Ag Grow Emerald 2022: Working cattle dog trials a highlight

Working dogs and their owners competed at Ag Grow to earn points in their quest to win the overall top working cattle dog title for the season. Read about the Emerald event here.

Working dogs proved not only to be man’s best friend, but colleague, at Ag Grow Emerald 2022.

Working dogs’ and their owners competed at the 33rd annual Ag Grow event, held from June 23-25, by rounding up three head of cattle over a set course.

The dogs and their owners were judged on the dog’s skill and how well they managed to keep the cattle in line.

The dogs and their owners were then scored out of 100.

On Thursday, all the competitors had one go each, and those with the highest scores moved onto the next round on Friday, before finals were held on Saturday.

Steven Biles has been involved with the working dogs event at Ag Grow for 22 years, both as a competitor and judge.

Mr Biles said there were roughly 30 people and 90 dogs taking part in the competition.

“They travel from far in the north, to Charters Towers, down to Toowoomba in the south,” Mr Biles said.

His favourite thing about Ag Grow is watching the working dogs shine in the arena.

Watching the working dog trials as a spectator, you could see the unique bond each competitor had with their dog.

Working dog trials at Ag Grow Emerald day one.

What Mr Biles wanted people to take away from the working dog trials at Ag Grow was the work the competitors put into teaching and getting their dogs to work with the cattle.

“A lot of fellas put a lot of time and effort into their dogs,” Mr Biles said.

“And these competitors compete all through the year, you know, they’re chasing points here for their dogs.

“So they get a high scoring dog of the year.

“A lot of fellas will get points out of this that go towards that but it’s just a great spectacle for people to come and see the dogs working cattle, really.”

In terms of the economic impact Ag Grow had on Emerald and the Central Highlands, Mr Biles thought it brought more people and more money to the area, with all of the local hotels being booked out and people buying things at Ag Grow and looking around.

Aside from the working dog trials, other key features of the event were the superior elite beef bull sales, Forshaw performance horses, musical guests including Teak and Luke Nelson, and an invitation only Ag Force event on the Thursday night to celebrate young producers in the area.

Geoff Dein at Ag Grow Emerald day one.

Ag Grow managing director Geoff Dein said the event had grown over the years and was well attended, except for when it was cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19.

Mr Dein said that in previous years Ag Grow has seen somewhere between 18,000 and 22,000 visitors over the three days.

“We got nothing like that during the wild Covid years of course,” Mr Dein said.

“We went through one cancellation and then the next year we were fine but people were reluctant. So this year it was full on.

Mr Dein believed the highlight of the event was Friday when everyone gathered at the Woolshed bar.

“We built the Woolshed here originally, I built it just as a bar, a watering hole,” Mr Dein said.

“And I had no idea the way it took off, and we’ve had weddings, funerals, parties, everything in that woolshed.

“It’s become quite iconic.”

Mr Dein also noted that people from as far as Winton travelled for Ag Grow to spend time with other people in a way they usually couldn’t because of the distance between their neighbours.

“The social networking is important out here because properties are so huge,” Mr Dein said.

“And people don’t get to catch up that often, as often as perhaps metro people do.

“We even get people come in from the (Northern) Territory to buy cattle and to catch up.

“It’s quite a large footprint. It goes out to the Northern Territory border, out from Mount Isa, Longreach to the border, and south to the Gulf Country, east to Rockhampton, and we get a lot of Toowoomba people coming here to trade.”

Originally published as Ag Grow Emerald 2022: Working cattle dog trials a highlight