By Jeremy Sollars
The Warwick Show and Rodeo Society has again given assurances sufficient cattle will be available for campdrafting events at the 2018 Warwick Rodeo.
Speculation has been rife in recent months and weeks that the elite Warwick Gold Cup Campdraft and other events could be under threat due to reduced cattle numbers related to the drought.
This week the Tenterfield Campdraft Association announced it would cancel its 2018 event set down for November, but Warwick Show and Rodeo Society Campdraft Committee Chairman Geoff Grant told the Free Times on Monday of this week Warwick’s campdrafting events in October were still safe.
Mr Grant said he was confident around 4000 cattle could be secured, the number the committee aims for each year.
“We’ve been finding additional suppliers and producers who can provide cattle for us,” Geoff said.
“We’ll be going ahead for sure.
“We haven’t really had to go any further afield than we normally would – we’ve got cattle coming from Roma and west of Bollon and Goondiwindi, places like that.
“The majority of our regular local suppliers are still able to supply us with cattle.
“We’d normally use around 3700 for all the events (at the Warwick Rodeo) but we like to have around 4000 available overall so we can pick out the better ones.
“The only real worry is the number of competitors – obviously some of them may not be able to make it if they’re dealing with drought issues on their properties.”
Mr Grant said time constraints in 2017 meant not all Gold Cup competitors were able to compete in the Canning Downs Campdraft, with the two sets of competitors “usually a mirror image”.
He said placing competitors in the Gold Cup was the priority given the status of that event.
Just over 900 competed in the 2017 Warwick Gold Cup Campdraft – considered ‘the Melbourne Cup’ of campdrafting.
