Courallie J stud dispersal closes a chapter in the NSW Hereford stud book

Jimmy Hann, Courallie J Herefords, Glenidle, Rocky Creek via Narrabri with 20 month-old heifers that have bloodlines ranging back to the Bexley and Golf Hill Hereford studs. PIcture by Simon Chamberlain

Another chapter of the NSW Herefords stud book will close on March 14, when the Courallie J stud will be dispersed online.

Stud principal Jimmy Hann's family has links with the breed that go back to 1949, when it established the Courallie stud herd using bloodlines from the Bexley and Golf Hill studs.

Courallie was founded by his father, Val. Midway through the 1960s, managing the herd became a family operation involving him and his brothers, Roger and Tony.

Mr Hann said Courallie stud in dispersed in 2005, leading the Courallie J prefix to assume a higher profile with successful forays to the Whiteface sale at Wodonga and the annual Glen Innes Hereford multi-vendor sale.

He showed a reserve junior champion bull, which sold for $26,000 at the Wodonga sale. At Glen Innes, Courallie J showed two champion bulls and sold two for the sale's top price.

"When the Courallie stud was dispersed, Roger and I bought females for our herds," Mr Hann said.

He said the online sale catalogue included 60 cows with calves; 20 pregnancy-tested-in-calf heifers aged 18 to 20 months, and 11 bulls aged 18 to 20 months.

The catalogue include sire bloodlines such as Alkira Zephyr, Debarry MR, Oldfield Token, YH Domino U3013, Glentrevor Wallace H427, Wirruna Matty and Ledger, Yarram Park Unique F181, and Cootharaba Magnum.

Roger and Jimmy Hann at Glenidle, home of the soon-to-be dispersed Courallie J stud. Picture by Simon Chamberlain

While the Courallie J stud will no longer breed bulls and females, Jimmy and his wife Poss Hann's son David, with the blessing of his uncle Roger, is breathing new life back into the Courallie prefix at Inverell.

David Hann, his wife Mel, and daughter Isobella, 12, exhibited three of their animals with the Courallie prefix at last year's Royal Queensland Show (the Ekka) after a 30-year break.

Courallie stud's last trip to the Ekka was in 1993, when Roger Hann showed the grand champion Hereford bull. Mr Hann said that in January 2023, his uncle handed the stud prefix to him and his family.

Jimmy Hann took on the 2030-hectare Glenidle property in 1973, running commercial and stud Herefords. With the stud's dispersal, the focus will be on commercial cattle, which will be managed by his son Matthew.

Glenidle also shared a boundary fence with Bexley, home of the foundation females for Courallie stud.

In the 1970s, Bexley Hereford Stud was at the top of the tree as one of the nation's leading Hereford studs, founded by the Hays Brothers. Bexley stud was dispersed in 1975 after the sudden death on Anzac Day 1974 of the principal, Norman (Bill) Hays while he was attending the Sydney Royal Easter Show.

Bill Hays and his brother Jack founded Bexley based on Hobartville and Tocal bloodlines. The brothers grew up on the property Stony Batter, Bundarra, where their father, AE Hays, farmed.

AE Hays was the grandson of Gregory Blaxland, a member of the party of men who first crossed the Blue Mountains in 1813.

When the stud dispersal auction was held on the property, it was one of the most significant sales of its era. Today, Bexley is home to another cattle stud: the Salier family's Minnie Vale Charolais stud.

The Bexley dispersal grossed $512,600, averaged $2118, and had a top price of $28,000 for Bexley Reflector, the 2.5-year-old son of Bexley Arunta who was judged first in the under-18-months class at the Sydney Royal in 1974. The buyer was John Adams, Summer Hill, Cassilis.

Bexley Constant 2, the 1971 junior and grand champion bull and best exhibit at Sydney, was sold to an unnamed buyer for $10,000. Tondara stud, Culcairn, paid $8500 for Bexley Curley 32, a 4.5 year-old daughter for Bexley Wizard with a bull calf at foot sired by Bexley Quality.