Farmer and Settler (Sydney, NSW : 1906 - 1955), Friday 8 October 1954, page 11


Beef Herd To Start !si Lae

CAIRNS. — Twentyfive Shorthorn heifers have been flown from Cairns. in North; Queensland, to Lae. in ] New Guinea, to form j the nucleus of a beef herd at the Lutheran j

Mission there. ' The heifers were donated ? to the mission by Mr. A. ! W Anderson and were | aeed from 11 to 13 months. ; They averaged 400 lb. each. I

Two trips were made by | specially chartered DC3 to | get the cattle to New ? Guinea. i The cattle were brought | from Julia Creek to Mackay and then taken to the Atherton Tableland where they were rested and inoculated. , j Twelve head were taken on the first trip. The landed cost of the heifers in Lae, which is about 650 miles from Cairns, was approximately £60 per head compared with £110 for the estimated cost of shipping. Charter fees for the DC3 were £1200. Mr, W. W. Meuser. who came to Cairns to supervise the loading of the

shipment, said that Mr. P. Kidd, of Malanda, in North Queensland, would buy a Santa Gertrudis bull to mate with the heifers. The European and native staffs of the mission consume considerable amounts 'of beef and it is thought that 'a large amount of money will be saved through the mission growing its own beef. The mission already has 100 dairy heifers which wer,e secured through the efforts of Mr. Kidd, and any culls from this herd will be mated to beef bulls. The dairy cattle are A.I.S. ar Mtame from the Atherton Tableland. They are tiklvtn*?.