Des Houghton: Ekka cattle best in show as Gina Rinehart’s new venture revealed

Gina Rinehart is beefing up Queensland’s cattle reputation, writes Des Houghton.

Brendan Scheiwe and his winning bull Tad at the Ekka

Gina Rinehart, is beefing up Queensland’s cattle reputation. The generous Olympic aquatics sponsor and mining billionaire has made a dramatic entry into the Queensland restaurant trade with a mouthwatering new S.Kidman premium beef steak range. The cattle are drawn from a herd of 65,000 raised on her Queensland and NT properties. The S.Kidman premium steaks are a composite with Santa Gertrudis, Murray Grey, Charolais and Wagyu cattle genetics. The steaks are at the Story Bridge Hotel, the Norman Hotel and restaurantssuch as Blackbird in Brisbane and Bistro C at Noosa.

Hancock Prospecting chair Mrs Gina Rinehart in WA.

Meanwhile, Queensland has 11 million beef cattle and the very best of them this week was a well-hung Charolais bull named Tad who was named the champion of champions at the Royal Queensland Show.

I think it is quite proper to acknowledge Tad’s impressive appendages because they are essential to his future as a stud bull – and vital to the financial fortunes of Brendan Scheiwe, his wife Marnie Scheiwe, a veterinary science student, and their 15-year-old son Ben. They raised him.

Tad now comes with great expectations, but he has yet to prove himself, Brendan Scheiwe, 48, explained.

“He’s a two-year-old and still quite young. He hasn’t mated yet,” he said.

“He doesn’t know how to do it; wouldn’t have a clue.’’

But put him in a paddock with the cows and nature will soon run its course, he said. The champion of champions weighs 1078kg and lives on the Scheiwe’s home property at Tallegalla, a rural idyll “lost” for more than a century in the Lockyer Valley, 25 km west of Ipswich.

The family runs 150 breeders so Tad will have his work cut out.

Although Tad is not the only bull on the range he will be expected to sire between 30 and 40 calves a year. Brendan Scheiwe expects he will keep mating for eight years before he “retires”. Then he will be sent to the abattoir.

Scheiwe, who traces his ancestors back to Prussia, was a banana trader at the Rocklea markets before switching to full-time beef production. Sources say he has been offered $50,000 for his champion. But he is not selling.

The showing and judging of the cattle in the main ring at the Ekka was a highlight of the show. Judges Reade Radel, Ben Noller and Andrew Raff had to choose from 25 different breeds. Their top five finalists included the champion Charolais and Angus, Brangus, Limousin and Simmental bulls in no special order.

There are no second or third placegetters named in the Ekka’s champion of champions. And the judges’ score cards are not released.