Angus cross Charolais steer attracts record $15,500 bid at Perth Royal Show charity steer auction

Cheers and tears erupted after another record-breaking charity steer auction at the Perth Royal Agricultural Show on Monday, with an Angus cross Charolais bred and donated by the Giglia family of Dardanup selling for $15,500. The 570kg beast was sold to Harvest Road Group, whose winning bid smashed the previous record set last year by $3300. The charity steer auction is held annually as part of the Perth Royal Show Led Steers and Heifers sale, with all money raised donated to mental health and suicide prevention charity Black Dog Ride. Each year, a steer or heifer is donated and named either Winston — after Sir Winston Churchill who famously battled depression — or Clementine, Churchill’s wife. Dardanup farmer Leon Giglia said he felt honoured to donate this year’s Winston, which was reared on his family’s Singara Farm, named after the Sicilian town his grandfather grew up in. “We put our name down years ago to make a donation and our turn came up; we’re really pleased we were able to make an offering to the Black Dog Ride,” he said. “It’s fantastic we had someone prepared to pay that amount of money, but what it’s really done is create awareness of what the Black Dog Ride is all about — suicide prevention and mental health in general. That’s why we do it.” Mr Giglia, who is also Nutrien Ag Solutions’ west region livestock manager, said he selected Winston because he had “excellent conformation” and “presented very well”. He thanked the many bidders who helped drive up the record price. “We’re very appreciative of the under-bidders,” he said. “There’s got to be someone to win it, but the industry got behind that steer and there were a lot of people bidding on it.” Emotions were high for Black Dog ambassador Peter Milton, a Dardanup beef cattle farmer who founded the charity auction with wife Judy in 2011. “We don’t do it for records. . . but the money is so gratefully received for Black Dog Ride, they can do so much with it,” he said, fighting back tears. “There’s easily 100 people here today, and 30 of them in their lifetime will be hit by depression, which is a huge number. “Depression is a terrible illness with awful results — there are too many perfectly healthy people killing themselves every day.” Before every auction, Mr Milton and his wife take Winston or Clementine on a tour around WA, visiting schools, businesses and landmarks in a bid to spark conversations. “We take them to where you don’t expect to find a cow — the end of the Busselton jetty, the middle of the main dam wall in Kununurra, or Parliament House — and we stand there with a cow,” Mr Milton explained. “Within 10 seconds, someone comes along and says, ‘what are you doing with a cow?’ “I say ‘I’m here because of depression and suicide’. . . and if they want to talk about themselves or a family member, or how to get help, or if they want to just talk about the weather, it’s all low key.” This year’s auction brought the total raised for Black Dog Ride to about $240,000. The previous record bid of $11,200 was set last year for a steer donated by the Manning family of Mardella and bought by Harvey Beef, a subsidiary of the Andrew and Nicola Forrest-owned Harvest Road. Harvest Road was by far the biggest buyer this year, purchasing an additional 21 animals from a variety of farms and studs as well as Murdoch University, Kelmscott Senior High School and WA College of Agriculture — Denmark. They will be slaughtered at the Harvey Beef abattoir, WA’s biggest beef processing plant. The carcases will then be graded to determine the weight category champions, grand champion and reserve grand champion award winners as part of the Perth Royal Show’s beef carcase competition. Harvest Road chief operating officer Ben Dwyer said the auction was an opportunity to support a homegrown charity that benefited many farmers. “Nicola and Andrew are very passionate about the charity, so we come with fairly firm instructions to try and bring Winston home every year,” he said. “It’s easy to buy such great cattle, too, at a sale like this. “We like to support the colleges and the guys who take time to prepare the cattle; they’re real leaders in the industry for us, given that we process so many animals throughout the State.” Mrs Forrest said Black Dog Ride was important because it offered practical, on the ground support to people in rural communities. “As someone who grew up on the land and remains deeply passionate about regional areas, I know just how important it is to feel you belong to a community, especially when times are tough,” she said. “People living in remote and rural areas, especially young people, deserve the same access to mental health services as those living in our cities.” This year’s Led Steers and Heifers sale saw 63 animals auctioned in total, which sold to an average of $3616. Elders and Nutrien Livestock conducted the auctions, with the latter auctioning the charity steer. The second highest priced steer on the day was a 506kg purebred Sussex exhibited by SA & SH Smith, of Narrikup, and sold to Maddington-based butcher The Meat Machine for $7000. Along with Harvey Beef, major buyers included Western Meat Packers, Woolworths Group, Coles Group, Swansea Street Meets and Borrello Beef.