In her one hundredth year, Hereford breeder Isabel Webb continues to be vitally interested in the breed which has been the main focus of her family since 1939.
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Her family property “Boongarra” near Morven, NSW and Hereford herd is now managed by her niece Cecily Trickett who said her aunt was in the yards recently, watching her weaner steers being loaded for the Blue Ribbon Weaner sale at Wodonga.
“I always take her for a drive around the cattle except when it was really hot,” Mrs Trickett said.
“She takes a keen interest in what is going on here and is very attached to her cattle.”
Miss Webb’s parents came to the Morven district in 1920 when the noted property “Woorinyan” was purchased on which Merino sheep was the dominate enterprise.
“It was a family partnership, and my father also had the largest Shropshire stud in Australia,” Miss Webb said.
“They then gradually moved into Herefords and my home was built in 1950 on the 500ha portion of “Woorinyan”, now know as “Boongarra”.
She has in her collection a photo of Hereford cattle being droved to the property having been purchased in the New England and delivered to the Riverina by train on 18 May 1939.
Miss Webb can remember them arriving at “Woorinyan”.
“They were mostly steers and many from V2V (one of Australia’s oldest Hereford herds and bred on the New England by the Wright family), with some heifers,” she recalls.
“The heifers were kept and my father started to breed his herd from them, along with cows bought from noted herds in the Holbrook and Wagga Wagga districts.”
Miss Webb assumed the management of the stock and property in 1975, when the family partnership was dissolved and gradually increased her cattle herd while reducing the number of sheep.
“Sheep work was getting a bit too much and cattle are a bit easier for me so I increased my cow numbers over time,” she said.
“They were a popular breed and my father liked Herefords and he had bought cows at reasonable prices when they were available in the district, and we have had good success with them.”
Mrs Trickett also noted the breed reputation for gentle temperament is well deserved. “They are a quiet breed, and we often get ribbed about how quiet our cattle are,” she said.
Both Miss Webb and her niece agreed on that point: “Temperament is very important … we must have quite cattle,” they said.
On her eastern Riverina property, 400 quality Hereford cattle are run, and Isabel Webb now selects her bulls from Ian Locke at “Wirruna”, Holbrook.
“We had been buying our bulls for many years from the Harbison family at “Dunoon”, and have appreciated the advice given by them,” she said.
‘But when they moved over to breed Angus we stayed with our local studs and went to “Wirruna”.”
“It is a well-established stud, and I didn’t see any sense in going further afield.”
Mrs Trickett added they had done some homework on the background of Ian Locke’s breeding program and liked what he was doing.
Miss Webb said they peruse the catalogue prior to the sale and not bulls with the figures they like, but she is adamant conformation and especially temperament are the main traits considered when the bulls are being considered.
“We also look for smaller birthweight, ease of calving and pollness, but have to be careful the calves are not too small,” she said. “And also look at milking ability, but we also make sure the bull has the conformation to match the figures we are looking for.”
Miss Webb is now breeding Poll Herefords, especially in relation to safety in the yards and they are more attractive to buyers, and she is focusing on better eye pigment in her choice of sires.
The eight to nine month Boongarra-bred weaner steers are offered for sale at the annual Blue Ribbon Weaner Sales in Wodonga at the beginning of January.
Mrs Trickett said their draft received a great compliment from a buyer who purchased steers at last years sale. “He said they did everything he expected of them and asked if we had any heifers for sale as he was interested in expanding his herd,” she said. “But we don’t have any for sale at the moment.”
Looking back on her long association with the Hereford breed, Miss Webb was convinced she had made the right decision to stay with the herd her father had established in 1939.
“I have seen a lot of people move away from Herefords, particularly to Angus and I really don’t know why … because our Herefords have performed as well as any other cattle I have seen,” she mused.
