No shoes in the showring at Sydney Royal

This process has changed through the decades - bull sales 50 years ago meant making sure cattle looked good, as this was the only thing to judge them on. Today, genetic testing, a legion of estimated breeding values, videos, photos and social media are needed before anyone lays eyes on the bull.

But one thing hasn't changed - the most important part of preparing for a bull sale starts three years before sale day. It starts when the studmaster decides to breed a cow.

It is true that some are born cattlemen - and this was John Reen.

The man who began the Karoo Angus stud, Meadow Flat, NSW, was not born into cattle breeding. But from the beginning, he had an eye for cattle. And it was this natural instinct that led to him becoming a renowned studmaster - but it wasn't for an Angus stud at first.

John and Monica Reen had their Monhaven Friesian stud at their dairy farm at Eastern Creek, NSW. Mr Reen made his mark on the dairy industry when he crossed paths with an exceptional Friesian cow.

"It was a fluke - I hadn't been taught anything about cows," he said.

He had to borrow money to buy the cow, but it ended up holding the Australian record for butter fat. He began importing semen from Linmack King and used AI programs to inseminate his growing cow herd.

Mr Reen began taking his stud Friesian cows to shows, and of course, cleaned up. In those days, the show was the main method of promoting your animals.

"There was no social media back then - you had to get out and show your animals. For promotion, the show was it, as well as in The Land," his daughter Annie Scott said. "The show was a hub."

In those days, Mr Reen wasn't a man to be missed. This may partly be due to the fact he never wore shoes - only blue stubbies and a singlet. This caused quite a stir in the 1970s at the Sydney Royal.

"Women were bringing their children over and were saying 'look at that man there with no shoes on with those big cows'," he said. "When I went to go back the second year, they sent me a letter saying I had to wear shoes because of insurance."

He became friends with the three Hayes brothers, renowned Friesian breeders from Kiama, NSW, who helped him show his cattle at the shows. In the early 1970s, Mr Reen was invited by the Hayes family to sell 10 heifers at their sale, where they fed them, clipped them and got them ready for the sale.

It was at this first auction sale that one of his heifers sold for $8000 - and the Reen family never looked back.

In the 1980s, the Reen family had to make the heartbreaking decision to leave the property to make way for the Eastern Creek racetrack.

Mr Reen sold the farm in the morning of November 26, 1989. After exchanging at the state governor's office, he walked down the street to Dalgety House and bought Karoo. So he was only farmless for a couple of hours.

The move to Meadow Flat signalled the end of their dairy cows. They bought 1220ha Karoo with its Hereford herd. But when Mr Reen saw some black cattle grazing on a hillside, it was love at first sight.

He decided to get his hands on some black bulls and cows from Merrigrange Angus stud, Tennyson, Vic. This was the first of many loads of black cattle, and eventually they sold the Herefords.

Their first load of commercial heifers were from Bongongo Angus stud, Coolac, NSW. And after being a stud breeder for so many years, Mr Reen couldn't help himself.

The Karoo Angus stud was formed in 1990, and started selling bulls privately in 1994. The stud's first on-property sale was 26 years ago.

The on-property sales in the 1990s were a lot of work, but different work to these days.

"There was no social media, so it was a lot of who you know, not what you know, to get people to come," Mrs Scott said. "It was a lot of work to build your reputation. It was a big push from agent Charlie Maher to get our name out there. We had the commercial cattle to push us - we had over 1000 commercial Angus cows to prove our program."

Advertising was very different back then, with the newspaper as the main place to advertise. She said the sales weren't as structured as they are now, and not as stressful.

"Sales today are an event within themselves," she said. "People liked a bull because he was the type they wanted - the numbers didn't matter."

She said the Karoo catch-cry was phenotype with performance.

"Phenotype is paramount. We are very hard on our cattle - if I don't want them in my paddock, I don't want to sell them to someone else. Temperament is so important too."

They would also put on a spread of food, which they still do today, as well as drinks at the sale. But she said the social event of sale day had changed - it was a more structured, focused event on buying a bull.

"I love people coming in our gate and looking at the cattle we have to offer and where our genetics can help improve their bottom line."

Mrs Scott, who today runs the stud with the help of her father and husband Tony, says EBVs have changed the way people look at bulls.

"The way people buy cattle these days is EBVs first," she said. "Sale day is so pressure-driven to find the perfect bull with the right EBVs."

She said they still clip their bulls for the individual photos and videos, which can take up to three days for the 80 bulls.

"We were using them before COVID-19, but since COVID people look at the videos a lot," she said. "Taking the individual photo can take 10 minutes or a lot longer for one bull."

Karoo used to do a live auction on sale day - with each bull put in the sale ring for the auction - but now they do a video auction.

"Bulls are still in the pens outside the sale shed for inspection, but they are not put through the sale day pressure of having to go into the shed. It is less stress on the bulls and less stress on us. We're practical producers - we don't care about the hoopla. We want the cattle to speak for themselves."

Mrs Scott said the catalogue was one of the main marketing tools, along with videos and photos.

"Thousands of people can look at our catalogue online through our website and a number of other ways to access it," she said.

But really, the preparation goes way beyond the catalogue and food.

"It starts with preparing to breed a female. This starts three years from sale day."