A passion for Hereford cattle began almost 35 years ago for a Towon stud master, after a childhood heart condition put him on the sidelines of community sport and in the spotlight on the family farm.
Andrew Klippel, Sugarloaf Creek Herefords, Towon, near Corryong, made his childhood hobby a lifestyle and now operates 120 breeding stud females.
Mr Klippel said the family commercial Hereford cattle enterprise and his father’s mentoring fuelled his passion to succeed within the industry.
The stud breeding base began on Victorian bloodlines, sourcing females from South Boorook Hereford stud, Mortlake, before introducing genetics from a dispersal sale at Courallie Hereford stud, near Moree, and Mawarra Hereford stud, Sale.
Stud breeders are located at the family’s property, “Gravels Plain”, because of the high exposure location compared to the main farm “Sugarloaf”.
“We brought the property about four years ago - we want to build the stud breeder numbers and we wanted a high traffic area where we can have our cattle seen,” Mr Klippel said.
A combination of breeding programs are being utilised at “Gravels Plain” to ensure maximum productivity is achieved.
Marketing about 35 bulls per year, 25 stud female embryos are planted into top commercial cows per season, along with Mawarra Hereford stud bulls as both artificial insemination and natural donors and standard breeding practices for the remaining female base.
Mr Klippel said using his top stud cow family, they are joined to the best “Sugarloaf” bulls to keep the female base consistent.
“It’s to breed both bulls and heifers but mostly to breed females so we can keep that top female line coming through – instead of getting one good calf out of the stud breeders a year, you can get 20 or 30 calves out of that one cow, so it’s about utilising her and increasing productivity,” he said.
“We pick the top stud heifers and retain about 30 replacement females a year,” he said.
Running a 300 head commercial operation along side the stud, the two enterprises follow both a spring and autumn joining.
Cows are joined in September/October for a June/ July calf and January for an October calf, with the 22 month old heifers joined slightly earlier than their mothers, about two months prior.
“Heifers are joined in June for a March calving and November for an August calf,” Mr Klippel said.
All calves are yard weaned by about 9-months-old onto rye grass and clover pastures.
Trait selection at “Sugarloaf” sheds light on the importance of productivity rather than age, with strict culling processes to determine this.
“We don’t cull for age, we focus on how they are producing – we have cows who are 17 or 18 years old and they are still producing top quality calves but cows or heifers who don’t produce a quality calf the first time or are not producing at all are culled straight away and we use our replacement females to fill the gap,” Mr Klippel said.
“We are fussy on feet and eyes but the main aspect is how they calf down - they only have one chance, if a steer calf gets culled then that cow goes,” he said.
“We want every cow to be able to produce a sale bull and give us replacement females to maintain the quality.”
With a focus on producing bulls for clients who are predominantly in the weaner sale market, Mr Klippel said he aims to produce bulls which will produce soft easy doing cattle that will present well in the weaner arena.
“The first trait we look for is the structure of the bull, we like a lot of length - we like a bit more bone to carry more weight too,” he said.
“They also need the right coat condition - a nice dark coat because most of our bulls go to mountain breeders.”