Alastair Bassingthwaighte in the early days.
The photograph below left, shows a smiling young man in front of a ridgepole tent. His hat is held casually and one boot is propped cockily on a 12-gallon oil drum. The caption, dated July, 1968, reads "Mr Alastair Bassingthwaighte by his ‘Twenty Dollar Homestead’, at Waco, which he drew earlier this year". Three and a half decades later, the promise shown in that optimistic portrait has been fulfilled.
Alastair is now regarded as one of Australia's great cattlemen, and the title of that, then newly settled, property, Waco, is linked inseparably with the name of Yarrawonga as one of the best-known stud entities in Australia. As for the tent, it is long gone, although it has never been replaced by the splendour such success might suggest.
Alastair's preoccupation with breeding fine Santa Gertrudis stock has been so focused that he and his wife Louise have never relaxed into the comfortable ways that often go hand in hand with achievement. They live in the modest Yarrawonga homestead which Alastair's father built onto on his Wallumbilla block - the nerve centre for the six properties that comprise Australia's most successful Santa operation.
Despite breaking the $1 million barrier for a single vendor sale in 1988 and following with an Australian record $70,000 bull a year later, there is no stable of aeroplanes and expensive cars. They continue to live moderately. Income goes back to the paddock invested in property improvement and, bulls and females whose bloodlines are sought throughout the country and are now being marketed overseas.
Alastair’s father, Dave - a friendly and gentle six-footer who died in 1989, aged 76 years, laid the foundations for the enterprise’s present success. In his youth however, he was a different character. His piercing blue eyes looked out on the world with a dogged determination to work hard and achieve his goals - one of which was to ‘breed good cattle’. He grew up near Bell on the edge of the Darling Downs where his parents, Chesleigh & Edith Bassingthwaighte, owned Niagara Station and the nearby Dunromyn. Dave attended local schools and the Church of England Grammar in Brisbane for two years before returning to the family properties at the age of 16.
When Ches Bassingthwaighte died, the family interests were sold and Dave and his brother Geoff, bought Croombit, north of Chinchilla in the black pine 'goanna' country.
1939 - Dave married Mary Jillet from Tambo
In 1939 Dave married Mary Jillet from Tambo. Two years later, the brothers sold Croombit and set up a stock and station agency in Wallumbilla. Dave also bought 800ha Yarrawonga to run Herefords and, later, rear his three children, Chesleigh (an airline pilot), Alastair and Jan (Russell). While Herefords were then considered a 'modern' breed, Dave was searching for an animal which could handle droughts. Reading the Cattleman magazine on lot feeding, he found an article on Brahman cattle and decided they were what he needed. To lay the base for a planned crossbreeding experiment, he first bought stud Shorthorn cows and commercial females.
When Dave bought his first stud Shorthorn cows from Prospect stud, Alastair, with support from his father, laid the foundation of the Waco stud with the purchase of two heifers at a cost of 90 guineas each.
Soon after, at the 1953 Brisbane Royal, Dave took the step, which led him into an era of controversy, which would last almost 20 years. Brahmans were being shown for the first time (though not allowed to be stalled on the showgrounds) and Dave paid 100 guineas for a heifer, 110 guineas for a cross-bred bull, Burnside Cadet, and 385 guineas for a pure-bred bull, Wairewa Orion 4th. He later said there were 60,000 people on the showground and not one would have a drink with him. "The prejudice against Brahmans in the early days was incredible. Men who had been mates for years would want to fight me in pubs just because I introduced Brahmans into the area."
Dave's use of Brahman-cross females was significant in that the early first-cross bulls had a big impact on the pure Shorthorn herds into which they went. Alastair remembers debating with his father when choosing Santa steers for a Roma fat cattle show. Dave was selecting the high Brahman content beasts, while Alastair wanted the Shorthorn- looking type as they were closer in appearance to the animals with which judges were familiar. Dave replied: "What nonsense. It doesn't matter what they think; this is what we're going to show because they are the best cattle." Dave's determined approach paid off. Many who originally criticised the Yarrawonga type eventually sought the higher Brahman influence because of its strong tolerance to pests and dry weather.
