His Gone Smoking Mad
The day before Jeremy and Carmen’s Circle 8 sale in August 22, my son John said ‘Dad, just get on a plane and go, or I won’t hear the end of you saying you should have been there!’
John was correct, so I went, and little did I know, I would find such a magnificent line of females. Several of them now reside at Bramblewick Farm, the home of Barnett Angus. They’ve been dubbed ‘The Delightful Dozen’. The reason is obvious as they are exactly that. Superb temperament, deep bodies, solid and feminine girls, and about to calve.
One animal I missed out on was one that Macca took home, after creating an Aussie record for a heifer at $140,000. I’ll be keen to hear of her progress as she was a well-made, beautifully balanced good type of female. Certainly, a front paddock girl.
Congratulations to Jeremy and Carmen on a great sale but the congratulations don’t stop there.
Sale guests were treated to a wonderful after-sale array of fresh oysters! Yep, oysters at a cattle sale! As if that wasn’t enough, there was a metal sculpture adorned with Circle 8 insignias dominating the entertaining area, and creating a warm ambience. It was a custom made ‘Smoker’ that looked like a steam engine with the ability to feed hundreds.
It was a great conversation piece and one which lead to a discussion of why we are in the beef business. The answer in a nutshell, is because we aim to breed animals that taste fantastic. There is no question that the meat that came out of that smoker was some of the best Beef many guests had ever had. What was it? What cut? How was it bred? How long had it been in the smoker?
The discussion led to the importance of marbling which was right up our alley. At Barnett Angus have bred an animal we call ‘Rosie’. She has an IMF score of 8, one of the highest in Australia. She is one of our touchstones. We love her very much and are excited about a few calves being born now from IVF and her natural Bull calf, which looks at this early stage, to be a well balanced young bruiser.
The Circle 8 herd generally represent the upper end of the marbling scale, so it was easy to find common ground for conversations with Jeremy.
When I returned home and pondered the visit to Circle 8, I felt I should explore getting a custom-built smoker for our farm. A few more calls to Jeremy to discuss the pros and cons, then I was contacting the smoker maker who turns out to be a passionate and talented artist in every sense of the word.
He is the one and only Shannon Hobbs of HoonArt (Instagram is at: https://www.picuki.com/profile/hoonart77, facebook is: https://www.facebook.com/hoonart77/ - I reckon instagram is best
The experience of working with Shannon to design, plan, and have him construct the Smoker Behemoth was second to none. I’m not sure if Shannon or I was more excited when I finally lit the match to fire up his latest creation which is now at Bramblewick Farm, the home of Barnett Angus.
We are very much ‘Smoker Cooking Students’, and aim to put on a delicious feast when you come to visit.. Here’s to to new adventures, new experiences, and new friendships.
You can check out the amazing Circle 8 Angus here and stay tuned for updates on our calves due any day now, and Marks newest smoking adventures.
