First Homestead
Land Ballot
‘Aldinga Park’ was drawn in a Land Ballot in 1964 by the late John Piggott and his wife Bronwen. The property is 120 000 acres (48 582 hectares) of rugged terrain, sandstone escarpments and clear running creeks with flats growing mostly speargrass and Queensland bluegrass.
Pack Horses & Camping Out
There were very few improvements and much of the property was accessible only by horse, so musters involved packhorses and camping out.
Ticks & Dips
Back then the cattle were mainly Herefords and Shorthorns. Cancer eyes and ticks were a constant menace and dipping for ticks was an essential, time consuming part of property management. One particularly wet year the entire herd was dipped thirteen times. By the late 1960s Bos Indicus bulls were introduced and slowly cancer eyes and dipping became part of the past.
First Droughtmaster Bulls
John Piggott purchased his first Droughtmaster bulls in the early 1970s with the intention of breeding bulls for home use, however surplus bulls were in demand so thoughts turned to breeding stud bulls. John and Bronwen had moved to nearby ‘Fairhaven’ so they registered Fairhaven Droughtmaster Stud No. 399 in 1983.The stud cows stayed on the forest country of ‘Aldinga Park’ while bulls were grown out on scrub at ‘Fairhaven’.
Aldinga Droughtmasters 1984
Eldest son Terry took over ‘Aldinga Park’ and also bred his own bulls. He registered his first stud cows in 1983 and ALDINGA DROUGHTMASTER STUD No. 400 in 1984. Both studs were run together for many years until the Fairhaven cows moved to ‘Fairhaven’. Aldinga Stud cattle evolved, with slightly different traits, as Terry selected Aldinga cows and purchased bulls of his own.
In the early days there was a strong infusion of Swan and Wingfield bloodlines, then later sires from many other studs, including Strathfield, Wylandra, Minlacowie and Fairhaven, were used. Bulls were sold in the paddock until 1988 when the first Fairhaven Droughtmaster Sale was held in Springsure. Time moved on and with John Piggott’s passing, Fairhaven Droughtmaster Stud was sold. In 2006 the sale was renamed ‘The PIGGOTT Droughtmaster Sale‘.
