THE more thought Garth and Carolyn Weatherall, Mount Maroon Grazing near Boonah, gave to the issue, the more sense it made.
Like it was a natural thing.
It was a case of finding the right sort of bull capable of siring high grade articles with almost monotonous consistency in what can be difficult environmental conditions to pair with lines of purebred Santa Gertrudis females.
Then you get what you ordered, and more importantly, what the market wanted.
"The reasons we go for the Santa cow and the Hereford bull are really quite simple," Mr Weatherall said.
"I'm an auctioneer with Bartholomew & Company and we sell every fortnight at the Beaudesert saleyards and every week at Moreton, so I see a lot of cattle.
"Whiteface cattle sell particularly well at Beaudesert and using a Hereford bull means we get an article that is in demand right across the south-east corner."
More to the point, Mr Weatherall said the Hereford bulls and Santa Gertrudis females exhibited individual traits, which complemented one another.
"For 11 years we have been running lines of Santa cows," Mr Weatherall said.
"We're on coastal country and because of that we need an animal that is hardy and able to cope with these conditions. Due to her hardiness, her clean coat and her willingness to survive in these conditions makes it a natural fit to have Santa cows.
"Add in the qualities of a good polled head, good temperament and great weight-for-age that we get from the Hereford bulls we buy off Steve and Debbie Reid (Talbalba Herefords, Milmerran) and we end up with an article that has a lot of upside.
"We get a quality white-faced weaner that can grow on to be a wonderful bullock in the steer world. He sells well as a weaner, he fits most of the feeder markets and he's a beast where you get a few bites at the cherry.
"Like I said you can sell him as a weaner, you sell him as a feeder or fatten him and sell as a bullock and that's why we chose the Hereford breed. They are good in most conditions, produce a good beast with good carcase qualities and the market responds.
"We have no plans to ever change crossing Hereford bulls with Santa cows, only to improve what we have.
"We're producing some really nice cattle because of the Hereford influence and we've gone for polled bulls in the past wholly and solely because of the demand for our weaners to be polled."
The Weatheralls expect to introduce another Hereford bull or two to their herd in August while they hope for spring rain. "Our countryside looks better than it did at this time last year and we will look to expand our numbers at some stage," Mr Weatherall said.
It's the natural way to go.
Alan Welburn
Lover of sport, particularly horse racing and all things Olympic. Have spent my entire working life in journalism, mostly with News Corp on its major metro mastheads. Done plenty of things but the best by far is having a teenage son who calls me dad.
Lover of sport, particularly horse racing and all things Olympic. Have spent my entire working life in journalism, mostly with News Corp on its major metro mastheads. Done plenty of things but the best by far is having a teenage son who calls me dad.