With his new Brahman bulls, Dave became a foundation member of the Droughtmaster Breeders Society. He hoped his Shorthorn cows would produce all-red calves but, alarmingly, the first cross were every colour imaginable. Against that, they weighed 'more and they survived. In the big drought of the 1950's, Dave lost virtually all his Shorthorn cows, but only two of the Brahman cross females - and they were first-calf heifers. Alastair remembers the first cross as "fantastic" animals. "They had size, weight and doing ability. Sure, they were cranky, but the, old Shorthorn cows were man-eaters themselves." Not satisfied with a concentration on colour alone instead of a grading-up program, Dave abandoned the Droughtmasters and opted for the Santa Gertrudis, which had just been imported by King Ranch. Their cattle epitomised a type he had been trying to establish all along.
1955 - The third King Ranch sale at Risdon
It was at the third King Ranch sale at Risdon in 1955 that Dave entered the Santa world, buying KRAR Associate with 800 guineas borrowed from a bank account earmarked for his children's education. The following year he bought Risdon.Banjo. Dave's eye for an animal, which would breed well, was vindicated when King Ranch later bought Risdon Banjo back for its own program. In 1959 everything started to happen at once.
At 46 years of age, Dave drew the choice,13,634 ha, Muldoon Station north of Mungallala, providing much needed land for commercial cattle expansion.
He conducted the first Yarrawonga bull sale on September 30 in the Australian Estates' Wallumbilla yards. His first 34 first-cross Santa bulls averaged 212 guineas, with a top of 405 guineas. Dave often told the tale of being too short of money to shout the buyers a beer after the auction, but if anyone wanted to join him by the boot of his car, he had a waterbag liberally laced with rum which he was more than happy to share.
1960's - The acquisition of the Waco property
By the mid 1960s with Alastair already a part of the family team, the stud program had reached a point where they were desperate to expand, but did not have enough country. Yarrawonga was overflowing with cattle; Muldoon was not stud country and they could not afford to buy a place suited to running single-sire herds. Then after two years of entering 260 land ballots around Queensland, Alastair drew a 4371 ha green brigalow block just 95kms from Yarrawonga. It fell right in our lap and was a very significant part of the development of the stud," says Alastair. "If I had drawn something out the back of Bourke which did not lend itself to stud work, we might have gone on a different tack - we wouldn’t have expanded the Santas."
Alastair gave the name Waco; his stud prefix, to the Wandoan district property, moved into his tent "homestead" and began clearing brigalow. In the meantime, he had met Louise Cameron from Quibet Station, Roma. They married in 1970 and had planned to build a 30 square homestead on Waco until they made the error of attending the Sydney Royal Show Bull Sale.
They had taken the show team to Sydney for their honeymoon. Only two days before, Dave had paid $27,000 for King Ranch Poseidon - a huge price at that time. Alastair & Louise then spotted a superb Santa bull, Pampoola K141, being paraded by the Schmidt family from Cunnamulla and believed that he was the sire they really needed. Dave's reply was: "You will have to make up your mind. I've just paid $27,000 for a bull and I still have to buy a house for you two”. It was Louise's decision to forego the house, allowing the Bassingthwaightes to bid $23,000 for K141.
The quality of the Yarrawonga and Waco cattle was now coming to the fore. For the first time, Alastair had a bull good enough to join the top sire battery. He was, Waco Eclipse - an animal for which Alastair refused $25,000 in 1970, much to his father's disgust. Eclipse weighed 871kgs when he won the 18-21 months class and reserve senior championship in Brisbane under United States judge RP Marshall. "He was doing so well that we took him off feed and bushed him into the oats for three weeks before taking him to Brisbane ” says Alastair. Eclipse produced a host of big-framed cows, mirroring the results of his own sire, KRAM H45, bought by Dave on a trip to King Ranch's Milton Park operation.
