Arthur Trethowan, 93, continues to reinvent his enterprise

The Woomargama cattle farmer recently sold the last of his 500 head Hereford cow herd and is moving into trading steers.

"I've been thinking about it (selling the herd) for three or four years, there's a lot of work in calving down 500 cows," Mr Trethowan said.

The older portion of the cows were sold to Melbourne abattoirs, while 242 of his heifers, second and third-calvers, fetched up to $2000 a head at the Wodonga Annual Feature Female Sale in January.

Mr Trethowan's friend and agent of 50 plus years, Michael Scollard of Paull and Scollard said to achieve those prices given the season and so soon after the fires was incredible.

"It proved the point that people always appreciate quality, no matter what the breed is," Mr Scollard said.

The dispersal represented the end of 30 years of hard-work breeding his herd, but Mr Trethowan joked that it didn't worry him too much when the cheque came in.

And although he might call himself retired now, that doesn't mean he's slowing down much.

"I'll look to run about 1000 steers now," Mr Trethowan said, explaining he's kept close to 350 steers from last year's calving.

"They were born in March, April so are around 10-months old.

"I might buy a few more when it rains again."

It's not the first time Mr Trethowan has embarked on a new enterprise, he was a Merino sheep producer before he got into cattle.

The grandson of one of The Land's founders, Sir Arthur Trethowan, he grew up on a sheep farm at Bulgandry, near Rand.

"I started school in 1932 at Bulgandry, we would travel the seven miles into school in horse and cart," he said.

Once he left school he worked for his father, the war leading to a shortage of workers across the country.

"There was no electricity and no tractors when I finished school," he said.

"Dad and I would shear hundreds of sheep ourselves in a day and then had to go back to class the wool at night, just with the light of a lamp."

He said he soon went out on his own, buying a property at Rand before purchasing a sheep station, Goolgumbla, at Jerilderie.

It was when he was in his 60s that he and his late wife Jean made the move from the flats of Jerilderie to the hills of Holbrook, purchasing Culbara at Woomargama, along with several other properties that his sons, David, Ross and Barry now farm.

The move instigated his decision to get out of sheep and into cattle.

"I was getting too old to catch sheep," Mr Trethowan laughed.

He said a 500 head Yarram Park-blood Hereford herd was sold to him along with the Culbara property.

Mr Trethowan said the transition from sheep to cattle was not a difficult one.

"It was just about feeding them properly," he said.

"We have phalaris, rye grass and clover and we top dress it every second year.

"We usually have to feed in winter, mostly oats and clover hay."

For the last 20 years, Mr Trethowan bought bulls solely from Mawarra Herefords in Victoria.

"I just like the look of them and they're great people to deal with," Mr Trethowan said.

"It's all about figures now but I don't worry about them much, the figures are only as good as the bloke putting them in there."

He would sell the steer calves at around 18-months-old and keep the heifers, classing them out if they didn't produce a calf.

"We had a 100 heifers calf last year, we got 91 and we only had to touch a couple," Mr Trethowan said.

He said in his new model, trading steers, he plans to sell at around 12-months.

"I'll grow them into nearly bullocks, I sold my 2018 steer calves at 18-months-old and they made over $2000, that's pretty good money," he said.

"It's a good ambition to try and get them to 600-700kg before they've cut their teeth."

Mr Scollard said although Mr Trethowan received help from his sons and worker, he retained a quality he had always had, his independence.

"There's not a job that I haven't seen him do, if it needs to be done, it will be done," Mr Scollard said.