Thank you!

We can’t thank you enough for your support this year - we honestly couldn’t breed bulls without the support of our family, team, friends, suppliers, bidders, underbidders and you!  We would like to wish you and your family a safe and happy Christmas and wonderful 2022. 

RAINFALL CHARTS

We have rainfall charts available to post to anyone that wants one. Please forward your postal address to kirstywhite@baldblair.com.au and we will send one to you asap.  Good luck filling in those rainfall figures and we hope that the farmers that want rain receive it and those that could do with a break get one.

Seasonal Update:

We received a huge amount of rain in late November, up to 180mm of rain across all our properties. The rain continues in December, with over 1100 mm for the year to date.  It is massive. The water table is full to overflowing, getting bogged is part of a weekly occurrence. The grass is growing, with massive amount of feed on hand.  This looks set to continue for the remainder of this LaNina event.

Bald Blair Angus 2021 Bull Sale Survey

The winners of the new Bald Blair Angus truckers cap are Ron & Sue Clarke from Yessabah! Thank you again to all the kind people that completed the survey.  We really appreciate your support. We are really happy with our new limited edition trucking caps. Thank you Kylie and the team at Insignia for organising them for us. https://insigniaco.com.au/ Insignia are a local family based at Glencoe that also have a Hereford and Speckled Park stud. 

Low Stress Stock Handling School (read: Advanced Livestock Handling)

We were delighted to host trainers Chook and Ali Kealey at our recent LSS school. We held it just after school finished so that Abbott & Arthur could attend.  Our team also attended, including Sam and Kirsty. Sam has done the school three times and Kirsty twice - we had forgotten so much and really appreciated the refresher. It was fantastic to have some young guns from the Walcha & Nowendoc district to lower the average age and the atmosphere was perfect for learning & practical sessions in between showers of rain. See  https://www.lss.net.au/ There are a couple of schools organised for early next year - see https://www.lss.net.au/dates.htm for more details. If you are interested in attending a school at Bald Blair, late next year, around December 2022 please let us know and depending on the level of interest we may host another school next year. We will be updating our livestock handling system to reflect our renewed enthusiasm for low stress livestock handling. Congratulations to Arthur, Rose and Trine for winning the rare LSS caps.  Huge thanks to Chook & Ali for your time, commitment and enthusiasm and to the great people attending the school.

Breeding Season

The spring breeding season is drawing to a close on Bald Blair. Our cows look great, bulls are doing what bulls should be doing and are looking forward to a rest no doubt. This year, our cover sires have included, NBBP52 (S: NORL519) the first of his calves are on the ground, NBBN112 (S: HIOG18) his calves are already on the ground also, NBBQ133 (S: SPwr Pt) his calves are already on the ground also, NBBR71 (S: VLYM518) new sire, NBBQ155 (VLYM518) new sire. A top suite of coversires, looking forward to seeing their progeny develop. Another sire from the Bald Blair herd, NBBP97 (AI only), has some great looking calves in the 2021 calf crop. 

The autumn calving group is just about to start calving. This will be our second crop of autumn crop calves, all due from Jan 1 (hopefully anyway, they may be a few days early. Last years Autumn drop heifers look fantastic and have had a season, so they look amazing, and cannot wait to get them joined next year.

2022 Bull Sale Team:  The 2022 Bull sale cohort is doing well.  In the 2022 Bull Sale year we will see bulls offered for sale at 2 Years of age and at 18 Months of age also. There will be 10 Yearling Bulls also on offer. A number of sires will be well represented, namely NORL519, VLYM518, Sydgen Enhance, Musgrave 316 Exclusive, GAR Inertia to name a few.  New sires introduced will include Landfall Keystone, Millah Murrah Paratrooper P15. There will also be progeny of some of the coversires mentioned above. 

Calf Marking

The commercial calves have been branded and marked.  At the time of preparing this report we are still completing the Stud Calf Tagging, TSU collection and vaccinations.  This year we have used Buccalgesic, as a pain relief while branding and castrating. This was administered through the mouth, and certainly didn’t take up a lot of extra time during the process.  The calves certainly responded well to the pain relief, being up and around and mothering up quickly. This will be part of our ongoing management plans, as has the use of NumNutts for Lambs as well.

Silage

We did not get the sorghum planted this year as planned - the paddocks are too wet.

Super

Thank you to Paul Harris at Elders for organising the supply of super and the truck drivers for the patience with unloading into our hay shed and super bunker.  It was the first time we had two super trucks bogged at the same time in two different locations.  We required two tractors at Bald Blair to get one truck out of a bog! Thank you Dan Klabe for spreading the super between rain events.

Weeds

Thank you Fi Higgins for spraying the nodding thistles - it has been fantastic having you out there nursing the old Triton ute through the paddocks between rain events and keeping these weeds within management.

Commercial Semen Sires

We are very pleased to offer a selection of Bald Blair Angus sires that are suitable for commercial breeding AI rpogrammes.  These bulls have been used in our commercial herd and as cover sires for our stud herd.  These sires have been retained in the herd for use over the next few years.   They are both DNA – parent assured so you can be 100% confident they are by the sire and dam recorded.

