We got back home from the Nanango Show in Queensland on the Tuesday 15th July. It has been an amazing experience for me personally in spite of our vehicle breakdown just north of Tamworth which delayed us significantly and turned out to be quite a harrowing experience all told. 

 

After deciding we would continue on regardless, we arrived at Nanango at a timely 1am Saturday morning. Just to give you a time line we left home on Thursday! We got a few hours sleep in our cosy tent, while outside was just eight degrees. (It took until lunchtime for one of our buckets of water to thaw out.) 

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We had done a minimal trim to three of our animals while in Tamworth on our way up, but I was not prepared to put the girls at risk with a full shave as we would be dealing with the coldest time of the year when we returned, and our animals would have to deal with minus degree temperatures and frost.  We were amazed to find such freezing conditions at Nanango.

 

We had asked Jenny and Ron Stoker for help with parading our cattle when we discovered that they were going to Nanango, but not taking their cattle. Both Ron and Jenny went out of their way to give us a hand with grooming, and getting the cattle ready, and also parading the animals. They lent us their blower to give the finishing touches to our girls who had dropped many kilos in the journey, and were no longer looking at their peak. 

 

Our young bull was the only entry which was surprising, so he received a blue ribbon, and place second in the overall junior bull section. Later on that day we were approached by an interested buyer, and that evening we agreed on a price. Our first sale ever!!

 

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The next day all our cattle were looking so much better after a good feed, and rest. Our heifer Maisie, placed fourth in a field of 11 entries in the under 12 month heifer class. In the over 36 months, our cows came fourth and fifth. We were more than happy with the outcome considering they had both lost so much condition on way up and we had not prepared them with the trimming that judges have come to expect these days. The judge did comment that if we had better prepared them they would have gone up in the placing.

 

We met so many wonderful people. We were kept busy the whole weekend, thoroughly enjoying the Saturday night dinner, with a beautiful meal, great company, and lots of prizes in the raffle. There is a hardworking committee behind this event, and my congratulations go to them. The facilities at the showground were excellent with comfortable showers and amenities provided for a very reasonable cost. It was a long way to go but I suspect we may be back next year or perhaps the year after.

 

We were able to visit three studs on our way home which was just wonderful way to see how the other breeders do things. We sold our little bull, Gus, to a Queensland breeder Lyn Kruger so we were able to see her stud, when dropping him off to his new home.

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We then visited the Studs of Boughton Park and Hobbit Hill, enjoying wonderful hospitality, and touring their two studs gave us an insight into the passionate way both Neale and Jeanette Bourne regard their cattle. After several hours on the road  we popped in for a cuppa with Ron and Jenny at Tenterfield, where we were able to also feed and water the cattle before continuing homeward bound.

 

My impressions of Queensland and the Nanango Show- wonderful caring people who are passionate about their animals; great sense of camaraderie, a real community gathering of people who love to share, have fun, enjoy teaching and empowering the next generation in the art of cattle handling, and we found a diverse group of people from different backgrounds who are prepared to work hard to achieve their goals.

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The country we drove through is looking very dry for the most part, so I hope we all get some good rain before too long.  I guess we can say we are getting lots more experience by going out of our way to meet other Dexter owners, and seeing how others do things. I hope we can have a bit of a reprieve now and sit back and enjoy the quiet life,

By: Libby Brown LRB Dexters