Digging up past influential sires for herd improvement

One young Hereford breeder is looking back in time to find some of the most influential sires of the breed to give his cow herd a boost.

Blake Smith, Glenellerslie Herefords, Adelong, is seeking a variety of outcross genetics by using Yarram Unique F181, Kaludah Stormboy M579, Glenwarrah Men At Work and Monymusk Gallant as AI sires across the stud heifers.

Using knowledge from past and present stud stock operators, Blake has been securing semen in influential herd sires to be used over the following years.

“I believe the previous generation of Hereford breeders have a lot to offer the industry, knowledge is by the far the most important tool to success,” he said.

For this year’s AI joinings, he has chosen Glenellerslie Richie, a bull sold to South Boorook in 1994 at the Wodonga National Sale for $22,000. Calved in 1991, Richie was by Widgiewa Britisher BE7 ET5 and out of Glenellerslie Titania 3.

“It was a phenomenal price when equated to today’s money – we have only just beat that last year with a top price of $22,000,” Blake said.

“He left a tonne of milk and some very nice females, that’s what I like about him.

“It’s only been in the last few years we are joining a lot more heifers in an effort to build numbers with 82 stud heifers joined in 2022, double the usual number.

“We also had calf drop of 67 per cent females in 2021.”

Geoff Bush, Independent Breeding Services, undertakes the AI program at Glenellerslie.

Blake prefers to calve the heifers at 2.5 to three years of age to allow them to grow out skeletally although due to the exceptional seasons it has been necessary to calve autumn drops at rising two-year-olds.

The stud has traditionally used natural joining and only in recent years has begun collecting semen from their bulls.

Blake and fiancée Carly Bartell are moving towards a planned transition in ownership of the stud from his parents Ross and Mandy Smith.

Blake, 34, has been mentored by his parents in stud cattle management since 2013.

“I look at Herefords and use what’s best about the breed, I don’t worry about what other breeds are doing. Weight for age and longevity are definitely the most important,” Blake said.

He places emphasis on structural soundness and shoulder placement in the bulls and is not adverse to using yearling bulls over heifers.

When it comes to yearling bulls, he believes in getting the nutrition right, joining the bull to a smaller number of females and having them semen quality tested.

“We have had clients with bulls working up to 11 years of age and had Red Hill Watt worked here to 13 years of age. South Bukalong Guardsman by Ardno Dynamic retired at 15, purchased as a three-year-old in 1975 by my grandfather Gordon Smith.

“I like the bulls to be genetically quiet rather than environmentally quiet so they breed docile progeny.

“There is a big push to get rid of cows at a certain age but the older cows have had so much selection pressure and are highly fertile. Our oldest cow would be 18 and the average age of the herd is between six and seven – if they are doing a good job we keep them.

“The 210 stud females are run in the bush under commercial conditions to put pressure on their fertility while the commercial cows are on the improved country.”

Steers are sent as grass fed rising two-year-olds weighing in excess of 700kg liveweight to Teys and the carcase feedback used to finetune breeding objectives.

Although Herefords have been run on Glenellerslie since 1949, the stud prefix was founded in 1974 with females from South Bukalong, Beggan Hill, Turee, PTW, Iona Park Widgiewa, Moorlands, O’Sullivans, Pine Hill, Merawah, Braybrook, River Perry, Waratah, Kirraweena and Warwick Court. The family is celebrating their 30^th annual sale this year.