Ekka Champion one day, feeding champions the next. That was the delightful finale of the Grand Champion steer at the Royal Queensland Show. The Breakfast Creek Hotel’s Sam Gullo bid $17,000 ($52/kg) to secure the Angus/Limo cross steer that was exhibited at the Ekka by Shaun Daley and Julia Simmons and prepared by fitting expert Steve Hayward.
Every year at The Brekky Creek Sam hosts the Champion Charity Luncheon to raise funds for his nominated charity.
“This year funds from the lunch will be donated to Drought Angels who are supporting Australian farmers in drought affected regions. We have a lot of rural friends who come to The Brekky Creek when in town and it is our way at AHL to show our support to them,” Sam said.
Sam sure lined up some Queensland champions for the charity lunch, with 250 attending. Cowboys premiership winning coach Paul Green made the trip south and ran into the man who replaced him in the 2001 Queensland State of Origin side, Alfie Langer, who you remember, was brought out of retirement by Wayne Bennett to give NSW their annual “touch-up”. Melbourne Cup winning jockey and Brisbane trainer Chris Munce turned up looking fit enough to resume riding. Brisbane Lions AFL premiership coach Leigh Matthews was along with basketball legend and Hall of Famer Brian Kerle.
Gympie beef baron Michael Nolan, of Nolan Meats, who supply the great steaks to The Brekky Creek all year round was in fine form as always. Ekka councillor Liz Allen was along for the lunch with RNA competitions manager Phil Sharp, who advised that they were looking seriously at a beer competition for the 2019 program. By the end of the afternoon, we had seconded 200 judges and only one steward!
CRT Queensland boss Sharon Dew, along with Justin Harrison, Rabobank, Denis Conroy, JBS, and Marricka Clancy, from the RNA, made entertaining company.
Great sponsors as always threw their support in for the day: Lion & Co, Coca-Amatil, Selective Motors, Carlton United Breweries, Quest Breakfast Creek and legendary Broncos centre Chris Johns from Hoppy Handwash Café chipped in along with Tangalooma Island Resort.
Ewan Amateur Turf Club held its annual weekend of country racing Friday Saturday, September 28 and 29. Situated on the banks of Stockyard Creek north of Charters Towers, the weekend pays homage to the club’s long history of bush racing, and has a strong focus on celebrating country racing’s heritage, and creating a family friendly, fun filled weekend.
With the club’s first recorded race in 1922, and racing annually since 1955 it has cemented its spot on the North Queensland calendar. Club president David Woodhouse and his hard working committee put a huge effort into track preparation. Having the track in such fine condition attracted a strong line-up of horses, and full fields across the two days racing ensured there was plenty of quality racing to appease the punters, and entertain the crowds.
With the dry season, the general Charters Towers, Townsville, Greenvale and Basalt regions are possibly in better shape than many other areas to the south and west of the state – with the vast majority having some dry feed reserves. Most producers are in heavy supplement mode, and getting another round of cattle work done before it gets too hot.
There has been a consistent run of live cattle orders out of Townsville, with several shipments every month. This has enabled producers to continue to turn off sale cattle, and lighten off the paddocks to conserve feed for younger and breeder stock.
A large portion of the cattle producers at the bar at Ewan were enjoying the weekend off, before heading home to get some cattle work done in the last week of the school holidays, with many sorting cattle for two shipments with delivery mid-October. Current pricing out of Townsville is $2.70 for feeder steers, and $2.40 for feeder heifers.
