The Showring Aussie Style

Adrenline Rush.


Add caption



The Congress is now over and I have head south and west with my mom and dad, but the show was a great experience. I had the opportunity to work for Tom and Lizzy Baker of Woonalee Simmental Stud. They are a wonderful family and really know their way around the Simmental breed. The show was very similar to Canadian shows, but not as intense as American shows. One difference is instead of a bottle of Rye found in everyone's tax boxes it's a couple of bottles of wine!

The cattle arrived late Monday night, so it was a busy day on Tuesday getting all the cattle settled in and washed. They brought 23 head, all of which were what we would call traditional Simmental cattle, ie. the old red and white ones. The bulls were also scanned for ribeye area, marbling and backfat.

On Wednesday we showed. There were almost 200 head of Simmetnal cattle entered. The majority of them were what I call traditional looking Simmental cattle, with a few reds and black being shown. One the of pregnancies from the black Simmental embryos was also shown, but more on that to come later when I can get some pictures.

The crew was great to work with. We only did basic fitting- toplines and tailheads. In most classes there were 15-18 entries, huge classes compared to what I am used to. The day started off great with the heifer I showed receiving second in her class. That was a relief to know I was doing things close to right! Lizzy and Tom had multiple class winners with their heifers, and went onto have Champion Junior Female. As in Canada the Grand Champion Female is almost always a cow/calf pair. They also don't pick Reserve Grand Champions just Champions for overall in the female and bull show.

In the bull show the bull I lead went on to be Reserve Champion Junior Bull behind the Grand Champion Bull, also out of Woonalee show string. I showed in multiple group classes, and Tom and Lizzy's success allowed them to be named the Premier Exhibitor of the show. It was really exciting to be out in the ring again, especially with the champion titles on a world stage at stake.

Me leading Ernie. Lots of the Aussies showed in cowboy hats (a few could use some shaping.) No one in the Simmental show wore white long coats, but some did in the steer show.

The judge evaluating Ernie. The judge was from the United Kingdom and used phrases like she had a special glint in her eye. And he didn't walk like no lady. That was a good thing.

This was the banner/ribbon for the Reserve Champion Junior Bull. Even for classes the ribbons were in the form of these banners, but not a wide. They were much cooler than the rosette ribbon we get in North America.

You have read this article australia / cattle / Simmental with the title The Showring Aussie Style. You can bookmark this page URL https://miavamp22.blogspot.com/2010/09/the-showring-aussie-style.html. Thanks!