BALD BLAIR QUEBEC Q133 PV

This homegrown sire has been retained in our own herd because we believe he meets our breeding goals.  He will not be offered for sale at our on property bull sale – and is therefore only available as semen straws.

https://angus.tech/enquiry/animal/result?page=1&tql=id%20is%20%27NBBQ133%27&sortColumnId=id&sortOrder=asc&title=&baseType=all&base=&pv=

Bald Blair Quebec Q133(PV) is a Herdbook bull out of S Powerpoint WS5503.  He is in the top 1% of the breed for Calving Ease Daughters.  He is +3.9 for IMF and +4.7 for EMA.

Bald Blair Momentous NBBR71 (PV)

This homegrown sire has been retained in our own herd because we believe he meets our near term breeding goals.  He will not be offered for sale at our on property bull sale in 2022. 

https://angus.tech/enquiry/animal/result?page=1&tql=id%20is%20%27NBBR71%27&sortColumnId=id&sortOrder=asc&title=&baseType=all&base=&pv=

R71 is a Lawsons Momentous M518 son, top 10% new Angus Breeding Index at time of this blog.  Good spread of Birth to growth, low Mature Cow Weight, EMA 7.5 and IMF at 4.3.

Fencing

Thank you Taylor McDonald and Naz.  We have a magnificent new tree guard in Cruickshanks - and have some more serious tree planting to do.  They have also removed a tree guard from around established pine trees.  The heifers in this paddock are loving the access to excellent shade during the middle of the day under the trees, not just beside the fence.  We have plenty more fencing projects to do including splitting the well paddock, fencing off the lagoon and finishing the roadside boundary at Bald Blair, to name a few and these will continue in the new year.

Holiday Reading

Have you seen the latest MLA Feeback magazine?  It is an excellent resource for sharing our story of life on the land as the current custodians of livestock and land.  You may also like to check out being a Red Meat Ambassador https://www.mla.com.au/news-and-events/industry-news/mla-seeks-industry-champions-for-new-red-meat-ambassadors-program/   The course is very comprehensive and well worth your time.

PODCAST: Bald Blair Angus: The Data Breeder

https://podcasts.apple.com/au/podcast/the-data-breeder-by-bald-blair-angus/id1574009246 On the Data Breeder, we talk about how to use data to make better genetic selection decisions that will put more money back into your bank account. We will be recording some more episodes next year - so if you have any suggestions please let us know.

Kelly’s Cottage

We have installed a gorgeous new queen bed in the main bedroom at Kelly’s Cottage and a lovely outdoor table and chairs on the enclosed verandah.  We have recently hosted a family that lived and worked here at Bald Blair as well as some Navy friends of Sams.  We are looking forward to hosting more guests in 2022. https://www.baldblairangus.com.au/farm-stay-with-airbnb

Please enjoy reading this fantastic blog post by Amanda Woods https://adventuresallaround.com/guyra-guide-new-england-nsw/

Farmer Wants a Wife!

We are looking forward to watching the next series of Farmer Wants A Wife with local farmer Benjamin, one of the bachelors - check out his promo video here https://farmerwantsawife.com.au/

You may remember Ben from his Facebook sheep art heart https://www.facebook.com/benjackson88/videos/270233037944381/

well worth sharing if you have not already done so. 

Ladies In Livestock

It was fantastic to see Ladies In Livestock holding events again in Guyra, Tenterfield and Walcha. Kirsty was unable to attend the Guyra day, so travelled down to Walcha to enjoy an excellent field day.  It was great to meet the Walcha ladies, listen to Dr Peter McGilchrist, Associate Professor - Meat  Science UNE, talk about the futuristic carcass - aligning market trends with breeding objectives in beef and lamb.  We also really enjoyed the gorgeous garden of our host.  Thank you so much to the Ladies in Livestock team at the Northern Tablelands Local Land Services. https://www.facebook.com/ladiesinlivestock  Make sure you are on the mailing list and grab a friend to attend the next event in 2022.

Rosie-May Blue - Mayhem at the Pet Show

Our neighbour Prudie Woods has written and published gorgeous book. 

The story goes….. Rosie-May Blue and her family have just moved to the township of Waterfall Way. When Rosie-May’s pony, Carrie, goes missing, Rosie-May fears for the worst. Her newfound friend Ellie is a comfort at her new school and together, they share a love of horse-riding. However, will their friendship survive the secret that Rosie-May uncovers? Will the secret spoil Rosie-May’s chance at winning a prize at the Waterfall Way Pet Show? Saddle up and join Rosie-May and Ellie for their first adventure together at Waterfall Way. 

Perfect for Christmas presents here https://www.rosiemayblue.com/  

Bald Blair Angus Merchandise: We have renewed our merchandise stock: hand towels, enamel mugs and new trucking caps are now available from our online store: https://www.baldblairangus.com.au/store/

Contact us: Sam White 0438 792 140  or Kirsty White 0427 722 908