Each year the Stock and Land Beef Week seems to come round quicker and quicker. It’s hard to believe that Beef Week 2017 kicks off in a fortnight’s time. This year it starts the day after Australia Day. It’s a great opportunity to go on tour and be immersed in all things bulls. On a serious note though, the field days are an excellent opportunity to take your time and not only inspect the animals but ask all the questions that sale days don’t always allow for.
I remember our first ever Beef Week tour where we headed up to Rennylea Angus and Dunoon before winding our way around the circuit. At that stage we were in our early set up days and it was a great opportunity to not only see the cattle on show but meet the Seedstock Producers themselves and really talk to them as well as seeing how the top studs run a successful field day. We learnt so much during these beef week tours and we thank our fellow Seedstock Producers for sharing so much of their knowledge with us.
Fond memories are also to be had when I think of my first trip to Te Mania’s open day with farming friends. It’s a great excuse to catch up with like-minded farming friends and head off on what is always an educational road trip. Viewing cattle – there is always something new to learn; and it’s fun.
I love the relaxed atmosphere of field days. The ability to wander around the cattle and take notes of the cattle that I really like without a catalogue filled with EBV’s but purely on visual. Then again these days with the smartphone in my pocket, I can always tap on the Angus app and type in the Angus Identifier of the animal in front of me and Bob’s your uncle, the data is in my hand. Technology really is helping us to be smarter and more efficient farmers – but that and using the Angus app is another blog in itself. Once I pick an animal on visual, I then like to look at the EBV’s to confirm my choices and in some unexpected cases when the EBV’s show a different story then there are some tough decisions to be made.
Field days allow us to view all the bulls that are coming up for sale. This then enables us to draw up a short list of which bulls we like and which sale(s) we will attend to purchase our bull(s). It’s always wise to have way more bulls on the list than we actually need incase on sale day, our choice and our budget don’t match up.
I like to get out and see what other farmers are doing. All too often we get tied up in the daily farm grind and so it’s good to get out there and be exposed to fresh ideas and new people. As my gran used to always say, “You really can teach an old dog new tricks – you just have to show them to the dog first! “I always pick up so much new and interesting farming facts when I am out chatting to fellow farmers.
Not only do we love the Stock and Land Beef Week as buyers, but also as sellers it has been a key component of our marketing strategy. In 2012 when we had our first 20 bulls to sell we used the Stock and Land Beef Week Open Day as our quasi sale day. This saw almost half of our bulls selling on they day with the rest selling over the subsequent couple of months. We subsequently used this as our marketing day every year since – with the exception of last year when I had to travel overseas for family reasons – and this has enabled us to not only show our bulls every year but build up a client base to enable us to hold our first on-farm sale this year which as you all know by now, we are VERY excited about. It is such a milestone for us as we take pride in how far we have come and have faith in how far we can go.
The Stock and Land Beef Week is a cost effective way to both market your stud and for smaller start-up studs like ourselves, an effective way to make sales too when you first start out and build up your client base. In a nutshell that’s why we LOVE Stock and Land Beef Week.
Click here to go the Stock and Land Beef Week website
http://www.beefweek.com.au/FullDaymapAutumn and see what studs are participating in what day and map out your very own Beef Tour.
- Are you a fan of the Stock and Land Beef Week?
- What do you love best about Beef Week?
- This year see’s the 26th Beef Week – how many have you participated in as an attendee?
- Are you a black Angus commercial breeder and have never attended a Beef Week?
- Do you pick your days or do you travel to all 9 days of the Beef Week tour?
- Is there anything you would change about the Stock and Land Beef Week?
Great article and informative blog 🙂
I’m not easily impressed but you’ve done it with that posting.