With passion, dedication and devotion to the breed spanning four generations, the future is strong, clear and bright for a Santa stud in its 56th breeding year as Waco begins a new era this September.

Dating back to the 1950s, Dave Bassingthwaighte introduced Brahmans into his Shorthorn females, purchased his first Santa Gertrudis bull, KRAR Associate for 800 guineas followed by Risdon Banjo, purchased at the King Ranch Sale. Dave registered his stud, Yarrawonga Santa Gertrudis in 1956. 

 In the early 1960s, Dave’s son, Alastair drew property west of Taroom in the ballots. Naming his new land Waco after recently visiting Waco in Texas, Alastair too had an eye and affection for Santa Gertrudis cattle and registered his own stud Waco, in 1965.

 Being a new breed to Australia, Alastair’s passion for the breed led him all over the country exhibiting and promoting Santa Gertrudis cattle for many decades, along with his wife Louise. The couple poured their encouragement and mentoring into the breed and prospective breeders, but also into their own children as they instilled within their family a love for cattle and the breed, always sharing their knowledge, experience and guidance.

 Today, David, Suzanne, Olivia, Howy, Tom, Drew and Pip are honoured and grateful to continue the legacy of the Waco stud.

 Born in 1974, David Bassingthwaighte spent his childhood in the cattle yards, on the road with Santa Gertrudis Cattle and attending the Santa Junior Camps. David also had an avid eye for Santa Gertrudis cattle and returned home after school to work within the family business. 

 It was in Emerald,1996 at a Santa Gertrudis feature show where David met Suzanne, who was there parading Droughtmasters with her brother. It didn’t take long for David to bring Suzanne into the breed though, marrying in 1998 and starting their own herd of five, welcoming Olivia, Howy, Tom and twins, Drew and Pip within four and a half years. The young family lived at Kiah, next door to Waco where David predominantly managed the Taroom holdings along with the stud cows for fifteen years.

The years were spent methodically allocating stud cows and showing cattle all with much enthusiasm and involvement from the children. Along with trips to Muldoon at Mungallala and Stockade at Tambo to muster the commercial cattle.

 Always looking to create income, the couple saved and bought a bulldozer and began contracting after two years of marriage. They contracted for some years and ended up with three machines, but as fuel prices went up, the viability decreased, and the dozers were sold. David and Suzanne then went on and bought and sold a couple of properties over the next decade. Mynumie, south of Mitchell and then Dulacca West near Jackson.

 The year the twins started school saw Suzanne looking for work to add to David’s wage to support their growing family. Unbeknownst to the family at the time, it would be in fact Suzanne’s never-ending quest for perfection which in this case extended to covering 90 schoolbooks, to her self-imposed perfect, bubble and wrinkle-free standard with sticky contact, which would broaden the family’s horizons and provide the diversification they would thrive from down the track. 

 It is said a successful business idea must provide a solution to a problem. Suzanne found a partial solution to her contact problem in slip-on covers, but they were thick polypropylene and only came in block primary colours. Suzanne embarked on a new venture and developed a range of thin, non-transparent, beautifully designed slip-on book covers for girls and boys, naming it Got It Covered.

 With no experience in manufacturing and importing, an agent was commissioned to source the first year’s collection. 30,000 book covers were sold in the November to January back-to-school period of the first year. David and Suzanne knew they needed to deal directly with the manufacturer to develop their product which found them bound for China to find a factory.

 Their trip was a raft of twists and turns, but ultimately led to their perfect product destination. From turning up at a non-English speaking trade show, engaging an interpreter, discovering not a single stand sold book covers, identifying and flying to a factory in a remote, even-by-Aussie-standards location, to selecting their preferred live eel or chicken to dine on while the factory worked to produce and tweak product samples, the journey was anything but smooth, but ultimately delivered a product they worked so hard to perfect.

 Suzanne’s belief in their product was such that it outshone her naturally shy nature and saw her actively source newsagents and stationery stores Queensland wide to passionately introduce their covers. The business grew rapidly as agents all around Australia were engaged, orders flowed and by just the third year, over one million book covers were sold in the three-month period.

