As the Smith family prepares to celebrate 50 years of stud breeding under the Glenellerslie banner, they remain committed to producing Hereford and Poll Hereford sires with consistent quality.
Based at Adelong in southern NSW, Glenellerslie Hereford stud was established by Gordon and June Smith in 1974, with Ross and Mandy Smith, and their son Blake and his wife Carly, now at the helm.
According to Mr Smith, they aim to breed functional, efficient and balanced cattle, a focus which has not changed since the early days of the stud.
"We regard our clients as our friends and we want to keep breeding quality bulls that will perform for them," Mr Smith said.
"Our stud's key breeding objectives continue to revolve around high calving ease and longevity, combined with growth and finishing ability, all wrapped up with a true-to-type Hereford appearance."
The Smith family currently run about 200 stud cows across their 800-hectare property, along with 100 breeders run in an accredited grassfed commercial operation.
The foundation of the Glenellerslie stud included purchases from South Bukalong, Beggan Hill and Yallowin Hereford studs.
A selection of the bulls that have had a significant influence on the stud include South Bukelong Guardsman, Red Hill Watt and Widgiewa BritisherBE7, and polled bulls, Debarry Chisel and Glenellerslie Hal.
"Over the years we have bought a lot of different lines of cows to build numbers and Guardsman was the type of bull that it didn't matter what type of cow you joined him to, you got a good calf," Mr Smith said.
"He was still siring calves at 15 years of age.
"We also had a lot of success with Widgiewa Britisher BE7.
"One of his sons, Glenellerslie Richie, sold for a stud record of $21,000 at Wodonga in 1993.
"It was a great price, we have only just beat it in 2022 with a top of $22,000 at our on-property sale."
The stud has mostly used natural mating, but in the last few years introduced an artificial insemination program for the heifers to fast-track the herd's genetic progress.
About 60-70 heifers are retained each year, with the Smiths preferring to calve them down as 2.5-3-year-olds, allowing them to grow out further.
"Blake has been handling the sire selection for the AI program," Mr Smith said.
"We've been selecting proven sires that we think will give the herd a boost and produce a quality stud sire for us."
Recent AI sires have included Yarram Unique F181, Kaludah Stormboy M579, Glenwarrah Men at Work and Monymusk Gallant.
This season, they have also used their home-bred Glenellerslie Richie, sold to South Boorook at Wodonga.
Most of the herd now calves down in autumn and they are slowly phasing out spring calving to enable them to run more yearling cattle to finish on grass before summer.
"We place a lot of emphasis on targeted calving ease without compromising on growth rates," Mr Smith said.
"The first calving heifers have an assist percentage under 5 per cent and the second calvers less than 2pc."
Early adopters of performance recording, Glenellerslie has been using estimated breeding values for many years as a tool to guide their selection decisions.
But Mr Smith emphasised that as well as improving their figures, the stud had continued to concentrate on structure, docility and calf shape, which can't be measured.
"Since 2021 we have started recording birth weights, while we remain adamant that calving ease through bull selection and calf shape is far more important than birth weight," he said.
"Assessing calf shape is something we have always done and is a far more reliable tool for targeting easy-handling cattle."
The stud will offer 45 rising two-year-old Hereford and Poll Hereford bulls at their annual on-property sale on Tuesday, February 13.
This year's catalogue features some of the last sons of polled bull, Ennerdale Accomplice, while in the horned selection the second last crop of WRL Makka progeny will be on offer.
Mr Smith said demand was still strong for their Hereford bulls, with many of their clients preferring them.
"A lot of our clients are in the high country of Victoria where wild dogs can be an issue and having a horned cow can better protect her calf," he said.
"We also get plenty of support from local buyers."
Glenellerslie have been participating in the Stock & Land Beef Week event since it began more than 30 years ago and are looking forward to showing visitors their line up of sale bulls.
The stud will open their gates on January 31.
"With Blake taking on more of the day-to-day management, I am excited about the future," Mr Smith said.
"We've introduced four new stud bulls and can't wait to see their calves hitting the ground this autumn."
