Good Breeding

Before I retired my wife and I ran a moderately successful stud cattle breeding enterprise.
Our stud herd of 150 females ran with our commercial herd of approximately 300 females. 
We held an annual on-property bull sale, usually selling about 30 bulls and 30 commercial females. 
Steers and culled females were sent to the store cattle sales.

My foundation herd of stud females came from a renowned stud breeder. He had migrated to Australia some years before from Hereford, bringing his famous herd with him. 
We became good friends over the years. His wealth of experience was invaluable to me. 

His principal advice to me was: "Concentrate on breeding females. They are the backbone of your herd. Good bull calves will come along simply as a matter of course." 

He also said "When selecting a sire, sex characteristics should never be paramount - you want  Johnny Depp, not Arnold Schwarzenegger."  

I got the first part of his advice - breeding females - right (although I had no success persuading my wife to subscribe to the "matter of course" bit.) 


The second part - selecting a sire - is up to my girls.

"The best bull is a female-breeder."