Soon to weigh a ton

Blonde Helga is the most beautiful woman in Burgenland

Nikolaus Berlakovich, President of the Chamber of Agriculture, congratulated Beatrix Schütz and her Helga on their first place.(Bild: Reinhard Judt)

A feast for the eyes from Landsee, not yet two years old, was elected Miss Austria by an expert jury in Wieselburg. From now on, she will give birth to a child every year. 

When the 22-month-old Helga has outgrown her calf, she will weigh 1000 kilos. The nightmare of her ending up in a schnitzel roll need not plague her.

"Helga will be a suckler cow. She gives birth to a calf every year and can easily spend 17 good years here," says Beatrix Schütz from Landsee, who took over the dairy farm from her parents in 2017 and switched to beef cattle breeding with suckler cow husbandry.

"Noble conformation " 
The 35-year-old looks after 50 head of cattle, 80% of which are purebred "Blonde d'Aquitaine". This includes Helga, who prevailed against 99 competitors at the beef cattle day in Wieselburg and was crowned champion. According to the jury, the calf impressed with her "noble and breed-typical conformation".

Harvesting makes you beautiful
Of course, Helga had been properly spruced up before the show. Schütz sprayed the animal with a high-pressure cleaner, massaged shampoo into her coat and rubbed her dry. Her hair and tail were carefully trimmed with scissors. "Such an award is only possible through a high level of breeding commitment and intensive preparation work for the show animals," says Franz Vuk from the Burgenland Cattle Breeding Association, which currently looks after 36 breeding herds with 14 different beef cattle breeds.

Little Figo is allowed to grow old as a breeding bull.(Bild: Judt Reinhard)

It is no coincidence that Helga is called Helga. "Female calves are given a name that begins with the first letter of their mother's name. Male calves start with the letter of the bull," explains Schütz. That's why some of them are called Toblerone, Toffifee or Ferrero. Or Figo, the son of Honey, with whom the breeder won the national beef cattle show in Traboch last year. "He'll definitely make a good breeding bull one day." Figo can be happy. Because:

"It may sound harsh, but the calves are the yield."