t quite as good as the three he’d put into the Rockhampton sale, where a top breeding bull fetched $80,000 and a couple more saw prices around $65,000.
And it was the good conditions around Murgon that helped him get the cattle into such great shape.
The lifelong cattleman grew up on a mixed dairying and cattle farm and set up his droughtmaster stud with his wife Doris in 1985.
He’d spent the previous nine years managing Alcheringa Stud, and the years before that doing an assortment of jobs on other cattle properties to build up his industry knowledge.
Thirty-one years from the day he first put up the Brigalow Park sign, his twin children Michael (now deceased) and Christine have given George and Doris six grand-children and one great-grandchild, and in his spare time he likes to do a bit of work on the homestead’s vegetable patch and garden.
But cattle remain his main focus and fascination. And he credits his years managing Alcheringa Stud for his love of the droughtmaster breed.
“They’re really beautiful, quiet cattle,” he said.
“If you speak to them softly and handle them gently they’re never any trouble.
“They also like music. In fact, you can put the radio on and they like it so much they’ll go to sleep next to it.”
And of course, the breed is also well suited to Queensland conditions.
Brigalow Park is a small 22-acre property located on the Bunya Highway just south of Murgon, so George has leased an extra 470 acres in the area for the last 30 years to run his cattle.
At the moment he has 85 head spread over the various properties, including several new calves he’s put close to the home paddock so he can keep a watchful eye over their progress.
In normal seasons he usually runs one beast to every eight acres.
But this past year has been kinder than usual, and George says he can run a beast to every six acres with proper rotation at the moment until things start to dry out.
Still, that may not be for awhile yet …
Like many lifelong farmers, George is also an astute weather watcher and he’s inclined to agree with long-range weather forecaster Hayden Walker the coming summer may be very wet.
“I think we might get to see the same sort of weather we saw in 1956,” George said.
“I remember my Dad and I were listening to the cricket when it started raining then, and it didn’t stop for two weeks. I think we might see something like that this summer, too.”
All the same, the farm will keep running whatever the weather decides to do.
George said the next item on his agenda was to prepare some heifers for the Gympie sale in March next year.
He’s already started the long process of getting them ready – and hopefully, for more great sale prices if the market stays strong.
- Related article: Weather Forecaster Predicts Wet Summer
