SOME of the finest livestock raising and fattening country along the Talbragar River between Gulgong and Dunedoo was officially taken up by the Bowman family close to 1832, and Shorthorns have been their chosen breed since that time.
William Bowman, one of three children of John and Honor Bowman of Scotland who arrived at Sydney Cove from Portsmouth on the first boat of free settlers on May 18, 1798, had first squatted on country at Mudgee and later, the Talbragar area, in the 1820s and employed shepherds to watch and manage his sheep and cattle, eventually taking up a number of small grants to build his land holdings.
One such acquisition was “Merotherie”, a square mile or 259 hectares some 23 kilometres east of Dunedoo, for which he paid with a demijohn of rum from a ship’s captain who was originally granted the land.
After developed and improved by a couple of Bowman generations “Merotherie” was split between brothers, Jim and Ronald, prior to their father’s death in the mid-1990s.
They were sons of Shorthorn breed stalwart and leading breed and local character, Bruce Bowman, who improved the Merotherie stud and commercial Beef Shorthorns during his life.
Ronald Bowman took up his 810ha share and named it “Meruthera” after the county parish location including his share of the Merotherie herd.
“Meruthera” is made up half-and-half of sandy loam country running into self-mulching black soils along the Talbragar River flats, ideal grazing country for his herd of 135 Poll Shorthorn breeders and 1200 sheep, a mix of an Egelabra blood self-replacing 20 micron Merino flock of 400 ewes and 250 first cross ewes joined to Poll Dorset rams for prime lamb production.
Mr Bowman said he had read old family diaries which record William Bowman purchasing a Shorthorn bull at Sydney in the early 1820s.
Early blood introduced to the Merotherie herd included cattle from the Lugsdin family of nearby Cobbora Station as well as from Weenya and Brigendoone.
With the introduction of the Poll Shorthorn breed early poll bulls came from Merriwong, Kaluga and Yamburgan.
These days Mr Bowman has been using a mix of Royalla and Doolibah bulls with several homebred sires.
His breeding herd is made up of 135 older matrons and 40 first-calver heifers which are joined for eight weeks from mid-September for a winter calving.
From weaning, calves were grown out and prepared for the nearby feedlot market, but in recent years Mr Bowman has been utilising the local Dunedoo store sales for his marketing.
