Family offers big reward to help lasso cattle rustlers
Andrew Stafford |
A farming family is offering a $25,000 reward to catch cattle thieves after more than $200,000 worth of livestock was stolen from their property.
Owen and Brigid Price say more than 140 head of cattle disappeared from Greenlake, a central Queensland property managed by their daughter Madeline, between April and May.
They have come up with the reward for information leading to the recovery of the cattle featuring 97 crossbred cows, many in calf to Wagyu bulls, along with 45 weaners.
Mr Price said cattle rustling was sadly not a thing of the past.
“It’s unfortunately part of our industry, and it’s obviously very opportunistic if it happens,” he told AAP.
“It’s not very common, but that’s not to say it doesn’t happen. It’s just petty crime.”
He said while most of the cows would not be sellable, the calves were another matter.
“They can continue to breed out of them, and I guess that’s going to be their use,” he said.
The cattle were fitted with identification devices and branded with a GL under a half-circle symbol, and carried a yellow tag marked Greenlake.
Mr Price said even if the electronic tags were removed, the cattle could still be identified by their brands, and the calves through DNA data.
“We’ve lost 97 breeding females out of a breeding group of 1000 cows in one mob,” he said.
“A large percentage of them were pregnant.”
Mr Price said the discovery of the apparent theft was made when the family was mustering to separate the weaners from the cows on May 28, after an initial head count on April 3.
The stock were not insured, due to the risk of insuring cattle against the individual value of the beasts.
Mr Price said the rustling could not have been managed alone.
“There’s people who know about this,” he said.
“They’re going to be somewhere in a paddock, and someone knows where they are.
“It’s not acceptable to steal cattle in this day and age, or at any time.”
AgForce Queensland president Shane McCarthy condemned the cattle theft.
“It’s hard enough to run a business, any stock loss is detrimental to its viability and cannot be accepted,” he told AAP.
AAP