ALTHOUGH the SA Junior Heifer Expo is held in the dead of winter, one particular animal shown this year is bred to cope with the harsh hot conditions of the outback.
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For the first time, a Droughtmaster heifer – Bos Park Flirt DS – was entered.
She was trucked all the way down from Bos Park Droughtmaster stud in Queensland, and exhibited by William Weir, 13, Ammaroo Station, Alice Springs, in his second visit to the expo – accompanied by his mother Anna.
"It's great fun down here," William said. "I've learnt lots about how to prepare cattle and show them properly."
In 2011 William was fourth in his class, and backed-up that achievement last week with fourth place in his class again.
Although William's family are not stud breeders, for the past few years he has been attending the Alice Springs Show & Sale, where he won the junior judging and junior handler 12 years and above classes, and showed the champion Northern Territory led steer.
At the 10,000-square kilometre Ammaroo, 320 kilometres north east of Alice Springs, William's family runs a herd of between 10,000 and 15,000 Santa Gertrudis-Droughtmasters.
William was in Adelaide on the back of a $1000 donation from Rabobank and the Centralian Beef Breeders Association, which he won at the Alice Springs Show last year.
*Full report in Stock Journal, July 25 issue, 2013.
