Beef 2021
Beef Preparations 2021
Another successful Beef has come and gone……
We had an extremely busy week in the lead up to Beef 2021, trying to complete work at home and build our site structures, which involved a few late nights and very early mornings in the shed with a few wines and rums consumed during this tedious process.
Once again, Kel worked on the design process and Michael and Jayden started welding and building then Kel and Heidi started painting and painting and painting! We ended up building a site modular system that all joined together to accompany our bar with a television and lounge. We also made some cattle dividers and feed troughs to keep our stalls cleaner, which made things much easier.
It was rather a large mission to complete it all in time, then carefully pack and transfer everything to Beef over a couple trips. I think this is the point where all exhibitors and organisers are extremely thankful that this event only comes around every three years!
I believe this was this was the point of total exhaustion, sleep deprivation and when the drinks ran dry and we’d all had enough….commenting, “We’re never doing this again!”
The Finished Setup
Thankfully, it all turned out really well and went together beautifully in the Brangus Tent at Beef. It ended up being a very comfortable home away from home for us, our cattle and many wonderful visitors, that we truly loved catching-up with during the event. A very big Thank You to everybody that took the time to come and visit us and our cattle during Beef Week, it’s always wonderful to catch-up.
Ringside
We were very fortunate and humbled to take home multiple ribbons from the show ring with our cattle and very honoured to receive Brangus Calf Champion Female with our Forest Hills Hannah. We would like to sincerely thank all sponsors, particularly Mark and Katrina Brown of M1B Brangus for sponsoring this award.
We would also like to thank our special friends who generously helped us out on show day, it was greatly welcomed and appreciated.
Forest Hills Hannah, led by Kel with Sponsors Mark & Ava Brown
(Photo Credits – Amanda Salisbury & Kent Ward)
Next Generation
We would also like to genuinely thank our children, Jayden and Heidi for selecting and breaking in our large Show Team for Beef on their own, they did an amazing job and it was great to watch them utilise their cattle skills during this process. They were also a great help throughout the lead-up, duration and completion of Beef.
Jayden and Heidi also had some personal success in the ring whilst participating in the Junior Parader’s at Beef. They both did an outstanding job and were both selected to compete in the finals for their age groups, with Heidi finishing in Third Place.
Jayden Parading Forest Hills Honey
Heidi Parading Forest Hills Harmony
Good Times
Jayden and Heidi also had a great time at Beef catching up with many friends throughout the week and getting some great help along the way. Special thanks to Aisling Moffatt and Jake Lucas for their great help with our Show Team.
“Everyone has two eyes but no one has the same view,
especially when it comes to cattle”
Back to Work
As most of you will appreciate, it was so wonderful to return home after such an exhausting ten days away for Beef! Even though we were straight back into work, it was a pleasure to return to the paddocks, cows and pure tranquility that we had a new and revived appreciation for after our short stint of city living. There’s nowhere we’d rather be than in our own back paddocks surrounded by our Brangus cattle.
A few first calf heifers on the dam – rising two-year old’s
We have now completed a full muster and weaned, so we’ve enjoyed spending some quality time getting to know their inquisitive natures and various personalities.
Some of the weaners feeding out
New Projects
We’ve also had a busy year with Kel completing her owner builder certification and we finally commenced building our new family home on Forest Hills. It’s been an exciting process from design and concept stages through to being involved in each stage and watching it come to life has been a very satisfying experience. We now have a roof on with windows currently going in this week and the brickwork will follow.
It’s been a big project to tackle but we’re all looking forward to moving out of the ‘Love Shack’ next year when it’s completed and enjoying the great views over Forest Hills every day!
It was a very exciting and long-awaited day when the house slab was completed
We are very fortunate to enjoy great views from every aspect of the house
Bull Sale
50 Bulls & Only 50 Days Away
A few of our upstanding, fleshy and growthy Sale Bulls
We have made our final selection of Brangus Bulls that will be offered for sale at our upcoming Forest Hills Brangus Bull Sale (10:30am Tuesday, 28th September 2021 at AgGrow Bull Selling Complex, Emerald). We have carefully selected fifty black Brangus Bulls that will be exclusively offered at our sale.
All our bulls will be rising two-year old with a couple of bulls rising three-year old being offered first as Lots 1 and 2. Once again, all Bulls will be fully vaccinated, semen tested, DNA, Pesti Virus Negative and pre-treated ready to present for clearance.
Lot 17 Forest Hills Hot to Trot Lot 21 Forest Hills Hell Raiser
Lot 34 Forest Hills Hammer N Tongs Lot 9 Forest Hills Hustle N Bustle
Save Our Sale Date Please…
Out of Action Again
Well, regrettably it hasn’t been a great week here at Forest Hills with Kel having a nasty interaction with one of Michael’s delightful feral heifers on Monday afternoon that resulted in an Ambulance trip to Hospital to confirm a broken right arm. Unfortunately, the heifer suddenly decided to get up close and personal by attacking the motorbike and ended up jumping on the motorbike with Kel while she was mustering and snapped her right arm instantly.
Luckily for Michael, he wasn’t around at the time to hear the wonderful and delightfully descriptive vocabulary describing his feral heifers as the excruciating pain set in.
Regrettably, it’s the worse timing for Kel to be out of action, while she’s trying to put together a bull sale catalogue and obtain multiple bull photos, which might be a little tricky now…. frustration is definitely kicking in as we wait for the swelling to go down to see if surgery is required next week.
Lot 41 Forest Hills Honest Broker (The Last Bull Photo Taken with two useful arms!)
Bull Season
We would like to wish everybody a wonderful and successful Bull Season ahead for all Buyers and Vendor’s and we hope that the Bull Sales and general cattle markets continue to stay strong and positive throughout the year ahead along with great seasons for everybody.
We look forward to seeing you all at various Bull Sales in the near future!
Michael, Kellie, Jayden & Heidi Silvester