Logistics were a reality as all stock was freighted to their home at Kiah, Taroom and packed in forty-foot shipping containers. Starting with one container and ending up with five, the kids learnt to work before and after school and on weekends, packing book cover orders, during the period. Their commitment to the business was such that venturing away on school holidays for a couple of days saw the family tow a horse float full of cartons of book covers so orders could continue to be sent while they ‘holidayed’. 

 With the stud then well and truly established and their children growing rapidly, 2012 saw a change in direction as David and Suzanne, their five young Basses, and the Waco stud cows moved to Muldoon at Mungallala. Muldoon, a true jewel of all gems of fine Brigalow country was drawn in the ballots by Dave Bassingthwaighte back in the 1950s. David began leasing Muldoon from Alastair and Louise and took over ownership of the Waco Stud. 

 As the family settled at Muldoon, Got It Covered had outgrown its existing logistics. A warehouse was leased in Brisbane and a cloud software program was introduced, consolidating agents and store ordering. They were surely busy days as Suzanne would often be up at 2 or 3 am to download and forward orders to the warehouse each morning before it opened to then be at the school room by 8am to start the school day teaching Tom, Drew and Pip Distance Education. Suzanne adds, “It often took a while to find the kids as they’d be out mustering with their father and would lose track of time.” Surely busy days indeed.

 Optimism and enthusiasm were bountiful for the family as they began carving out their own future at Muldoon. It was far from a smooth transition as drought hit incredibly hard in 2013 and no infrastructure to run stud cows or feed sale bulls existed. Their home was a small hut once located along the dingo barrier fence which Alastair had moved to Muldoon in his late teenage years, with their two daughters bunked down outside in the dozer-driver caravan. Waco continued to sell bulls each year in conjunction with Yarrawonga Stud, now owned by David’s brother, Andrew at Wallumbilla. 

The drought persisted year in and year out and took its toll on the business. Feeding cattle was the predominant role for all. Initially making the conscious decision to keep the primary production and book cover businesses separate, and thanks to David and Suzanne’s persistence, resourcefulness and diversification, income from Got It Covered supported the family and enabled them to go on and build their dream home on Muldoon in 2015. Suzanne recalls what a momentous time this was for the family as “the boys no longer had to sleep in foetal positions in bunk beds!”  As the family continued to grow and shift, the developed Got It Covered business was sold in 2016.

 Still in the grips of drought in 2019, it was all seven sets of hands on deck as the family scoured Queensland looking for grass to maintain their stud cows. With most of the state though by then in drought, their quest for grass fell short. With agistment non-existent, Tom went online every morning to check for newly listed sale properties. David eventually suggested Tom broaden his search, so he included the Northern Territory and found Epenarra Station for sale. Epenarra was purchased with 10,000 head, and while it didn’t alleviate the feed problem at Muldoon, it created a quick cash flow which enabled the stud cows to be successfully maintained and would go on to provide a perfect proving ground for their own cattle. 

 Epenarra Station near Tennant Creek in the NT is 658,000 acres of mixed soil types that carry buffel, natural grass and spinifex. David, Suzanne and family are currently joining 6,000 females and in the next two years will be running all Santa bulls. Since theirmid-2019purchase, they have introduced 70 Waco bulls and are delighted with the way the bulls have handled the harsh conditions. “Having only receiving 70mm of rain in 20 months the conditions were challenging to say the least, and the young bulls have not only survived but thrived and the progeny from the mostly Droughtmaster cows are very promising,” says David.

 “Having a large commercial operation has given us the opportunity to test-drive our genetics in similar environments that our clients experience. This has been an invaluable learning tool for us and is the main driver in all our decisions when joining our stud cattle and sourcing new genetics.

While Santa Gertrudis cattle have evolved since arriving in Australia and the market is constantly changing in what it demands from us, our breeding philosophy is quite simple and has not changed over the years. We aim to produce commercially relevant cattle, with a strong focus on fertility in our cow herd, and male progeny that have a high weight gain and the ability to finish in all environments.”

Waco Freeman was a highlight for the stud during the 1990s. Freeman became the most influential bull the stud or the breed had seen, producing cattle with excellent breed character, performance and structural correctness and his genetics are still prominent throughout the breed today.

