Wild donkeys from the NT prove popular with stud cattle breeders

Wild donkeys from the Northern Territory are proving a much safer and more efficient option for breaking in stud cattle for the show ring.

Butcher, cattle fitter and Speckle Park stud breeder, Troy Hepburn, who hails from Casino, NSW, started training wild donkeys with his mate, Michael Robinson, about three years ago.

Mr Hepburn said a big, strong steer, which they wanted to show, used to tow him around everywhere during training.

He said they decided to hook his mate's donkey up to the steer, and within two hours, the steer was walking alongside him.

"We had an idea then and bought some wild ones, and we just started training and...selling them and they took off," he said.

"We didn't realise how much of a market there was."

Mr Hepburn said they sell a trained donkey for $3000 and "everyone is just snapping them up at the moment".

He said they bought them wild from the Northern Territory and spent about four months training them, getting them quiet and used to cattle, and walking the cattle around.

That price of $3000 will, however, be tested when one of the duo's highly trained donkeys, called Cash, goes up for auction in the Hot Spot Sale Multi Vendor Speckle Park Auction at Ivery Downs, Colinton, on March 22.

"It will be a bit of test...to see what they (a trained donkey) are worth to people," Mr Hepburn said.

Stacey Jones of Ivery Downs Speckle Park said she and her husband, Dale, had used donkeys as protection animals for a few years because they had wild dog issues from time to time.

"So we had bought unhandled donkeys and put them out with the herd, and have not had a single dog problem since," she said.

But feeling the need to show their stud cattle to promote the Speckle Park breed, Ms Jones told Queensland Country Life that breaking in cattle for showing when you're not a professional was a very laborious task when so many other things needed to be done.

"Particularly when it gets to the stage of teaching them to lead, you really need someone at the front pulling the lead and someone behind them and chasing them up," she said.

"Taking two people out of action to break in some cattle when so many others things need to be done, it was annoying my husband.

"So, we were looking for a way to make this quicker, safer and more efficient, and we were aware that they used a lot (of donkeys) in North America for breaking in show cattle."

Ms Jones said someone told them about how Troy was using them with his cattle and that he might have some for sale.

The Jones have now bought two trained donkeys from Mr Hepburn - Heppy and Burnie.

"We got Heppy home and he was just amazing. We put some bigger cattle on him and we just held our breathe...but geez they (donkeys) know their job," Ms Jones said.

"He would just plant himself down and pull them around and, in no time, these cattle were doing exactly what he wanted them to do."

To clip a donkey safely to an untrained stud animal, Ms Jones said her husband rigged up two side-by-side shutes and monitors the hour-long training sessions remotely through security cameras.

Mrs Jones said using the donkeys had freed everyone up on the farm to do other work and had got their stud cattle broken in very efficiently and safely.

Last weekend, March 1 and 2, Mr Hepburn took Cash to a youth camp at Hawthorne Speckle Park Stud, Coulson, near Boonah.

"A lot of people struggle to get their cattle leading these days and you need two people most of the time, and you need to be strong to try and pull them," Mr Hepburn said.

"So, I just showed them (the young people) how the donkey works and how much easier it is with animal-on-animal contact to get the cattle walking."

As donkeys are known to be quite stubborn, Mr Hepburn said it was pretty hard to train a wild one.

"You need a lot of patience with them and that's why I take at least three to four months to get them going," he said.

"Especially from the wild and coming out of the Territory to then tying them up and getting them to hooked to stud cattle to walk around and lead and make cattle quiet, it's a bit of a process.

"I think there is a bit of a knack (to training them) but once you do a few - we've broken in and sold about nine or 10 - it gets easier."