Ten-Rose Gadabout. A remarkable life. 20 years.

Ten-Rose Gadabout passed this month. At 20 years of age it was a remarkable life.  We had the good fortune to purchase her dam Pennyweight Gerda.   Trevor Carr bred Gerda and did a lot of showing of his cattle.  His cattle were a brilliant publicity for the Simmental Fleckvieh breed. It is not often you come across cattle that can live to 20.  Brenair Park Bernadett was one such female that lived to that age which was in our herd.  Gaddy was born on 30th August 2003.  We had checked her dam Pennyweight Gerda before going to a Simmental Meeting.  On arrival home a few hours late near midnight we were horrified to find foxes had attacked the calf, they had chewed off the tail of the calf near the rump.  The vet never expected the calf to survive, but she did.  We got 15 foxes that season.

Gaddy was a powerful poll female and worked to a variety of bulls.  In particular BHR Three Sixes who was bred by Fred Scheutze and bought into Australia by Tom Baker Woonallee Stud. The two calves by Three Sixes were easy calving with good weights. Over the years I used a number of bulls over Gaddy.  THSF Freedom bred by Troy Hadden USA worked particularly well and the son Ten-Rose Edgar Allen Poll remains active in the herd today at 13 years of age.  The line has particularly good feet.  Ellingson Klondike sired Maddie out of Gaddy and remains in Stud.

Whilst heavy in calf with Ten-Rose John Lee Hooker, a Shawacres Jahari son, she fell into the creek which was 2 meters deep.  Unable to get out we had to call the SES.  It was a dark Sunday night.  Three SES trucks arrived, set up flood lights and waited for our Vet Tim Harrington to arrive to give sedation if required.  We put a sling around Gaddy, drove the tractor down to the creek, hitched the sling and reversed out of the creek with the tractor lifting up at the back.  Gaddy would have been 850kg.

The tractor pulled her up the side of the creek and we took the sling off her once she was out.  Gaddy just walked off back into the herd.  She had a remarkable temperament and would settle all the other cattle.

Gaddy was born under a large gum tree in a paddock near the house.  It was this tree that she spent the past couple of years living under, she passed under that gum tree.  It was sheltered by native bush and was a warm spot. Her dam all those years ago had selected that spot as it offered shelter for her calf.

We live our lives by the cattle that we have  bred, some more so, seemed etched in time.