 “Finding a bull that has a major impact on a herd is something we are always searching for. While we have many influential sires that have produced quality progeny over the years, there has only been a few that have had the ability to increase the performance of our herd, and the breed. The first was King Ranch A25, then Waco Freeman. We believe Waco Falcon, one of our current sires, has the quality and consistency that will see him become one of the stud’s best producing bulls. With 6 sons already retained in the stud and his progeny averaging $19,000 at auction in his first 2 years of service, with his best progeny for sale this year, we are extremely excited about what the future holds.”

 “One of the most rewarding aspects of our breeding program is joining time. For us, this involves running each cow into the pound and pulling her record up on a computer to assess her history, what she has bred, the quality of her progeny and follow which genetics she has clicked with in the past. We have found that to get the best results this is necessary to match each cow to a selected sire that we think will compliment each animal. While this is a long and slow process it is something that Waco has been doing for over 50 years and is how we achieve our best results. 

“Thinking back to one of my most valued lessons, I had just left school and Mum, Dad and I were joining heifers at Kiah. We didn’t own a truck and Dad had two heifers in the yards selected for a bull that was 6 km away. I suggested that the bull in the paddock beside the yards would do, knowing I was the one that was going to be walking them away. He just said that the bull further away was the right bull for them and he was sure it would be worth it. Now I wish I could tell you that the joining ended up producing a world beater, but I was young and after swearing at the heifers for 6 km I forgot their numbers. So, while it wasn’t a world beater, now it always reminds me not to take shortcuts when it comes to genetics and the effort required to progress.”

 “We have included our kids in allocating from a very young age. To talk through the mating of each and every cow and the reasons for and against a joining with the family is essential within our business. Lots of banter and opinions back and forth makes for many enjoyable days in the yards.”

 In recent years, Beef 2018 was a highlight for Waco where the stud won the Interbreed Breeders Group Award consisting of bulls Waco Massai, Waco Mustang and heifer, Waco Nikita. All three have been retained in the stud. Both Massai and Mustang typify the type of animal the family strive to breed. High performing, exceptional character, big carcass bulls with incredible constitution. The first of their progeny are exhibiting their sire’s traits and will be presented at their bull sale this year in September.

 “The relationships we have formed with fellow breeders are one of the most satisfying aspects of breeding Santa Gertrudis cattle and we are grateful for the lifelong friendships we have formed. We are forever thankful to all the families that have supported us over the years.”

 While the appreciation, love and passion for the Santa Gertrudis breed is so evidently generational for the Bassingthwaighte family, the journey has been as much about teaching and sharing the dedication, determination, and commitment required for growth. David credits his learning of these values and his love of the breed to his parents, Alastair and Louise, and proudly took over his father’s position on the Santa Gertrudis BreedersAssociation Council after Alastair’s 46 years of service. 

As their pairing and partnership approaches a quarter of a century, David and Suzanne heavily emphasise kindness and communication within their family, and the weight of a good business plan. The journey has been shared, ever evaluated, and ever changing. Suzanne, a born and bred cattle-lover contributes her own innate sense of dedication and pursuit of excellence to the partnership, as the couple’s focus on positive growth, propels they and their family in all areas of business and life.

Part of great growth, is great change. And now with all five of their young Basses either finished or finishing boarding school this year, 2021 will see an exciting year for Waco with a new sale to be conducted at a new location. With all the kids breeding their own bulls, and now all young adults, the timing for the next stage is right. 

 Construction of a new selling complex and yards is currently underway on a small property 13km west of Mitchell on the Warrego Highway, known as the Waco Bull Depot. Approximately 100 bulls will go under the hammer at 11am, 23rdSeptember 2021.

 From cattle to contact, while their journey to now has been anything but predictable, it has also been anything but idle. With the fourth generation of Bassingthwaighte’s stepping firmly forward to offer their efforts to the line, David, Suzanne, Olivia, Howy, Tom, Drew and Pip are humbled and thankful to continue the Waco stud legacy. They are excited by the possibilities that lay ahead, affirm their continued dedication, determination and commitment to the breed, and look forward to warmly welcoming you to the new Waco era, beginning with their new sale.