At that time, Alastair was tinkering with performance recording and tried to steer his father towards another bull with a top weight gain record. Dave barked back: “You can buy what you like. That's the bull I’m taking." H45 subsequently left Alastair's choice in progeny quality dead in the water - teaching him a lesson about over-reliance on figures.
1975 - Elgin Downs A25
Similarly, the bull that had a large impact on the stud and arguably the whole Santa industry, had virtually no record when he was bought for a low price at a King Ranch, Elgin Downs, auction in 1975. Dave and Alastair were attracted to the tidy, slick-coated two-year-old who stood above the old bulls in his pen and thought he would fetch as much as $5000. "When we bought him for $825, we couldn't believe our good luck", says Alastair. It was an unusual beginning to an Australian Santa Gertrudis legend -Elgin Downs A25. The then King Ranch chairman, Sir Rupert Clarke immediately offered to take the bull off the Bassingthwaighte's hands but he offered only an extra $50 for the privilege. Dave and Alastair declined and never regretted it.
The winner of the Santa Gertrudis Beef Sire of the Year in 1980-81, A25 became an influential bull in the Santa breed in Australia . Although a frame score 8 animal, he was well balanced and correct in every respect. "He was just a top individual but he is a freak in that he passed on his genetic strength. He threw top bulls and top females and all experienced studmen know most sires will throw either one or the other - seldom both”. He was used as a sire until his death at the age of 16 years.
Another great sire was Waco Leonard who weighed 1361 kg when shown in Brisbane for the reserve senior championship. "And fit! I took him for, a run across the ring to warm him up for the judging and he just cantered along beside me like a horse”. Leonard was 14 when he died in 1989 after a long history of bullfights, but he left behind a legacy of great stock. At one Sydney Royal, three of the four champions were by Leonard from A25 cows.
Alastair also imported nine bulls from the United States in the eighties and early nineties to enable a total outcross of bloodlines. He refuses to mate any animal related within three generations, making it difficult to buy top Australian replacement sires, which do not carry too much “home blood”. He believes line or inbreeding is a short road to disaster. "The broader the gene pool, the greater the hybrid vigour within an individual stud. If you close your books, the cattle naturally get smaller and lose their breed character."
"Through involvement with beef cattle commercially, we are aware of the changing market trends and the need for modification in seed stock production to meet these demands. To meet the requirements for heavier cattle at an early age, we placed more emphasis on stronger muscle and constitution. This change in breeding has produced bulls like Waco Freeman and Yarrawonga Franklin whose progeny will satisfy the present market trend."
1970's - Alastair to handle Yarrawonga and Waco Studs
By the mid-1970's, Dave had retired to Brisbane, leaving Alastair to handle Yarrawonga and Waco studs. In recognition of his life's work Dave was awarded the CBE for services to the beef cattle industry. Under Alastair & Louise, the expansion and success have continued. In 1988, Yarrawonga Waco broke the $1 million gross, for a sale, barrier – the first single Australian breeder to achieve it. Eighteen Led Bulls averaged $ 19,888. At the 2001 sale 184 bulls plus two semen packages grossed $1,223.000 to average $6575, a blessed improvement on the beef depression sale in 1982 when 140 bulls grossed $379,850 for an average of $2713. To accommodate the expansion of the stud, the Bassingthwaightes have bought two 3800 ha properties - Kiah and Kywong near Waco . It is on these three brigalow-improved buffel grass properties that most of the 1000 stud breeders are run. Yarrawonga is used as a show and sale preparation depot while Muldoon and Stockade are used for commercial breeding and fattening properties.
