Elite Cattle Co talk about their successful 2017 show season –
COUPLE Glen Waldron and Kim Groner find it very rewarding to help create awareness of how important agriculture and in particular, the beef industry, is to Australia.
The couple, who have been involved in the agriculture and stud cattle industry all their lives and live on the Elite Cattle Co stud where they began with a herd the size of five cows five years ago that has now grown in excess of 70 stud mature females plus commercial cows, have had a hugely successful show season so far.
They won the Supreme Exhibit of the Feature Show (and the Interbreed) with a junior heifer at the Toogoolawah Show.
“To win was an absolute thrill,” Ms Groner said.
“This is a feat that is rarely done with such a young animal.
“This was an especially pleasing result as it’s our first year of showing the black simmentals and we were proud to.”
Mr Waldron and Ms Groner initially started with charolais cattle, chosen because of the market premium for charolais x weaners/commercial cattle, but have branched out into simmentals.
“Simmentals are a relatively new venture for us which we started breeding as we saw an opening in the market in Queensland for a black European breed,” she said.
“In particular, we liked the added softness that the breed offers while still retaining the muscle and bone that European cattle are known for.”
As well as their win at the Toogoolawah Show, the couple won in the Simmental Ring in Sydney for the first time.
“We were ecstatic to win Junior Champion Heifer, Reserve Junior Champion Heifer, Reserve Champion Bull and also win the Breeders Group,” Ms Groner said.
“We also had interbreed success with our simmentals at Roma and Wandoan Shows this year.”
She said some of their charolais highlights for the year included Grand Champion and Interbreed Bull at Melbourne Royal Show, (Charolais Feature Show) Senior Champion Bull at Sydney Royal Show, and Supreme Exhibit at Tara and Taroom Shows.
Mr Waldron said they enjoyed showing their cattle because it gave them the chance to benchmark their cattle against fellow breeders and make sure they were producing a product of a high standard.
Mr Waldron said they attended about 10 to 15 shows a year, travelling anywhere between Melbourne, Victoria and to Emerald.
“We’ve had a great few years in the show ring, winning grand champions in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane and BEEF 2015 as well as Interbreed Success at (the) Melbourne Show and BEEF 2015, not to mention other successes at local shows.”
Mr Waldron said a lot of work went into to the preparation of a show team.
That included selecting the show team early before the show season to have enough time to prepare them properly in terms of nutrition, breaking them in and taking them to a few “break-in shows”, and grooming.
“Most country shows are used to promote your cattle in the local area but also to train your cattle for the bigger events like the Ekka, so often cattle go to two to three shows before a major royal show,” he said.
As for what’s next, Mr Waldron said after a long stint on the show and sale circuit, the two were relieved to be at home for a few weeks before heading to the Ekka at the start of August.
Elite Cattle Co has simmental bulls for sale. If you’re interested, visit elitecattleco.com.au.
This was an especially pleasing result as it’s our first year of showing the black simmentals and we were proud to.
— Kim Gronor