IN naming Caleb of Amrabull Park the grand champion bull in the Highland ring at the Royal Adelaide Show this year, judge Jonathon Spence referred to renowned Melbourne restaurant Rockpool, which displays photographs of the greats across various beef breeds.
The magnificent Highland bull Chester Dohnn Laird of Gathbodhan, which won interbreed competitions in his time, is on show.
“I’d suggest they could probably replace that now with this fellow,” Mr Spence said.
“He is a superb specimen - very sound, mobile, he has a tremendous set-up in that hind leg, he is beautifully made in the testicals, has great length and that traditional Highland head with a wonderful set of horns.
“He’d stack up anywhere in the country and could easily have won in a 50-head show.”
For owner Scott Carter, the comments about the 33-month-old, 708 kilogram bull with an eye muscle area measuring 108 square centimetres, marked the pinnacle of 13 years of breeding Highlands at Nuriootpa in the Barossa Valley.
With his mother Leanne and Luke Godly, Mr Carter runs the small Amrabull Park Highland Cattle stud as a passion but hopes to one day make it his full-time job.
“It was a big honour to be compared to a bull looked up to across beef breeding, a bull that made the Highland breed noticed - it is what I have been aiming for,” Mr Carter said.
It was the second grand champion title at Adelaide in a row for Caleb, who was also supreme exhibit at the Australian Highland Cattle Show in Junee, NSW, in June.
He has been sold to Atkinson Livestock, Harrowgate, for breeding pedigree Highlands.
Caleb was sired by Lauriston Angelo and is out of Charlotte of Amrabull Park, who was named grand champion cow by Mr Spence.
The seven-year-old, paraded with three-month-old heifer calf Laura Angela, was true to type, with excellent length and volume of capacity, Mr Spence said.
Heritage breeds had become very popular in branded product and that advanced the beef industry, he said.
Indeed, while Mr Carter’s desire is to preserve rare, heritage breeds, he said they needed a purpose in order for that to happen and his plan was to sell beef as a labelled product, with a provenance story.