STOCK & Land Beef Week kicks off in just under two week’s time, with 196 beef studs currently preparing to open their gates to the public.
The event, held from January 29 – February 6, will see over 5000 bulls of 26 breeds displayed, at properties in Victoria and the Riverina.
Event director Geoff Phillips said many of these bulls will be offered for sale during the field days, as well as at on-property bull sales in the weeks following.
“We expect these studs will display 5000 bulls, and will sell them for [a total of] $35 million during Beef Week, and at annual bull sales held in February and March,” Mr Phillips said.
He said there is a lot of optimism in the industry at the moment.
“I think given the way the beef industry is going, we should have a lot of people out and about during the event,” he said.
“I think the reputation for beef studs in the south-east corner of Australia is really growing, and will see lots more interstate and overseas visitors out for the event.”
He said as well as sale bulls, stud will have other members of their herds on display.
“We encourage studs to put on display some of their breeders, replacement heifers, and their younger bulls, people want to see their entire herd, including the females,” he said.
The RASV Heifer Challenge will again be held this year, with 45 studs entering 10 heifers from their 2016-drop.
These entries will be displayed during their Stock & Land Beef Week open day, and will be judged by former Galloway, Angus and Buchan Black breeder Malcolm Cook, who has been in the industry for 40 years.
Mr Phillips said the quality of heifers will be high.
“Because they’ve had such a fantastic season, they will be in excellent quality,” he said.
“The studs’ genetics are continually improving, offering commercial and stud cattle buyers the top genetics available.”
One lucky person will be awarded a $900 discount on a purchase from a participating Hereford stud, thanks to a competition being run by Herefords Gippsland.
Herefords Gippsland field day sub-committee president Barry Newcomen said each person that visits the six participating studs will have the opportunity to enter the raffle.
Participating studs include Warringa, Mawarra, Newcomen, Nunniong, Karoonda, and Glen Goulburn.
Mr Newcomen said the competition, which has been running for about 10 years, was established to encourage people to visit their properties during the open days.