Reg Mickleborough Peter Rogers and Cheryl Bass

Reg Mickleborough, Peter Rogers and Cheryl Bass

Salco Partners Salers have been supporters of Stock and Land Beef Week open day from not long after it first started in 1992. Visitor numbers have been variable over the years, depending on the strength of the beef industry, and issues like the weather on the day (people tend to run out of energy more rapidly on 40C days!). However, the Open Day experience is always positive. Having an open day motivates us to tidy up and make sure our property and all our animals are presentable. The publicity surrounding Beef Week is far reaching, which gives added value for the entry fee. Most years we have attracted at least 1 new customer who purchased Salers because of the Beef Week Open Day publicity. More recently the RASV heifer challenge has given studs an opportunity to showcase a group of 10 heifers on Open day. We have found a lot of demand for Salers females as people learn more about calving ease.

We currently have a total of 122 purebred Salers breeders, split into spring and autumn calvers. All animals are recorded on breedplan. Our 50 autumn calvers started calving in early-February and our 72 spring calvers and replacement heifers have 5 month calves at foot and were pregnancy tested the week before Open Day.

This year our Beef Week Open Day was January 31st, 2016. On Open Day we had 161 cattle in 8 groups on display. These were:

  • Six 1½-2½ year old Salers Bulls. More details on these animals are listed on our website.
  • Our 10 RASV Heifer Challenge entries. These are August-September 2014 drop Salers heifers that have all tested pregnant to calve August 2016.
  • Six yearling bulls. More details on these animals are listed on our website.
  • 9 spring calving cows with 4-6 month old purebred Salers bull calves at foot. 5 of the calves are to AI sires from New Zealand.
  • 28 spring calving cows with 4-6 month old purebred Salers heifer calves at foot.
  • 14 yearling replacement heifers
  • Autumn calvers: 21 cows due to calve over the next 6 weeks.
  • Autumn calvers: 29 cows due to calve over the next 6 weeks.

A further 26 spring calving cows with 4-6 month old purebred Salers calves at foot were situated in adjacent paddocks.

Beef Week RASV Heifer Challenge

Beef Week RASV Heifer Challenge

Judging the RASV heifer challenge

Judging the RASV heifer challenge