James Pullen & Melissa Spencer with Doctor Nelson

The Wyoming Romagnola Stud was delighted with their wins at this years Brisbane Royal Show (the Ekka) taking out the top award of Grand Champion Romagnola Bull with Wyoming Doctor Nelson.  Doctor Nelson’s dam, Wyoming Tessa was also a grand champion of the Ekka some 8 years earlier winning the top female award at the studs first ever outing at the Ekka. 

Other awards won by the stud at this years Ekka included Reserve Senior Champion Bull with Wyoming Dario, Reserve Senior Champion Female with Wyoming Christine and Junior Champion Bull, Wyoming Emmett.

Ron receiving one of our awards on the night

In July 2010, we entered cattle in the CQ Carcase Competition.  This competition was established in 2008 primarily due to the fact that the commercial section of the Rockhampton Show folded due to lack of support from certain local sectors.  Some producers wishing to keep this popular competition running got together and formed a committee to have a new carcase competition established.  Sponsors were keen to be part of this new competition and Teys Brothers came on board which allowed the cattle to be processed at Lakes Creek Meat Works.

The competition proudly supports the local community with the main beneficiaries being P. and C. Associations of four small country schools and the committees of two small country shows in the outlying area. We decided to take part in the competition this year after hearing about it and entered steers in two classes:

Class 5: Single Pen, Up to 4-Tooth Grainfed Steer (300 – 420kg Carcase Weight); and

Class 6: Pen of 3, Up to 4-Tooth Grainfed Steers (320 – 420kg Carcase Weight).

With only 8 head, we were placed 3^rd in Class 5 and 1^st and 3^rd in Class 6, with all steers being Romagnola/Brahman cross.  A real boost to the evening was the announcement that one of our steers in Class 6 had the largest eye muscle of all the cattle in the competition at 117sq. cm.  Although not on the prize list, was definitely worth a mention!

Ron Pullen with Robyn and her new purchase Wyoming Beaumont

After deciding to cut back on showing cattle this year at agricultural shows and focus more on attending field days with a display of selected quality bulls for sale, we were very happy with our first outing of the year at the North Queensland Field Days in Townsville. 

With the new 6-seater truck fresh out of the showroom only the day prior to departure, we made our way to Townsville with four lead stud bulls.

With two out of the four bulls available for sale, it was our Senior Champion Bull from Beef 2009 “Wyoming Beaumont” that first caught the eye of Robyn Muller of “Bentley Farm” Alligator Creek, south of Townsville on the first day.

After inspecting all four bulls, Robyn was impressed with what she saw and decided that she would take both Beaumont and Chancellor then and there.

With so much interest on the first day, it was early on Day 2 that we started receiving calls from interested parties who had inspected the bulls the previous day to see if any bulls were still available for sale.  With both Beaumont and Chancellor already sold, and a draft of bulls at home at “Codrilla” being prepared for the Richmond Field Days, we were able to provide a first option purchase on these bulls to buyers which resulted in a further four bulls being sold unseen.

It was great to see such an overwhelming response to our bulls at the North Queensland Field Days and people extremely keen to know more about the breed and also how the crossbred cattle performed.

We’ve been selling red and grey Brahmagnola Bulls (½ Brahman & ½ Romagnola or ¼ Brahman & ¾ Romagnola); purebred and full blood Romagnola bulls to the north and far north of Queensland for many years now and with a large number of our repeat buyers coming from these areas it was also a great opportunity to catch up with many of our northern clients and get some good feed back on how our bulls are performing, with pleasing results.

After strong buyer enquiry and demand at Richmond Field Days in 2009 and an overwhelming response to their display at their first North Queensland Field Days in Townsville last month, Ron & Diane Pullen of the Wyoming Romagnola Stud are heading to Richmond with a draft of quality herd bulls.

“We have had such a positive response to our bulls at the Richmond Field Days over the past few years, so we have put together another strong team of bulls for the Northern buyers, which will include several red Brahmagnola bulls which may be of interest to breeders of red bulls”, Ron said.

“Over the past 3-4 years we have found that cattlemen in the north have started to make a move back to the Romagnola from some of the more popular breeds. I think the commercial focus that many of the Romagnola breeders and the Society have, along with the clear advantages of growth, muscling, dark pigmentation and exceptional highbred vigour are compelling reasons for cattle breeders to look towards using the Romagnola. You can see that with positive traits like these why the Romagnola is already starting to be seen as a good choice as the single breed sire in cross breeding programs throughout North Queensland and Australia”.

“We seasonally mate our females and pull our bulls (both Romagnola and Brahman) out of the paddock around June, to give them a break so they are fresh and ready for work again once Spring hits”.

“Our bulls are selected based on strict selection criteria for growth, muscling, fertility and temperament” Ron said, “and have all been vaccinated and semen tested”.

“With a good start to the year, our bulls have only been pasture prepared and will be ready to get straight out and onto the job”,

Ron & Diane will be at their site throughout the Field Days to talk to any interested cattlemen about their Stud and the Romagnola breed.