News
Droughties show mettle
16th July, 2003
By Lucy Croft (courtesy QCL October 16, 2003)
Glenmorgan beef producers David and Betty Salter, Glen Fosslyn, couldn’t believe the news when their Droughtmaster cross steers were judged champion pen of grass/cropfed cattle at Dalby’s Beef Galore last Friday.
Late last year, the cattle were in poor condition due to lack of rain, with only 225mm falling in 14 months. They have since received 325mm between mid-February and June, with a further 40mm falling last week, and the season is looking promising.
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David Salter, Glen Fosslyn, Glenmorgan, with Droughtmaster Society national operations manager Neil Donaldson, admirning the Salter's champion pen of grass / cropfed cattle at Dalby's Beef Galore. |
“Last year, the cattle were half dead and now they’ve won a championship,” Mr Salter said.
“It really does show the doability of the Droughtmaster breed to see them survive the srought so well.”
“The stud cattle survived on scrub during the drought and we got a 91.2 percent pregnancy rate across the board last year.”
In their first attempt at the show and sale, the Salters also walked away with the reserve championship for grass / cropfed cattle after the steers placed first and second in the pen of six steers suitable for export requirements. The champion pen averaging 665kg were sired by Droughtmaster Bulls out of South Devon x Red Angus dams.
The winning steers averaged 197c/kg to return $1,282, with the reserve pen, 630kg average making 195c/kg to return $1,212.
The two pens of Droughtmaster and Droughtmaster cross steers were fed on cottonseed from September 2002 to February this year and later put onto forage sorghum.
“Our son Cameron jokes he would have fed 40,000 bucket loads of cottonseed over the side of his ute during five months, but it saved the cattle,” Mr Salter said.
The steers spent the last 100 days on oats.
The Salters have sent five decks of Droughtmaster steers to Australia Meat Holdings and for the first time, averaging $1,000 / beast for 23-month-old bullocks.
The Salters operate three properties in the Glenmorgan district with Glen Fosslyn home to their Droughtmaster stud. Gabrielle Downs, a second property east of Glen Fosslyn used as a commercial breeder block and the third, Cooma, a growing block for weaners and steers.
David and Betty are long-time supporters of the Dalby saleyards and entered the cattle to support the local event.