The Belties are 70% calved out and all going very well. Ironbark has recently purchased Lown Brae Kirk and he has settled in well to his new home in the Numinbah Valley. Ironbark now have both the 7 year old bull Kirk & New England Charlie Churchill - a younger bull, 18 months old who has had a couple of minor set backs with Ephemeral Fever, an abscess & then pneumonia but he has been treated with lots of TLC, put on constant high protein feed & supplements and is doing extremely well. We will be conducting semen morphology testing on him prior to putting him out with our younger heifers later this month.
Our Beltie calves are currently in the yards being yard weaned for 7-10 days during which time we run them through the race & crush each day & walk amongst them. They are happy enough now, after day 3. This process of yard weaning does not only educates & familiarizes them on the workings of the yards but it also assists in the transmission of communicable diseases to build their immunity. After weaning the calves will be given their 7 in 1 booster and drenched.
We have had a trouble free calving period this year, with all the Beltie cows and Charolais cows. Not one loss nor did we have to pull one calf – not bad going for 50 cows.
Gold Coast Bulletin
Edition B - MainSAT 18 OCT 2008, Page 036
Charity couple steer right way
THE Gold Coast Children's Society Cocktail Party at Palazzo Versace last Friday was a huge success, with more than $45,000 raised to buy a much-needed vehicle for the Mudgeeraba Special School.
One of the star attractions was the auctioning of a prized young Belted Galloway steer donated by Philippa and Scott Goninan from Ironbark Stud. The new owners of this animal are Pat and Penelope McCarthy (ex-Perfume Connection) who have five kids but no farm, so the new family pet has gone to a friend's property in the Hinterland, where you'll be happy to know he will fill the role of lawnmower.
The other highlight was when gynaecologists Andrew Cary and Ben Bop took to the stage and sang that rousing song from The Proclaimers, I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles).
The audience needed little prompting to join in the rousing chorus. Great fun.
Column: Coast Confidential with Regina King and Peter Flowers
Scott and Philippa with the calf
Beltie - Charity Prize Nothing to Beef About
Weeds, weeds, weeds…………the constant battle! We are very pleased with our weed eradication program and that success, combined with our intensive chicken manure, lime fertilizer program, the pasture improvement, seeding program and strict paddock rotation systems has continued to increase our carrying capacity on the 120 acre property.
Our Western boundary is the upper Nerang River, feeding into the Gold Coast’s Hinze Dam, it runs approx. 1.5 kms along our bottom paddocks.
Although native grasses are predominantly kikuyu, we were very impressed with our rye grass trials last year in the bottom river flat paddocks where the frost inhibits the kikuyu growth. We will plant rye grass again next autumn.
We are very fortunate with our rainfall at Ironbark – our average annual rainfall is 1250mm (50 inches).
NEW! "Small Areas" Article (167 kB)
2007 QLD Country Life Artcle (Sizes are 136, 84.7 & 84.9 KB respectively)
Photo courtesy of Louise Donges, Queensland Country Life
Ironbark Belted Galloway stud donated 3 Belted Galloway X Charolais steers to The Southport School’s ag. science department. The boys did very well in preparing the steers for the Lismore Show. There were 30 animals in their Led Steer class (380 – 420kgs) and one of the steers made it past the 2nd cut but did not place in the ring but placed 5th in the carcass competition.
Ironbark Steers at the Show
Members of...
Australian Belted Galloway Association Inc.
Contact Philippa and Scott Goninan:
Phone: (07) 5527 5599
Mobile: 0418 729 049