ILLAWARRA CATTLE SOCIETY OF AUSTRALIA LIMITED
QUEENSLAND BRANCH PRESIDENT’S REPORT 2010
It is with pleasure that I present the Annual Report of the Qld Branch of the ICSA.
Membership has once again remained steady. It is pleasing to note that after nearly a decade of dairy deregulation there has not been a mass exodus or a collapse in numbers.
The four clubs within the Branch remain active with meetings, calf days and shows promoting the breed. The Downs Club continues with its on farm challenge which also includes production indexes in its placings. John King was the judge for this year’s event. The major shows of Malanda, Gympie and Maleny continue to be well supported and present an opportunity for interstate judges to officiate. In this regard Geoff Cochrane at Malanda, Michael Tuhan at Gympie and Liz Hurford at Maleny were the judges selected.
Our two Royal shows continued to be keenly contested with a quality display at both. David Kuhl from South Australia judged at Toowoomba where F.S. Johnston & Sons won champion cow. A & D Whatman won junior champion who was also runner up all breeds. The juvenile champion was from the Ledger family. M & G Henry won the on grounds milking competition.
Brisbane saw another good display with Ian Mueller making a return visit as judge. The highly decorated Panorama Angeline 9 was again champion cow for the fourth time, three of which have been in succession. Jock Johnston showed the reserve cow with Jondene Dainty 97 with KE & AM Dorries Panorama Honey 14th honourable mention. There is a body of opinion that the performance of Panorama Angeline 9 is a record at Brisbane. With the passing of many of our old hands in such matters it has been hard to verify. Does the Branch or the RNA have previous results on file over the years? Michael and Glenda Henry showed the junior champion with Alan and Denise Whatman the juvenile. Michael and Glenda Henry were the most successful exhibitors for the first time. Also present at Brisbane was the American exchangee, Jessica Achen who was helping the Ledger family. Nicole Priebbenow acquitted herself well as Illawarra dairymaid. The Federal President Mr David Henry was present at both Toowoomba and Brisbane shows.
JP Bourke & Co won the national Holzhauser competition for the top ten cow’s production award also filling fourth place with their second group. The Chelmonte farming company finished in fifth place in this competition. The Bourke family therefore also won the State branch top ten cow competition. Their cow Myrtleholme Empress won the Michael Ledger memorial trophy for the top production cow in the state.
Two of our younger members deserve congratulations for their efforts during the year. Aleicia Dorries was the Oakey show princess and went on to win the Regional award at Toowoomba Royal and although unsuccessful at Brisbane performed her duties very well bringing credit to herself and family. Matthew Henry as well as his studies and showing efforts has elected to stand for State council. He already has a fine track record as a young judge and exhibitor and we welcome his input on State council. Matt won the Queensland final of the Young Judges competition and will now compete in the National final at Adelaide.
On a personal note it was my honour and privilege to judge at Dairy Week this year and as I understand it the first resident Australian to do so. I certainly hope I haven’t put the cause back for years to come and that it will be a regular occurrence for an Australian to judge our breed at Dairy Week.
Mention should be made that Brisbane this year was the first showing by Phillip McConville from the Warwick district. He won place ribbons with his heifers and we wish him well for the future.
As a variation to our usual publicity the Branch produced a calendar and later a flyer which were both distributed to all Queensland dairymen. The calendar was self funded by the advertisers, was professionally done and well received by all. The flyer was a later reminder to dairymen of what is available in the Illawarras. I believe more needs to be done on a Federal basis in keeping commercial dairymen aware of available Illawarra AI sires.
The treasurer will deliver his report showing the Branch remains on a sound financial basis. I thank Mike Henry for his efforts as our treasurer. Rob Radel is standing aside from State council. I thank him for his contribution during his membership of this committee.
Our thanks to Lloyd Peters for his work as field officer. Lloyd is often the only contact dairymen would have with the Branch. Alison Teese continued her good work as publicity officer and deserves the thanks of the members. Our secretary Betty Ledger deserves all praise for her work throughout the year as the go between with our clubs, show societies, sponsors and Federal office.
The branch committee meetings continued to be conducted in harmony with all matters receiving due diligence for which I thank the members.
RA LESTER
PRESIDENT
