Our stud herd started as a hobby – a way of improving our commercial line of cattle while learning about and keeping in touch with industry updates.
Until recently our commercial herd was our main focus, however believing in the breed we have now turned the tables and run a predominantly purebred herd.
Meryl began Boobook Poll Hereford Stud in 1982 with a heifer from her family’s Tullaree Stud. This heifer was out of a great old cow – Glen Wilga Diamond 39. Today all our Moonbeam females are direct descendants.
Within a few years Meryl purchased her second stud animal, a horned cow from Invernion – Empress 24. A lovely, easy doing cow, who is related to the Boni line today.
Over the years we have added new blood to the herd, purchasing heifers at the Debarry, Moorlands, Charvel, Mi Von and Norolle dispersal sales.
We use both AI and natural sires and have purchased bulls or semen, using Bowen, Debarry, Moorlands and Karina bloodlines. Perhaps the most influential bull in our herd to date has been Karina Kansas – a big strong meaty bull who passed on these attributes to his progeny.
As we continue to improve the condition of our land, we aim to keep our stock numbers down on our property and today run around 100 breeders in our stud herd. Our family lines include Boni, Moonbeam, Last Day, Cherry Ripe, Adventuress, Purity, Duchess and Fuschia.
We also purchased five heifers from the Debarry Dispersal Sale and have now added the Purity, Elsa, Last Day, Clara and Petunia families to our herd.
We sell most of our progeny, only keeping a handful of stud heifers each year as replacements, along with a selection of bulls that we sell off farm at around 18 to 24 months of age.
We require our cattle to be quiet, low maintenance and to calve unassisted. Except for the odd animal we have shown, our cattle are all grown and fed on pasture.
Our females are the back bone of our breeding program and they must be fertile, structurally sound, milk well and have good growth rates. The bulls we use must be herd improvers and have the ability to cover the ground and effectively serve females.
Over the years we have added growth and are now concentrating on increasing carcass yields through improving our EMA and IMF ratings.