THE Elders Annual Great Southern Breeder Sale will undergo a name change this year in recognition of former Elders stockie and auctioneer Ray Norman.
The sale will now be known as the Elders Ray Norman Memorial Breeders Sale as a tribute to the well known and well liked Mr Norman who lost a battle with cancer earlier this year.
Mr Norman had a 45-year career with Elders with the majority of that time based in the Great Southern.
He started his career with Elders in Albany and Mt Barker, then moved to Katanning for four years.
This was followed by a two-year stint at Boyup Brook and then two years at Dalwallinu, before he moved back to Albany in 1988 where he worked and lived until his passing.
He had a long association with the Mt Barker breeders sale penning many cattle in the sale on behalf of clients.
This year’s sale will see a group of heifers auctioned off for charity with the proceeds to go to the Albany Hospice.
Wayne Mitchell, Elders Albany and Mt Barker, said Elders had asked Ray’s wife Wendy and her extended family to choose a charity or health service to benefit and they chose the Albany Hospice.
“There will be five pregnancy tested in calf heifers from some very good commercial herds in the area sold at the sale and half of the money they make will go to the Hospice,” Mr Mitchell said.
“Further to that there will be 10 unjoined heifers that will also be auctioned off and proceeds from these will also go to the Albany Hospice.
“There will be no cost charged on these cattle from Elders or from the Mt Barker Regional Saleyards.”
Mr Mitchell thanked those vendors who had elected to offer cattle to support the fundraiser and said it was a good way to recognise Ray’s contribution.
“For ever more the sale will be known as the Ray Norman Memorial Breeders Sale and that is a good legacy for us to have for him,” he said.
Once again the sale will see a large number of quality breeding cattle go under the hammer on Monday, December 17.
Repeat vendors who have supported the sale for many years will once again be back with lines of cows and heifers and the sale will consist of close to 550 breeding females.
The Young family, Hillcrest Farms, Youngs Siding and Walpole, will offer up 65 Angus breeders that are mostly second and third calvers, with some rising fourth calvers.
The Hillcrest cows are all PTIC and will be a complete herd dispersal from the Young’s Youngs Siding property.
The cows are due to start calving on March 10 and finish by the end of May.
They are mated to Texas Angus stud bulls and Boyacup Angus stud bulls.
Also on offer in the sale will be a line of 40 rising 2.5yo Murray Grey heifers from Brian James’ Kalgan property.
These heifers are by home-bred Murray Grey bulls that go back to Southend bloodlines and are also PTIC to home-bred Murray Grey bulls that have been chosen for their calving ease traits.
They are due in mid-January and will calve for two months.
Vicky Smith, Dajara Farm, Narrikup, will again offer a quality line-up of Angus heifers and cows.
Dajara will have approximately 40 Angus heifers on offer that have been mated to Angus bulls, Stonedale Longhaul M448 and Diamond Tree Evident L269.
These heifers are due to start calving on February 23, 2019 through to April 25, 2019
Dajara will also offer 12 Angus cows that are 2014 and 2105 drop.
These cows have also been mated to Stonedale Longhaul M448 and Diamond Tree Evident L269 and are due to calve from February 23, 2019, through to May 11, 2019.
All the Dajara females have had a full vaccination program of UltraVac 7in1 and Pestigard (May 16, 2018) and a Multimin injection on August 23.
They were also drenched with Eclipse pour-on at the same time they had their Multimin injection.
The heifers and cows were pregnancy tested on September 21, 2018 and will be preg tested again on December 11 when they will be given a long-acting selenium and B12 injection.
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All the Dajara cattle on offer have been purchased locally from the Mt Barker Regional Saleyards and will be sold back in their respective lines/ear marks.
O Moreth, Hillside, will offer 13 Angus rising first calvers that have been running with Diamond Tree and Koojan Hills bulls, with these due to calve from February 15 to April 30, 2019.
The Moreth operation will also offer 30 Angus rising second calvers that have also been running with Diamond Tree and Koojan Hills bulls with the same calving date as the first calvers.
A large draft will come from TA & TL Bradshaw who will offer 83 head of Angus and Murray Grey cross breeders.
This will include 19 rising seventh to ninth calvers, 20 rising sixth calvers, 19 rising fifth calvers and 25 rising fourth calvers.
The seventh to ninth calvers have been running with Angus bulls and are due to calve from January 23 through to March 13.
The remaining lines have been mated to Melaleuca Murray Grey bulls and will have the same calving date as the older cows.
RA Bentink will again have quality lines of Angus females in the sale with 60 in total.
They will range in age from rising second calvers to fourth calvers and all have been mated to Lawsons Angus bulls and are due to calve from February 20 to May 15, 2019.
Bonegilla will offer a large draft of breeders ranging in age from mated heifers to seventh calvers.
The enterprise will have a mix of breeds on offer with the mated heifers made up of Angus, Simmental cross and Charolais.
These have all been mated to a low birthweight Angus bull.
Also on offer from Bonegilla will be 40 Angus second to seventh calvers that have been mated to an Angus bull with a Simmental bull back up.
Then there will be a large draft of Red Angus-Simmental cross cows that will range in age from rising second calvers to seventh calvers that have been mated to Red Angus-Simmental cross bulls.
A line of first cross Angus-Friesian second calvers to fifth calvers will also come from Bonegilla and these have been mated to an Angus bull with a Simmental bull back up.