Breeding stud cattle is in Steve Crowleys blood. And this passion has been passed down through the generations, with his grandchildren becoming involved in the industry hes loved all his life.
For nearly forty years, Mr Crowley and his wife Therese has made the trip to Sydney to show their Poll Hereford cattle. And this year, they will be taking their biggest team yet to celebrate the Hereford and Poll Hereford feature breed at Sydney Royal.
Mr Crowley, Tycolah Poll Hereford stud, Cobbadah, and his family will take 15 animals to this years show, the latest in a long line of successes at the huge event.
Mr Crowley said he caught the bug of breeding stud cattle from his grandfather Reg Green, who owned Yarrandabbie Hereford stud.
He won at Sydney Royal in 1949, 1950 and 1951 with the same heifer, and I was born in 1951, so I guess I caught the disease from him, he said. He taught me what to look for and how to breed cattle. All Ive ever wanted to do was breed stud cattle.
Mr Crowleys father Doug had Herefords, but they began breeding Poll Herefords in about 1963, and Mr Crowley began his stud in 1969. We just felt the Poll was the way of the future, he said.
Mr Crowley wanted to leave school at the end of Year 10, but there was one condition he had to get good marks in his School Certificate. But he added his own condition he wanted a cow to start his stud.
So I got five advanced marks and one credit, so I was allowed to leave school, he said. And I got my cow from Success stud, Moree, for $300. And we still have her cow family in the stud today.
From there, Mr Crowley went to Tocal College and worked at other studs.
It was the late 1970s when he finally took his own steers to Sydney Royal, and he took his first bull in 1980. It was Tycolah Debonair, and he came fourth in the over two year old class. Mr Crowley won his first ever broad ribbon in 2005, winning grand champion cow. But his best memory of the Royal was in 2011, when his nine-month-old bull Tycolah Jovial was crowned junior champion and grand champion bull, only losing the supreme Poll Hereford exhibit to the Tycolah cow. Jovial came back in 2012 to be named grand champion, supreme Poll Hereford and grand champion of all breeds. He was sold for $80,000 at Dubbo.
And last year bull Tycolah Oakwood won supreme Poll Hereford exhibit at Sydney.
But Mr Crowleys love of cattle hasnt stopped with him. His daughter Lisa worked on the stud, and his son Ben works there full-time. And with four grandchildren keen to lend a hand Bailey, 10, Bella, 8, Chace, 6, and Arley, 4 he has plenty of help. The kids already know what to feed the cattle. Bailey can feed them on his own, he said.
Mr Crowley always looks forward to the Sydney Royal. It gets into your blood. I love going every year, he said. And I think we are at a turning point with the Herefords. The demands for the grass-fed market are going to be a real plus for the Herefords.
