Not many eight year olds can add a Royal Queensland Show interbreed ribbon to their trophy cabinet, but it was just one of a number of firsts in the stud cattle ring on Saturday.
The bright orange shirt of Darcy Skillington and his two brothers from Dalveen were hard to miss as they raced in to accept the supreme interbreed bull title with the 25-month-old Charolais sire, Cassaglen Raptor.
Judge and MLA managing director Jason Strong told the crowd he considered asking for a show of hands to help him split the tight contest between the Angus, Simmental, Charolais, Droughtmaster, Limousin, Shorthorn and Santa Gertrudis finalists.
While individually Darcy was "happy" with the win, it was a major achievement for the entire Skillington family.
Stephen and Kelly had fitted other cattle at the Ekka but this was the first time they had showcased their own Cassaglen stud animals.
"We have only got about 20 cows and they are mainly the boys'; I think I own one cow," Ms Skillington said.
"We are a little herd but we really focus on quality. We are really hard on them.
"We have been showing for so long thinking one day it would be nice to own our own stud and from there on it would be really nice to win one of those broad ribbons. Yesterday we were living the dream so today is just next level."
The bull was the second calf out of Cassaglen Lady Kingswood who was gifted to Darcy by Ben and Amanda Adams of Dangarfield Santa Gertrudis, Taroom, who had dabbled in Charolais genetics. He was sired by Palgrove Landmark.
He had only been shown at Boonah before his Ekka appearance where he received the supreme ribbon and finished in the third in the viewer's choice of ACM's Sire Shootout.
"He is available for private sale and we had a fair bit of interest after the Sire Shootout, people sort of noticed him," Ms Skillington said.
"We had have a lot of semen interest in him, including from New Zealand."
Earlier in the day, Kim Groner and Glen Waldron of Elite Cattle Co, Meandarra, were equally as happy when they took out their first interbreed female title at the Ekka with the black female Elite Sheila Q130 (Springcreek Liner 56U/LFE BS Sheila 82A) and her heifer calf, Elite Sheila S200.
She was joined with the intention of competing in the breed's 50 year feature shows and it paid off, winning grand champion female in all three of her show ring appearances; Sydney, Brisbane and Taroom.
The win made her the first black Simmental female interbreed winner in Australia, the society said.
"She epitomises what we are trying to breed," Ms Groner said,
"Overall she is extremely structurally correct, she is deep bodied she has got a beautiful udder, which is something we really chase in our females. She is probably one of the best uddered females in our herd so she has been flushed extensively to try and replicate that and overall she just has a good nature as well.
"It is all a bit surreal. We have done well with a couple of bulls here...we have never won an interbreed with a Simmental.
"She is getting flushed one more time after Ekka then she will go back in calf and join the paddocks as a breeding cow. Hopefully she will breed some outstanding progeny for us.
They edged out a final line up of the Angus, Charolais, Droughtmaster, Hereford, Limousin and Speckle Park with the final decision between Angus, Simmental and Droughtmaster.
Sheila then joined with Martin Rowlands and Stephen Lean's bull, Bandeeka Ratbag, to win the pairs trophy.
Finalist in that competition were the Angus, Simmental, Charolais, Droughtmaster and Limousin.
- Full story in next week's Ekka report liftout.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
