Glen Innes Hereford Bull Show and Sale celebrates 80 years

Australia Broadcast Center

2 days ago

Roger Kneipp spent his first bull sale at the Glen Innes Saleyards in northern New South Wales in a pram, and now, aged 80, he hasn't missed a single one.
The Glen Innes Hereford Bull Show and Sale is Australia's longest-running multi-vendor sale, which celebrated its 80th year at the event last week.
Mr Kneipp was just three months old when his parents took him to his first sale and as he grew up, it became a tradition.
"I was homeschooled. Mum and Dad would go to the sale, so I got to go to every sale," Mr Kneipp reflected.
That young boy quickly grew to love Hereford cattle.
"I've stuck with them and they've been good to us, and they are a good breed of cattle," he said.
Mr Kneipp has a well-established stud, Dundee Echo Park Herefords, located just outside Glen Innes.
Hereford breeders say their product has been overshadowed by the likes of Wagyu and Angus, which are favoured for the marbling that makes the meat extra tender.
This has seen the number of Hereford cattle decline in recent decades.
Looking through some old newspapers, Mr Kneipp remembered the days when his favourite breed was everywhere.
"There's a lot less Hereford cattle [now] than going back to the years I remember," he said.
The largest yarding catalogued was 797 bulls in 1985, a site Mr Kneipp can still remember vividly.
"It was a four-day event ... two days for the horned Herefords and two days for the polled Herefords," he said.
Mr Kneipp sees the future of Herefords in crossbreeding with other lines of cattle.
"A lot of the bulls do get sold for crossbreeding ... they are doing well in other breeds," he said.
Jane Leake is the custodian of the oldest poll Hereford stud in the country, known as Bahreenah Poll Herefords.
Like Mr Kneipp, she has a long history with the Glen Innes Hereford Bull Sale.
"Doing the research for this year's 80th ... I discovered that we actually sold a bull up here in 1953, which was probably the first or second sale I think my father brought bulls too," Ms Leake said.
Ms Leake said some characteristics of the breed had remained the same over the decades, however, the animals bred today were much larger in mass.
"I was around when we had the belt-buckle bulls ... they were much shorter, and frame score-wise we could probably see chest and up over all the bulls," Ms Leake said.
"Whereas now, I've got a bull at home that I can't even see over."
Eighty years on and Mr Kneipp is still winning prizes for his heifers.
He won the junior heifer show and the top female price of the sale at $6,000.
The two-day event also delivered a pleasing result for Inverell breeder David Hann from Courallie Herefords.
He won a range of classes, including junior, senior grand champion and grand champion, as well as the top two prices in the sale.
It was the two-year-old 940-kilogram senior champion bull Courallie Ultron that fetched the top price of $14,000.
"He's been a pick ever since he was born. He's out of a very good cow which we'll probably flush later on in the year," Mr Hann said.
But his junior champion bull Courallie Ultimo was judged grand champion bull over Ultron.
Mr Hann's four bulls averaged $9,500, compared to the sale average for bulls of $7,200.