One of the management secrets has been the maintenance of extensive breed records at Yarrawonga. Before Louise arrived, most of the female records were kept in Dave's notebook - or in his head. She started a comprehensive recording system, which was a vital part of the growing single-sire herd management. It also highlighted trends in the stock, which would have been almost impossible to detect otherwise. Nowadays, the laptop computer goes to the yards every joining. They identify bloodline, type and quality of a cow's previous progeny so she can be genetically matched with the right bull. If it does not work, she is tried with another sire. A second failure and she is culled. Another important tool is Breedplan, where performance data is collected for weight gain, muscle and fat and scrotal EBV's. Always searching for more -information, Alastair spent three months with Graham Greenup of Rosevale stud, Jandowae travelling with American breed classifiers in 1965.
The Bassingthwaightes are firm believers in the importance of promoting the Santa Gertrudis breed through shows, sales and helping younger breeders. They regularly show at the Brisbane, Sydney and sometimes the Melbourne and Adelaide Royals. Their most adventurous show involved competing for and winning the World Championship Trophy at the 1990 Congress held in Johannesburg, South Africa, helping to promote Australian Santa Gertrudis.
Breed promotion is part of the reason why Yarrawonga still arrives at shows with a double decker of stock rather than just a few animals. With several major Australian Santa show championship to their name, why do they still make such an effort? "To keep yourself in tune with how your cattle are going, you have to compete," says Alastair. "It is as much an educational thing as a means of advertising. You will always hear people on the sideline saying they have better cattle at home, but it's a different story when you have to pitch them into the ring." He still gets very nervous watching his stock being judged, while for most-people the monotony of winning would have reduced the worry of being beaten.
"The day you lapse into that way of thinking is the day you stop wanting to progress. I think I’m getting more nervous the older I get,” Alastair says. He also feels that retiring from showing would take away an important challenge for some of the younger breeders. "I remember my feelings when King Ranch dominated in the early days. While I really respected their stock, it was always my goal to be able to breed a bull to beat them." It is also very rewarding to see other studs achieve great results with your bloodlines in the shows, sale ring and commercial sales.
1981 - Alastair & Louise returned to America
Alastair and Louise returned to America in 1981and 1982 to try to ascertain where the Australian breed was likely to head. At that time, the American trend was for tall, large-boned cattle - in all breeds - which the Bassingthwaightes now believe will make breeding herds much less efficient. Louise says the huge, round bone structure cannot maintain itself. It draws too much calcium from the animal's food intake, sapping constitution and milking ability.
They were fortunate to recognise the problem in its extreme in the US before it gained a foothold in their own herd.
Although many cattlemen and Department of Agriculture advisers have lumped ‘flat bone' theory into the flat-earth category, Alastair disagrees. "A big, round porous bone tends to be chalky and causes bulls to break, down at a young age with arthritic problems," he says.
A trend of concern is the selection for early maturity, which he believes, will see a return to the "pygmy" problems of the early 1950s. His ideal animal has a large structurally correct frame with good muscle and body capacity, a strong constitution that gives a generous weight gain and is reproductively sound: "We need to be aware that it is economical to keep the weight for age in cattle as a reduction in this characteristic means a reduced income," says Alastair.
Next Generation of Stud Masters
Perhaps the greatest asset Yarrawonga Waco now has is its next generation of stud masters.
Alastair and Louise have three children Wendy, David and Andrew. Wendy married Scott Ferguson and they live at Nobby with their three daughters Phoebe, Sophie & Lilly. Scott and Wendy contribute to the business by showing our cattle each year. David married Suzanne Nobbs and they live at Kiah with their five children Olivia, Howard, Tom, Drew and Brodie. David is responsible for the stud breeders and the commercial cattle run on the western properties..
Andrew married Fiona Edwards from the Gold Coast and they live at Yarrawonga. Andrew is in charge of the day to day running of Yarrawonga which includes sale cattle preparation. Alastair says, “One of the days we all enjoy most is in the cattle yards drafting through the bulls or breeders. With all the family there, wonderful indepth discussion takes place. Each person has his or her opinion, which sometimes leads to a long day! I have the greatest respect for my family’s depth of knowledge and understanding of the cattle and think they are more ruthless than I am.”
|
