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their cattle from “Carinya” to the Wellington yards for penning on the Thursday before Friday’s sale.
The “Clairville” properties eventually transferred into the hands of niece, Jean O’Brien, who had married the late Pat O’Brien, originally from Forest Reefs and a wool classer with Pitt Son and Badgery who classed at Millamalong Station for 45 to 50 years, Warren, Delegate, Bombala, Yass, and Boorowa sheds.
As the herd slowly bred out of dairy and into Poll Hereford beef the family’s agent, Phillip Morris of Peter Milling and Company, Wellington, was called upon to give advice and began a direction of mothering and tagging calves at calving or weaning and after weaning, separate heifers and move them to the Ponto Falls district block until of joining age.
“We also introduced bulls of darker colour and with good eye placement and pigmentation,” Mr Morris said.
“No heifer is joined to her sire and always buy bulls of unrelated bloodlines.”
Mr Morris impressed upon the Sheridans and later Jean O’Brien and her brother the importance of paying a little more than average for new sires and for several years selected bulls from the O’Leary’s Claredale and Currawong studs, Elong Elong.
“We selected another bull from “Pine Avon”, Wongarbon, then from the late Mark O’Leary,” Mr Morris said.
One bull that performed well within the Clairville herd was the $3000 heifer’s first calf, Fairfield Futuristic purchased at Dubbo saleyards from the dispersal of Alan Storer’s “Macquarie View”, Dubbo, herd in November 2014.
“He was by Fairfield Voodoo and full of Debarry blood on both sides with an outcross of Bowen Vincent on his maternal side,” Mr Morris said.
“His autumn/winter calves had sold at the Dubbo prime sale the day prior weighing an average 522 kilograms and averaged $971.”
Bulls are run with the breeding herd of some 50 cows all year round and calves are weaned at eight months.
“When times were more in drought during the past decade or so, we had to change our programs, but in good years we separated heifers after weaning and placed them on some lesser heavy country until they reached two years and joining age,” Mr Morris said.
“They would then move to “Clairville” for joining and grazing with older matrons.”
The steer portion was then run on lucerne flats along the Wuuluman Creek and east-west railway line next to the Mitchell Highway just out of Wellington until they reached 560kg to 600kg as bullocks.
“But in recent years we are trying to get them off by 15 to 16 months for the heavy feeder market at 470kg to 480kg mark to feedlots”, he said.
