Bobby calves always have a special spot in our hearts and consequently tend to stay around a little bit longer than what they should have (if you know what I mean).
This piece isn’t about a bobby calf of Salers breeding but is a piece of our Australian history that needs to be acknowledged.
The 8 year old WALCHA WHOPPER
I was originally passed on these pictures from a fellow Salers breeder who’s son has a bit of an interest in random historical cattle facts.
MONDAY MEMORIES – WALCHA WHOPPER
Sold by Garvin and Cousens, account R and E Waugh, “Bergen-Op-Zoom”, Walcha, in 1959, this 8 year old bullock tipped the scales with a dressed weight of 1,795 pounds (816kg). The bullock was 12 foot (3.6m) from tip to tip and was 5 foot 9 inches (1.47m) high and returned the vendors 81 pounds and one shilling. — in Tamworth, New South Wales..
Since then I have seen a couple of links on Facebook which give a bit more information.
https://www.facebook.com/mountpleasantshowbeefcattle/posts/1067291417020143
The dressed carcass of the WALCHA WHOPPER and what a whopper!!
To put it in perspective this animal at today’s rates from a South Australian cattle market last week was
worth somewhere between $5430 – $6080 @ $3.62-$3.80/kg live weight. Given that I think his live weight would have been around 1500 – 1600 kg.
Definitely one very hefty animal!!
A Salers breeder commented, “Bullocks like these came to light quite frequently in the outback Qld & N T properties when I was involved in the cartage industry throughout the 1980s , and they were a real problem for loading double deck crates as they were too tall for the standard 5 foot double deck height, so we had 5’6” crates built for carting out of the N T and the likes of Barkly Table Land, Qld to enable them to fit without back rubbing on the top frame of the crate. However, this bloke would have still been 3” too high for even our high-crates. Quite a problem with Volume loading concessions when you need to load double deckers as some of our runs were considerably greater than 1,000 kms, mostly with 3 trailers per unit.”
He continues to say, “We were accustomed to finding a lot of stock which was more than 4 year old in that country, and only came to light with periodic large spread musters.”
Another Salers breeder continued the conversation by adding, “They mostly run the big blokes on single decks now or if there is only one on the bottom deck with the ramp pulled up past its carrier locks as the abbs refuse them if they are rubbed on the back on welfare grounds. They used to in the 80’s hold an annual bullock bonanza sale at Boyanup sale yards and the biggest bloke would get a prize and those cattle always came in over a 1000kgs but it faded out as the market for large bullocks went by the wayside.”
I think this last comment high lights how are cattle markets have altered over the years but despite this the Salers breed continues to shine in the modern cattle industry with the ability to cope with extremes of weather (snow to drought conditions), while still calving down easily and finishing off their calves to meet market specifications.
Easy doing and profitable! What more can you want in a breed!
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