First time exhibitor at Ekka scores grand champion bull win
First time exhibitor to the Royal Queensland Show, Kyle Mellors, Chinchilla, was delighted when his Blonde D'Aquitaine was named grand champion bull for the breed.
The 19-month-old bull, Melander Victoria's Secret, was sired by Blackwater Ainsley and was out of Strathbally Nutella.
He weighed 630 kilograms, had a P8 and rib fat of 5 millimetres and 4mm respectively, and an eye muscle area of 106 square centimetres.
Mr Mellors, Melander Blondes, Bluebell Downs, said it was always a good feeling to get a win.
He said he decided to enter the Royal Queensland Show this year because it was the 50th anniversary of the Blonde D'Aquitaines in Australia.
"So we've tried to do all the big shows this year," he said.
"We just normally do all the local shows, a couple of cattle camps and schools with kids."
Mr Mellors said they chose the Blondes to breed as they wanted a profitable carcase that put meat in a box faster as they only had small properties.
He said he had a commercial herd where they crossed Blondes over Speckles and Shorthorns.
Taking out the grand champion female in the Blonde D'Aquitaines this year was Waite-A-While, exhibited by Wayne and Brenda Hess, Waw Beef, Maclagan.
The 23-month-old cow was sired by Belini Qent and was out of Waite-A-While Madeleine.
Mr Hess said he was pretty excited by the win as the cow was the junior calf winner at Beef last year and come a long way since.
He said the cow was also grand champion female at the Nanango Feature Show in April and to get this win at the Queensland Royal Show was pretty exciting.
Mrs Hess said they had sourced genetics from across Australia and this cow was based on some of the foundation studs such as Amaroo and Willroy of the Blonde breed that were dedicated to keeping the quality traits of those cattle.
"The softness that we look for as beef producers, with Wayne being a butcher, but also the femininity for our cows to be mothers, that's their job," she said.
"This heifer to us is pretty unique in that it's 50 years of the Blondes and we seem to have a combination of quite a few Australian genetics."
Mr Hess said as a butcher he really liked the yield of the breed.
"There's not a lot of bone or waste that goes out the back door, it all goes to the customer," he said.
The Hesses have a commercial herd of Angus/Blonde cross, as well as a stud of 50 breeders.
Judge John Mercer said there was not a big line up of Blondes, but the champion bull was a strong muscular bull with a lot of presence.
He said the champion female was an exceptionally good young heifer, springing up to her first calf.
"Blondes have tremendous attributes for carcase yield and good meat quality, and have won the Gympie carcase classic plenty of times," he said.
"They're great carcasses and they do suit our local trade market with about 80 to 100 days on grain they're pretty much unbeatable...they're just a little bit harder to get the fat cover on at times compared to some other breeds."
Results
Judge: John Mercer
No. of exhibits: Five
Junior champion female: Melander Underbelly, Travis Hahn, Miles
Senior champion female: Waite-A- Wyle, Waw Beef, Wayne and Belinda Hess, Maclagan
Reserve senior champion female: Melander Tahoola, Kyle and Tamara Mellors, Chinchilla
Junior champion male: Melander Victoria's Secret, Kyle and Tamara Mellors, Chinchilla
Reserve junior champion male: Melander Victa, Luke Harris, Wonglepong
Grand champion female: Waite-A- Wyle, Waw Beef, Wayne and Belinda Hess, Maclagan
Grand champion male: Melander Victoria's Secret, Kyle and Tamara Mellors, Chinchilla
