Brahman bull sells for $1125
Northern cattlemen were given the opportunity to select top quality bulls during the annual October sale in Townsville.
Most, if not all, vendors were prepared to meet the market.
The top priced Brahman did not gain a bid at auction. He was subject to a reserve and no near offer was forthcoming but was later sold privately for $1125.
The top priced Droughtmaster brought $775 at auction.
Alarming increase in feral pigs
Far northern graziers were lending their support behind a move for Army helicopters to undertake search and destroy missions to decimate the spiraling wild pig population.
Peninsula cattleman V. G. Collins of Einasleigh Station near Georgetown said the state and federal government were just not aware of the magnitude of the problem.
"If foot and mouth disease ever gets into this wild pig population, no government action could ever cop with it," he said.
He claimed feral pigs in mobs of several hundred were roaming the Far North with no form of control.
The pigs, he said, were causing untold damage by ripping up pastures and fouling watering points.
Cattlemen in the Far North couldn't afford to attempt to control the pigs, even with 1080 poison. He was calling on the state and federal government to step in with funds.
Signing off sheepishly
For more than 15 years Australian sheep breeders had been using a simple device invented by CSIRO to keep track of sheep matings.
Shire Sine was a coloured sheep-marking composition that doesn't damage wool.
It comprised of a harness fitted with a slab of coloured wax-based crayon fitted to the ram's chest.
When the ram and ewe joined, the soft crayon left the ram's signature on the ewe's wool.
The studmaster could keep tabs on which ewes have been mated and how the rams were performing.
The use of different crayon colours allowed up to four rams to be monitored in a single flock.
Before it was developed sheep were often branded with tar.
It couldn't be removed by scouring and branded areas of the fleece had to be removed by hand and discarded.
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