Beef cattle ruling the ring at the Scottsdale Show

Scottsdale Show has become the biggest beef cattle show on the calendar and entries were up on previous years, with huge classes of Angus and Murray Greys taking up two rings while being paraded for the judges.

Weighing in at 1125kg Quarterways Techno was a whole lot of bull for Toby Hall to handle but the big beast stood quietly, accepted a few pats on his wide, flat forehead and waited for his time in the limelight.

The Grand Champion Bull of the Show was a welcome local win for the Halls, who have long been entrenched in organising, running and supporting the show.

Toby and his brother Riley had three bulls and three cows entered in various sections, and ended up taking home ribbons for Grand Champion Steer and Most Successful Exhibitor in the prime cattle section.

The brothers are the third generation to run the stud, started by their grandparents Lance and Ena Hall, and have grown the enterprise to include 600 Angus breeders backed up by 1600 commercial females.

Every year they sell about 150 bulls split between spring and autumn sales and the remainder of their commercial stock mainly goes to Tas Feedlots while some are grown out for Greenhams and JBS.

“It’s nice to be able to go to your local show and win something like that,’ Toby said.

“We like to think we have good cattle but you don’t know until you put it to the test.

“We agreed with judge Darryl Hazelwood when he said that the quality of cattle on show was one of the best seen in a long time.”

Getting the cattle ready was a short-lived distraction from getting spuds planted but the Hall family’s involvement is mult-faceted.

Toby, Riley and their dad Trevor are all on the Show Committee, Trevor is on the mic commentating on the cattle (until one of his heifers steps on his leg anyway) and sister Alice is show president while their mum Teresa is a gun in the home industries.

Alice said that fine weather helped crowd numbers during the two days and she said that the community seemed to embrace an updated layout.

“There were some new entertainment options and a great vibe and both the cattle and equestrian events were bigger and better than last year,” she said.

“It was also great to have a big range of machinery and agricultural supplies represented on both days.”