Our History

WHY AND HOW ANGUS CATTLE CAME TO SANDON

I remember listening to Jack at the bar at Chinchilla Show discussing cattle and cricket, in about 1968. I was too young to drink then so I can remember the discussion well, with Fat Cattle and Carcass competition plus a South East Queensland cricketing legend Syd Vellnagel.

When Syd said “Jack I need more cattle with Angus in them every time I enter a Hoof and Hook competition with Angus or Angus-cross cattle – I win! Angus fatten from the inside out, while Herefords fatten from the outside first and have too much exterior fat”

I guess that was Syd’s description of marbling, something that was not really talked about back then. Our main market was grinding beef to USA, Japan was only just coming on-line. Syd was a very astute cattleman and always spoke his mind. He was president of the Chinchilla Ag and Pastoral Association for a number of years.

Another time at a working bee in the cut-out yard at the Chinchilla Showgrounds, he and Jack were sparring over where a post should go. Syd eventually said ‘Jack, you know what your trouble is? You didn’t get married, you didn’t learn to give and take!” Wasn’t that the truth! But he did pass on his knowledge of stock.

Syd entered and won competitions all over southern Queensland, so he should’ve known what he was talking about. Well. Jack took heed of the advice from old Syd and bought his first Angus bulls from the Peters family of Ripple vale near Toowoomba.

From there, Jack bought the Willoughby Perfection 8th cow from Trevor Alexander of Boonarga, plus others, at the Queensland Angus breeders Sale in February 1969, and from the New England Breeders sale at Tamworth. He became good mates with Barry Marshall of Calleen stud near Tamworth after buying some of Barry’s cows, and he also purchased the influential sire Bald Blair Husk 55th from Barry as an older bull.

Jack had secured the option on 10-year-old, cast for age cows from the Wallangra herd of Jack and Joyce cross, for $100. This was during the beef crash of ’74-78 and was selling bulls for as low as $100. I went along in 1975 to look but Uncle Jack had first pick.

Not so keen on the ones left, I mentioned to Joyce the nine-year old K2 cow looked to me for next year. Joyce asked old Jack could we let her go, old Jack’s reply was
“I say, I say how does $125 sound?” He quickly shook his hand saying, “Done deal.”

Within a month K2 calved a bull Glenoch Ulijago U2, who was used by both studs as a two-year old to young breeders Rana and Donald Patch for $1800. Judge Bill Mayne sashed Jago as Grand Champion of the Queensland Angus breeder’s Show and sale at Oakey in 1978.

The beef crash ended during ’78, Ulijago sired a number of progeny at Glenoch, he is in the background of some of these cows. I bought my first tractor with the Jogo money, plus a little bit more.

It was a MF 65, it worked for many years in our early years of growing rock melons.

The next females came from the Bright Angus dispersal of Roy Denton, a former treasurer of the angus Society, who couldn’t understand that Jack only got his money from cattle. He also bought the sire Bright Cairo t51 in shares with Preston Peters of Ripple Vale.

Jack’s parents were married in 1913 and moved to Sandon, which was part of Pelican station. They milked cows for cream and ran some Herefords on the 1280-acre soldier settlement block.

Jack learnt the value of money at an early age. His father died when Jack was only four, and he was raised by his mother and three older sisters, my mother being one of them. There was no spare money for the share market like Roy Denton, he just lived a frugal life.

Jack’s next purchase was at a Te-Mania mature cow reduction in 1990 where he bought the Katoomba B46 cow wit ha VPl Lord Patriot heifer at foot, K275, who was the granddam to Katoomba X16, a prolific producer who just weaned another heifer at almost 16 years of age.

At the Ripple Vale dispersal sale in 2012, Jack decided he should help Nick get started and paid towards his first group of cows. By this time Jack had developed a bit of give and take, mostly from the antics of Nick and Bindi persisting at playing in the cotton seed pile and allowed Nick to pick his cows, he did offer his knowledge with the bloodlines of the Ripple Vale herd.

Both Jack Atkin and Roger Boshammer have served as state chairman of the Qld Angus State Committee and the Angus board of Australia of which Roger has served for 18 years.

Being a part of shaping an organisation for the advancement of Angus cattle in Australia for over 50 years has been an honour and a privilege. “I came onto the federal board at the tender age of 31 when each of the three state elected councilors sat together and addressed other councilors as Mr. We wore our coats and ties throughout each of the quarterly board meetings and we paid our own air fare. The AA office was at the Sydney showgrounds and capably manager by Enid Fisher until the move to Armidale in……….1994.

During Don Sunderman’s term as president in 1982, the society’s funds were very limited as income was related to members seasonal conditions and at one stage, he instructed Enid “to not even post a letter”. Up until then members would only register some of their females and were reluctant to pay fees on male calves especially when seasons were tough. This is when the female inventory system came in as a way of allowing some prediction of society income for the year ahead.

One significant decision during my time on the board was employing Don Nicol who set up the groundwork for performance recording; Breedplan as we know it today.

Both Jack and I showed heavily in the 1980’s as a way of promoting the studs.

Glenoch Angus

2024 marks a significant milestone for Glenoch Angus with the commissioning of a new brand that reflects recent changes in family involvement within the Glenoch stud.

The Sandon and Glenoch herds shared similar breeding philosophies and, while separately owned, were operated under the same umbrella for management and marketing purposes until the holder of the ‘Sandon’ Prefix, Jack Atkin, passed in 2018.

With the Sandon herd no longer featured, the name and associated brand needed to be reviewed, with a new emphasis on ‘Glenoch’ as the primary name going forward.

“In our industry, each operation carries significant historical value, evolving with each passing generation both collectively and individually,” said Tam Boshammer, owner of Glenoch Angus.

Queensland design company Hewitt Consulting was commissioned to create the new brand and associated logo, “Working closely with Tam from Glenoch, we successfully executed a subtle rebranding strategy to transition the stud previously known as Sandon Glenoch, to its new identity, Glenoch Angus,” said principal Caitlyn Hewitt.

“We wanted to maintain a strong element of the original logo in the new design. To achieve this, Hewitt Consulting delved into the operation’s background and significance. Through discussions with the Glenoch team, they identified key recognisable features and ways to preserve the history during the transition, with the beast’s head becoming the distinctive symbol,” said Tam.