Holiday for nothing draw card

Press, 10 August 1979, Page 8

Holiday for nothing draw card

Top marks must go to Waikato Charolais breeders for a good piece of promotion for their breed. The latest issue of the New Zealand Charolais Cattle Society’s newsletter tells the story. The breed exhibit at the national field days at Hamilton was in a building made of punga logs, but from the outside no clue was given of the real nature of the exhibition. The only sign was one offering to show anyone interested enough to step inside how they and their family could spend two weeks in Honolulu every year absolutely free.

Inside Charolais cattle were standing sedately on a raised and floodlit platform with their meaty hindquarters toward the walk way and the public. A correspondent says that the notices adorning the walls were simple and to the point and the visitor soon found out how to get that elusive free holiday: “simply mate your beef herd to a Charolais sire and sell the weaners at auction and pay for the holiday with the premium.” This was easily the best promotion campaign that he had yet seen staged by a beef breeders’ organisation, said the writer.

Not only did the exhibit bring in the crowds, but it also gave them something to think about once inside. And to back up the whole message of the exhibit, the newsletter quotes the example of staunch Charolais man, Mr J. Cleaver, who farms near Invercargill. He sold his Angus steers at the same sale as his Angus cross Charolais steers and whereas the Angus made $lB3 the Charolais cross averaged $215 — a premium of $32 per head. And Mr Cleaver says that he had no greater problem with calving that he could recall through using Charolais bulls. In fact, he had not thought about it, he stated.