The Christmas season will be a busy one for the Geddes family given that
calving falls over the 6 months of Summer at Bauhinia Ridge, the Geddes
family 1620 Droughtmaster run near Dingo, Central Queensland.
Up on the cattle farm, 10-year-old Mackenzie Geddes keeps her parents on
a tight rein. Under only the most extenuating circumstances are they to go
around the calving stock without her. Christmas Day will be no exception,
given that calving falls over six months — September through to March —
at Bauhinia Ridge, the family’s 1620 hectare Droughtmaster run. When
they’ve done the rounds, it will be off to Rockhampton two hours away
for an extended family Christmas lunch with all the trimmings.
Mackenzie’s parents Shelley, 30, and Adam, 36, are chuffed their three
children love life on the land as much as they do, whatever the season.
“Mackenzie is really into the cattle,” Shelley says. “She always remembers if
I have to go and check a cow that’s calving and, like Adam, she remembers
which cow had which calf. If Adam’s been to a bull sale, she’ll ask him all
about it. And she gets upset if we check the cows calving before she gets
home from school, which is 53 kilometres each way on the bus.”
Shelley and Adam’s sons Archie, eight, and Connor, five, like weaning time
best, because that’s when they get to ride baby bulls. Not bronco-style,
mind you. “The boys like the quiet ones they can pat or ride,” Shelley says.
Droughtmaster cattle are known for their docility, a quality Shelley and Adam
cultivate through their breeding program. “We also spend a lot of time with
them in the yards and as weaners,” Adam says. “After school, we bucket feed
the weaners. The kids sit there giving them grain and scratching them with
sticks on their bellies and necks, where they like it.”
In September, the Geddes hit the news when one of their bulls, Oasis A
Long John, sold for a record $220,000 at the Droughtmaster National Sale
at Gracemere, Queensland. “Family’s $220k payday after years of drought
hell,” said The Courier-Mail headline. “A Queensland family who endured
years of carting water to keep 400 head of cattle alive through one of the
harshest droughts in recent history has sold a bull at a world-record price.”
Adam tells Graziher about Long John over the phone from a 400 kilometre
round trip to a Rockhampton store sale. “He was 800kg at only 19 months
old and he was so quiet my kids could have ridden him into the ring.”
The cheque came in handy after tough drought years, with the stress of
running out of water and the money, time and effort of cartage hitting the
couple hard. At last, they are feeling confident enough to forge ahead to
build a new home on Bauhinia Ridge, which they bought in partnership
with Adam’s parents before taking it over two years ago.
Shelley is bringing her own emotional drought-proofing to the build,
knowing that it is only a matter of time until the next big dry. While their
cattle are renowned for their ability to handle aridity, not so Shelley, despite
her bush upbringing in the Boyne Valley two hours south of Rockhampton.
“It’s a weatherboard with verandahs, all clean and modern, all white inside,
something clean and fresh to walk into. I think that’s the thing in drought.
When the lawn’s not green and you walk into a house that’s rundown, it’s
just that bit more depressing.”
What she is most looking forward to is a dishwasher. “Washing up, I’m over
it,” she says, laughing. “That’s the main reason I want the new house. It’s the
little luxuries.”
Adam jokes that Shelley’s expectations flew through the roof after Long
John had his big day out. “The new home got flasher after that bull sale,
I know that,” he says with a chuckle. “Everything turned into marble!”
In a sign of industry confidence, the record Long John set by his sale to Rondel
Droughtmasters of Winton was broken just a month later. The future looks
bright for leading Droughtmaster breeders such as the Geddes, who joined
Adam’s parents Noel and Robyn, of Rosels, Rockhampton, and formerly of
Oasis, Emerald, in stud breeding.
In the meantime, Adam, Shelley and the kids are setting off on their first beach
holiday in years, following a bumper season with plenty of rain. After kicking
back at Yeppoon on the Capricorn Coast, the family is heading to Rosels for
Christmas with Noel and Robyn. Shelley is already salivating at the thought of
the glazed ham she will prepare for lunch and pondering whether she should
get that animal-loving daughter of hers a horse before too much longer. It’s a
bit of a vision — the boys mustering on their bikes, with Shelley and Mackenzie
bringing up the rear of the herd on a long, loose rein.
