Highly regarded Queensland cattle auctioneer and stud sale coordinator Ken McCaffrey has never lost his passion for the industry he has been a part of for close to five decades.
Born and raised in country Queensland at Chinchilla on the Darling Downs, Ken developed an interest in cattle and horses from an early age.
This interest led to him attending the Queensland Agricultural College (Gatton College) in the early 1970’s. While he was there he worked closely with the QAC Brahman Stud cattle and Arabian Horse Stud teams.
The college had their own annual on-property stud cattle and horse sales in those days conducted by selling agents MacTaggarts Pastoral & Property Co-Operative Association which was comprised of leading stud stock auctioneers and agents.
“While at college I wrote to MacTaggarts to see if I could give them a hand at the college stud auctions on sale day,” Ken said.
“They said yes and that was when I met Garth Hughes, who in all my time in the industry, is the best bloodstock auctioneer and one of the top stud stock auctioneers I’ve worked with,” he said.
At the end of one sale where Ken had assisted MacTaggarts, Garth asked him what he was going to do when he left college.
“He said to send my details in to MacTaggarts when I finished college and he’d assist to get me a position.
It was a defining moment in Ken’s life as he’d been offered a cadet rural reporter position at the ABC, but turned it down in favour of a career in the stock and station agency/auctioneering game.
Ken gained his auctioneer’s licence in 1975 under the late Tim Clifford of MacTaggarts at Gracemere.
“I can still remember the first pen of mickey bulls he let me sell; Tim was a good teacher, always guiding me to be better.
His early years in the livestock agency business involved spells in the head office bloodstock and stud stock departments, property and real estate sections, fat and store cattle department and pig and calf sale departments.
“I have been an auctioneer of everything from pigs to property.
“I worked in agency branches such as Theodore, Gin Gin, Kilcoy, Rockhampton and managed the Eidsvold office of Australian Estates Co. Ltd.”
Ken said that it was when he was transferred to work in Rockhampton in the ‘70’s that he knew it was the place for him, because of its wholesome beef cattle emphasis.
It wasn’t until the early 1980’s that he returned permanently in the position of Central & Northern Queensland Stud and Bloodstock officer/auctioneer, and then Rockhampton branch manager.
“They were busy years with a lot of development in the Central and Northern Australian cattle industry taking place.
“I was selling at bull sales in the Kimberley’s, Northern Territory and throughout Central and Northern Queensland as well as selling at the major thoroughbred yearling sales at the Gold Coast every year.
“The Bovine Brucellosis and Tuberculosis Eradication Campaign (BTEC) was in operation then, which promoted significant herd improvement in the Northern cattle country and investment by cattle producers in better genetics.”
In 1990 the late Jeff and Ann McCamley of Lancefield Brahman Stud and Sir Graham and the late Lady Shirley McCamley of Tartrus Brahman Stud suggested to Ken that he should open his own business concentrating on stud cattle marketing and sales.
He also had a close association at that time with Ken Warriner, the general manager of Consolidated Pastoral Company (CPC), which was in the early stages of its development to become one of the nation’s leading pastoral companies.
During that time CPC was acquiring Isis Downs, Nockatunga, Allawah Brahman Stud, and expanding their holdings in the Northern Territory and Western Australia.
“Every hour in Ken’s company, if you listen or watch, you learn something beneficial, and I don’t know of anyone else who would have the capacity to undertake, with such success, what was required when the Packer Family embarked on its rural expansion in those years.”
Ken was pleased when Mr Warriner joined the McCamleys as backers of McCaffrey’s Australian Livestock Marketing when it commenced business on July 1, 1990.
McCaffrey’s ALM specialises in stud cattle marketing, sale management and coordination, auctioneering services and breeding advisory services to the stud industry.
Its principal area of operation is Central and Northern Queensland with Brahman breeders constituting the majority of the clientele.
Ken said he’s been fortunate to sell with and/or watch many exceptional auctioneers in the industry over the last 45 years.
“I had many wonderful years working with Dave Watkins, who in his prime was the very best of them all.
“The Northern cattle industry and Bos Indicus breeds can peg a certain amount of their growth and success in the ‘70’s and ‘80’s to the influence of Dave Watkins as an auctioneer in my opinion.
“He’d make a big sale bigger, he’d switch on like a footballer in a Grand Final, he’d get every dollar available in the ring and he’d let down pretty quickly after a sale too.
Ken said it was the auctioneers who could command an audience and try that bit harder that most interested him.
“I regard auctioneering as just like having a conversation between yourself and a group of people. Your success depends on how influential and persuasive you are with them.
“You have to create or enhance a desire in people to need to have that certain bull or horse.
Ken said one of the biggest changes from when we started in stud cattle selling to present day is how the spread of stud’s breeding and selling bulls and stud bull sales have increased to encompass a much wider area.
“Three decades ago Gracemere was the key centre for bull sales with a few other on-property sales.
“Now in Central Queensland there are bull sales at Nebo, Clermont, Emerald, Springsure, Alpha, Moura, Capella, Monto, Blackall, Longreach and Winton, to name a few, all of which draw on the same available market.
Other changes he mentioned include the diminished reliance on show ring success as an indicator of sale ring price; the increased information flow of genetic and raw data performance indicators available to prospective bull buyers to allow them to source animals most suited to their breeding requirements and the launch of livestream viewing and online bidding, which he believes will become commonplace quickly.
“The evolution in production of the Northern cattle herd across Australia resulting from better herd management and producer investment in superior performance genetics and the continued improvement in Australian Brahman cattle to a breed that fulfils the specifications of the major premium markets of the industry are two other significant changes that have occurred over the decades.”
In summarising his career, Ken said he feels privileged to act for a group of clients who share his desire for success and application to professionalism and high standards.
“Our objective in business is to optimise sale results and returns for our clients. All actions we take and decisions we make are undertaken in their best interests.
“That we have achieved many significant highlights over the years is a reflection of the quality of our loyal clientele and of the product we choose to market.”
Ken said some of his personal career highlights to date include:
- Auctioneering Lancefield Burton Manso in 2006 for $300,000, the highest price beef breed bull ever sold in Australia.
- Auctioneering Snippets at the first Magic Millions Yearling Sale in 1986 who became the inaugural winner of the Magic Millions 2yo Stakes.
- Auctioneering a colt at the Magic Millions for a sale topping $550,000.
- The establishment and continued success of industry leading stud cattle sales at Charters Towers including the Wilangi Invitation Brahman Sale (1988), Big Country Brahman Sale (1994) and the MAGS Droughtmasters (2002).
- His association as agent and auctioneer with the McCamley Families’ Tartrus Lancefield Brahman Sale and now Lancefield Invitation Brahman Sale since 1982 including their Annual Sale in 2006 which grossed an Australian record for a private vendor annual stud cattle sale of $2,433,500.