Australasian Salers Journal Ingledew Salers PMPP Z41 SomeS of our bulls for sale, featuring sides and rear of PMP Z41. Girls with a break A glimpse of greenery for some Oakey females after months of droughted brown! Ingledew Precious - PMP X03 3 year old female - a soft and feminine mother. Such Elegance! 18 - 20 month old (ave. 650kg) Salers steers in Ingledew’s Oakey feedlot with 60 days remaining to sale at 100 days on feed. Stud and Commercial Bulls and Females available for sale. 0ROPERTIES /FlCE h35.2)3%v #UNNINGHAM3T -IDDLE2IDGE 0/"OX 4OOWOOMBA 1,$ $ALBY 1,$ h).',%$%7&!2-3v PH 3EXTON 7ISE2OADS OR /AKEY 1,$ FAX www.ingledewsalers.com.au About the Cover... The southern areas of France and Northern areas of Spain are The caves of Lascaux home to some of the oldest cave wall paintings in Europe and are comprised of several indeed the world. Some 170 cave examples dating back as far connecting chambers, as 40,000 years are recorded. In 1940 in the Massif Central decorated with images and volcanic region, very close to the town of Salers, the famous themes both engraved and Lascaux cave system was discovered by four local boys. Detail painted. The Great Hall of the from this cave wall is featured on this years cover. Bulls is the first chamber of the Inside the Limestone cave many fine examples of of wall art Cave system and an excellent dating back to the Ice Age (the Wurm Glaciation) have been virtual tour of this chamber and the Lascaux caves can be found found. Among the images left on the walls for an estimated at http://www.culture.gouv.fr/culture/arcnat/lascaux. The calibre 16,000 years are drawings of the animals that were found in the of the paintings and the abstract nature of the works comes as region during the period of their recording. Wild horses, aurochs, both sophisticated and a suprise. Many caves have been found cattle, reindeer and giant deer, also wisents (bison) dominate with scaffolding to enable full access to walls and at Lascaux the walls at Lascaux - images are namely of large herbivourous lighting devices made of limestone, lichen and juniper found at mammals. The animals found in the locality at this time reflected the site would have facilitated the journey deep into the cave the mild summers and the lesser defined seasons of the age. to complete the works (the Great Hall of the Bulls alone is 20 The magnitude and size of the decorated walls at Lascaux are meters in length). among the best of all the caves found and the cave has come to It has been suggested that the many dots that appear on the be recognised as the “Sistine Chapel of Pre-history”. The images walls of the caves, originally thought to maybe be boundary include examples of large, dark red, horned cattle suggesting markers, form a map of the prehistoric night sky (D. Whitehouse that a similar type of animal to the modern breed of Salers has 2000). The positioning of the dots would be akin to the estimated been found in the area for many thousands of years, indeed it is postion of many star formations 16,500 years ago. Close to the today recognised that Salers cattle are native to this isolated and entrance of the caves is a painting of a bull, over its shoulder is mountainous south central region of France. The Salers breed what appears to be a map of the Pleiades (the cluster of stars is considered very different to all other French breeds and is known as the Seven Sisters). Inside the bull painting there are considered also as one of the oldest and most genetically pure indications of spots that are thought be a representation of other of the European breeds. A study (Angress & Reed 1962) of stars found in that region of the sky. In modern times this region skulls from Salers cattle in Auvergne links the Salers clearly forms part of the constellation of Taurus the bull. to the primigenius type (refuting the supposed earlier relation In 1963 it was deemed that the caves were detiorating due to to the brachycephalid type thus throwing new light on their exposure to light, air and chemistry triggered by the arrival of pattern of origin) suggesting the breed has originated from Bos many thousands of visitors and so were closed. In 1983 a full pimigenius hahni, a line which which gave rise to the native sized replica known as Lascaux II was opened and is now the cattle of Southern Spain and bears some clear resemblance to site visited by tourists to the region thus preserving the original the ancient red cattle of Egypt. The Salers are thought to be an cave. important connecting link indicating the route of dispersal the breed took in prehistoric times. PRESIDENTS REPORT 2008 Welcome to the pages of the 2008 joint New Zealand and efficient converters of feed into red Australian magazine - Australasian Salers. meat whether it be grass or grain and It appears that the current decline in memberships and then as an end result they are able to registrations of our breed associations is a trend happening to produce a carcase with an average many if not most of the small breed associations world wide. 60% yield of prime tender beef. There The big are simply getting bigger and the small smaller as it is are not many breeds in Australia that the larger associations that can afford to promote their breeds to can lay claim to achieving this and the maximum. Suprisingly there are still a lot of cattle producers Salers can do it with ease. that have never heard of Salers. When the breed was originally As Salers breeders we have dedicated well over a decade to introduced into Australia there were many producers who did adapting this breed so that it is readily marketable to mainstream not take temperament into account when on selling their stock cattle producers and there are now significant gains to be made which has done the public profile of Salers no end of harm. These on a commercial basis by utilizing the Salers gene - even in a small days, after 20 years of selecting, adapting and consolidating, the capacity situation. There does however, seem to be consensus breeders of the Australian and New Zealand Associations realize by many in the cattle industry that Salers are finished as an that to sell an animal whose disposition is not of an acceptable acceptable breed in Australia. In fact nothing could be further standard means a backward step rather than a step forward for from the truth! The Australian beef industry could well absorb the good of the breed. many real positives from the widespread inclusion of Salers We must all participate in as many trials, field days and shows genetics into herds through composite breeding programmes as as we can manage to give creedence and measure to what we Salers have survived for thousands of years as fertile, tenacious, already know. self sufficent cattle. Put simply Salers are able to provide what Updates and results, links and more information are all available Australian conditons require to allow maximised returns. on the newly revamped Salers Australia website at salersaustralia. In Australia we are now looking at a new era in beef production com. where herds must be efficient and provide the best possible Finally a thank you to all members and sponsors who have bottom line for producers who consistently have to endure the submitted editorials, advertisments, articles and photos and often harsh environment of Australia. To be truly efficient a breed so have supported the Association in the production of this must be fertile and able to calve down every year be it drought magazine , which in turn supports the strength of our association or non-drought. Salers do this and are genetically predisposed and the breed that we know to be truly remarkable. to calve down without supervision or assistance, and provide Steve McCourt enough rich milk to be able to wean a heavy calf. Salers are also Australasian Salers 2008/09 - 3 EXECUTIVE OFFICER REPORT 2008 One of Australia’s best known poets is Dorothea MacKellar. gold levels the donation may include Possibly her most famous verse reads as follows: a donation “in kind” provided that the donation also includes at least “I love a sunburnt country, a land of sweeping plains, of ragged 50% monetary award. All levels mountain ranges, of sponsorship shall include free of droughts and flooding rains. I love her far horizons, I love her commercial membership of ASA plus jewel sea. appropriate recognition and each Her beauty and her terror - the wide brown land for me!”. sponsor is invited to link their website to the main ASA website. During the last decade I believe many Australians would have ASA Council has recently introduced experienced the reality of at least some part of that famous an Approved Sire Register (ASR) as poem “My Country”. In particular we have faced “droughts an alternative to its Donor Sire scheme. The ASR will contain and flooding rains”. Although this poem was written back in the names of Salers sires which can be but are not necessarily 1904, the same feelings and the same experiences are still also Donor Sires. Owners of donor sires, who are also current current in 2007 and 2008. Even our “city friends”, especially financial members of ASA, retain the right to allow other members those in Brisbane and Sydney, would now have an inclination of to register progeny of those sires with ASA.