Overseas Trip  

We spent all of November and the first week of December on a wonderful overseas trip.  First of all starting in Mexico with about 20 fellow brahman breeders from Australia for the World Brahman Congress.   The congress was held in Merida, Yucatan.  The Mayan people are such happy, peaceful people and made us feel very welcome.  It wasn’t long before we fell into their very relaxed, easygoing lifestyle.  As they say “slow, slow Mexico”.    

The congress was held in a brand new 7 million dollar complex where we had the luxury of being able to watch the cattle judging from the comfort of a grand air-conditioned function room that was completely glassed in along the front for a full view of the show ring. 

There were over 600 Brahman cattle at the show, mostly being greys.  The quality was of a very high standard with a large percentage carrying American grey genetics.  The stud grooms take great pride in their job and are fascinating to watch.  Their task being made a little difficult due to the fact that they are not permitted to use nose rings.

While in Merida we took a day out of our schedule and travelled about three hours to visit Steve Holtz’s ranch.  Steve is an Australian who has taken on an amazing project of clearing the jungle and establishing leucaena plantations.  He imported his tropical dairy cattle from Australia to start a dairy and also fattens steers. Eventually he intends to milk 500-600 head and fatten 3000 steers on his 1500 hectares.  Steve was very excited to show us his project, as we were the first Australians to visit.  

After spending 7 days in Merida  we travelled to Tampico where we visited quiet a few cattle ranches seeing some magnificent herds of grey cattle.  The last afternoon in Tampico was spent enjoying good food, fine wine, beautiful music, great cattle and wonderful company.

From Mexico we left the group and  went to the USA where we hired a car and travelled through Louisiana and Texas visiting cattle ranches.  As red breeders we enjoyed finally seeing some red brahmans.  Weather held us up a little with some very heavy rain and tornados in the Wharton area.  16 inches of rain fell in one 24-hour period.  

We can’t thank enough the wonderful hospitality of the people we visited, especially Mr Darwin Fontenot who helped us immensely with our travel plans.

From the USA we had a four-day stop over in London, visiting many of the tourist attractions that London has to offer.  By this time it was early December and the shops were beautifully decorated for Christmas and  bustling with shoppers.

The last leg of our trip was South Africa. We visited five brahman studs and would like to sincerely thank Mr Sydney Hunt and Mr Bernie Staal and their families for giving so much of their time to ensure we saw as much as we could in the six days we were there.  We had a chance to visit a game park and found it quite amazing to see the beautiful large native animals in their natural environment.

Our trip concluded on the 8th December - and as they say “there is no place like Home”.

Sarah’s 21st Birthday  

On the 18th December we celebrated Sarah’s 21st birthday with a small gathering of  60 family and friends at the Kroombit Tourist Park.  Sarah was thrilled to have her best friends from her high school days at St. Ursula’s College attend. Some of them travelled up to eight hours to help her celebrate.  She received her much anticipated scrapbook of the first 21 years of her life.

Gerald Fry’s Genetics School  

Eddie will be attending a herd genetics school held by Gerald Fry on 10th & 11th February in Jackson, Mississippi, USA.  Gerald is teaching how to select superior breeding stock and high quality beef.  Eddie will be back in Australia on 18th February.  Give us a call if you would like to talk to him about the school.

Gympie Female Sale  

We intend to take six heifers to the Gympie Female Sale again this year to be held on the Saturday 4th June.  Three of the heifers will be PTIC and the other three left open.  Photos of the heifers will be available on the web in early May.

Field Day  

On Friday 25th February we are hosting a field day for the Biloela Beef Plan Group.  This group is funded by MLA (Meat and Livestock Australia).  The group is interested in how we select our tender, tasty beef.  We will be providing a practical, hands on demonstration of how we pick this beef on the hoof.  Afterwards  we will supply a barbeque lunch to sample the beef. 

Donna and Brad McInally from John James Livestock and Property of Monto will also be attending to give a talk on the new NLIS (National Livestock Identification System), which becomes mandatory in Queensland from 1st July 2005.  They will be able to  answer any questions producers may have about the new system.

The Weather  

2004 saw one of the longest dry periods we have experienced, going seven months with on a few ml of rain.  We registered a total of 665ml for the year.  We’ve been fortunate enough to receive some good falls of rain since mid-October last year. 

Eddie attended the Charters Towers Big Country sale end of January and said the country is looking a picture all the way.