THE cost of feeding stock through drought conditions has forced one of the state’s leading rodeo contractors to sell off their entire herd after decades of breeding.
Coonamble’s Peter and Tim Kennedy will bid farewell to their bucking bulls and horses during an auction on March 3, bringing to an end their long association with the rough stock industry.
Known as Nakadoo Rodeo Company, the pair have cemented themselves as one of New South Wale’s best breeding stables claiming Bucking Horse of the Year in 2013 and riding at top level events including the Tamworth national rodeo finals, Royal Sydney Show and Gold Coast rodeos. Their attendance at small local shows in the district will also be sorely missed.
But perhaps the duo's highest achievement was their work with disadvantaged youth through the Nakadoo Rodeo School.
In a bid to reduce crime rates and get children off the streets they began offering rodeo classes to teach respect and hard work.
Peter Kennedy said during a town meeting some decades ago community members had raised concerns around rising crime rates.
"People had enough of it so I said I'll run a rodeo school," he said.
"The last school we did here a couple of years ago we had probably hundreds of kids."
The Kennedys started breeding about 25 to 30 years ago.
“It started from there at home in the backyard and it got bigger and bigger,” Tim said.
“Friends came around and then friends of friends came around and all of a sudden there was 30 kids in the backyard wanting to ride steers and calves and bulls. It just grew and grew.”
While they initially began breeding their own stock, Tim soon started looking for new genetics.
They now have up to ten generations of bucking stock behind some of the animals.
“I came to realise I couldn’t get what I wanted in my lifetime so I started to buy stock from other contractors that had been breeding for 50 or 60 years,” he said.
The sale has sparked interest from buyers from the top of Queensland to the bottom of Victoria with about 50 open, novice and junior bulls and the same number of horses looking for a new home.
“We don’t want it to happen but the cost of feeding them, we can’t afford to keep doing what we are doing,” Tim said.
“We have got to keep them prime and healthy and it costs a lot of money to do it.
“Everything we own has been bred for the sport. You can’t just buy saleyards stock for the job.”
Among the offering is Nakadoo’s Wild Eyes, by 8 Ball and out of a Silver City Bone Crusher cow, Nakadoo’s Party Animal by Deadly and out of a Party Time cow and Nakadoo’s Freak of Nature who is a brother to Eye Candy by a BTang bull and out of a longhorn cow.
While Wild Eye's brother sold for $18,000 recently, Tim had no price expectations but said it wasn’t an easy decision to see their hard work go.
“You slowly train them, it’s a slow process,” he said.
“You have got to look after them because you spend years breeding them for where they are so you’ve got to the best for them all the time.
“It’s a bit like training a young boxer, you don’t shove him in a ring and get him to box straight away. You nurse him on his way up and when he gets up there, away they go on their own.”
The sale will be held at the Coonamble rodeo grounds from Sunday March 3 at 10am.
Lucy Kinbacher
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
Raised on a cattle property at Biggenden, Lucy Kinbacher has spent 10 years working across metropolitan, regional and rural publications in both Queensland and NSW. Lucy has been the editor of the Queensland Country Life and North Queensland Register since 2021.
