Former MP sells Fleurieu Poll Hereford stud

After years of helping others make genetic progress in their herds through his artificial breeding business, Paul East is excited about breeding his own stud cattle.

The owner of Bullseye Breeders has recently purchased the Kilkerrin Poll Hereford stud at Mount Jagged from Trish Worth and her husband Michael Cobb.

It has been a labour of love for the couple since relocating to SA and buying the property on the Fleurieu Peninsula in early 2016.

"We were convinced to move from NSW to Adelaide and retire in the city but we got very bored, very quickly," Ms Worth said.

In the past nine years as well as contributing to the breed through serving on the Herefords Australia board, Ms Worth has worked hard growing the stud's bull and female clientele.

"They are the best cattle we have ever bred, you keep learning from experience," she said.

Ms Worth says although both Mr Cobb and herself are in relatively good health for their age, when the opportunity to "pass the baton" to Mr East came along, they jumped at it.

Mr East has bought the stud prefix, 60 cows with calves and their herd sires, along with the property which neighbours his parents.

"Paul understands our cattle and has worked with our herd for about eight years with successful AI programs including the use of Koanui Techno which is having a significant influence on the herd," she said.

The sale is the final chapter in Trish's long association with the Poll Hereford breed.

This started as a child growing up on the well-known Garryowen stud at Riverton.

"I was the eldest in the family and I remember Dad (Vin McInerney) used to refer to me as his 'right hand man'. He was just back from the war and there was always lots for me to do on the farm even breaking in bulls," he said.

Life then took Ms Worth in another direction, working as a nurse, midwife and health administrator before becoming a federal politician as well as parliamentary secretary in the Howard Liberal government.

It was not until 1999 - about halfway through her decade as Member for Adelaide - that she bought her first Poll Hereford cows.

This led to the establishment a few years later of the Waratah stud.

"By then I had met Michael who was a farmer in NSW," she said.

Trish says her scientific background has been a help in cattle breeding along with valuable advice she received over the years from fellow breeders.

"They stressed the importance of knowing the performance of cow families, especially the mother and grandmother of an animal," she said.

One of her greatest highlights across both the Waratah stud (which was dispersed in 2015) and the Kilkerrin stud has been breeding "practical and quiet cattle".

"To me, quiet cattle are easy to manage," Ms Worth said.

Mr East, whose business artificially inseminates beef and dairy cows in SA and Tas each year, is looking forward to seeing where he can take the Kilkerrin herd.

"From a lifetime of being around cows the Kilkerrin herd stood out as having the depth of proven cow families combining genotype and phenotype to allow us to keep pushing the genetic needle forward," he said.

"Above all else, the quiet nature and temperament of the herd is a testament to the management of Trish and Michael, and the breed."

Mr East says his focus will be breeding for profitability through a "balance of functional type, ease of calving, fertility, growth and carcase traits, including eye muscle area and intramuscular fat".

Stock Journal Beef Week on Sunday, February 9, will be a chance for visitors to meet Mr East, as well as farewell Ms Worth and Mr Cobb who will have their final draft of 17 to 21-month-old bulls for sale.

This includes Kilkerrin Unbeatable U032 which has been used over a handful of heifers.

Also for sale are 14 joined stud heifers due to calve in July/August.

"While we will miss our white faced friends, we are confident Paul is well equipped to continue our work and go on to contribute to the overall success of the Hereford breed," Ms Worth said.