A long history in beef
BORN on the land around Lake Cootharaba in 1927, Cootharaba Herefords has continued to build its success.
Cootharaba Herefords and Duarran Brangus are now based on 6880ha in Roma.
Ian Galloway is the third generation to run the hereford stud, which he does with wife Anne
He said his grandfather, John James Galloway, started the stud and showed his first cattle at the Ekka in 1928.
“For the first two years he led his cattle 28km to the railhead and then they were railed to the exhibition,” he said.
“Then in 1930 he built a bullock wagon and towed 15 head with 26 bullocks.
“He towed them to the railhead in Pomona.”
Mr Galloway said they had only missed two shows – during the war in 1942 and 1943.
“We have had a lot of success along the way,” he said.
“We have mounted up 45 championships.
“We won Grand Champion hereford bull at the Ekka this year.”
Cootharaba Herefords has been selling its bulls across Australia for 90 years.
“We’ve been maintaining some record prices along the way,” Mr Galloway said.
“We sold Sturrack for $50,000 for 12-month-old calf in 1988, Travis made $51,000 at auction in 1989 (and) Tarago made half share for $50,000 in 1989.
“We have sold bulls since then for up to $42,000.”
The Galloways also breed brangus cattle and are currently running 500 brangus cows and 250 hereford cows.
“We’re not having a sale this year, we’re selling them out of the paddock,” Mr Galloway said.
“We’re selling 60 black and red brangus bulls and we’re selling 50 hereford bulls.
“We sold a red brangus bull, Duarran Yalebone, for a record $45,000 – that was in 2006.”
Mr Galloway said his family moved the stud from Lake Cootharaba to Monto in 1969.
“It was to sort out family partnerships,” he said.
“My father had four sons and a daughter and we’re all involved in the beef industry.
“We moved from Monto to Roma in 1980.”
Mr Galloway also entered his cattle in the Paddock to Palate competition this year.
The Galloways received a third ribbon in Class 38, Export 100-day Pen of Six. They were just 49g lighter than the winner.
“We also got a third for the individual weight gain in that class, with one steer gaining 3.408kg a day,” Mrs Galloway said.
“We had four steers in the top 30 ADG (average daily gain) with range of 3.0976 to 3.408.
“In Class 38, Trade Steers 70-day Pen of Six, our pen came fifth, and one steer came third in the Individual ADG with 3.25kg per day.”