50 years for Mawarra Tarwin Poll Herefords

Tarwin Poll Herefords objective is to produce attractive, sound, commercial pollHereford cattle, able to perform offgrass.

To achieve this they use amix of AI breeding and ajudicious selection of sires for natural mating.

Sires chosenwill generally haveamodest birth weight coupled with above average growth weightsand carcass traits, traits such as eye pigmentation and hooding arealsoconsidered in their sireselection.

To further test the performanceoftheir genetics, theMeikles regularly compete in the Lardner Park Grass Finished Steer trials.

Thisyeartheyhad one teamwhich came second for weight gain at 1.50 kg/day

Tarwin PollHerefords areaperformance recorded herdwiththe calves beingregularly weighed up to 600 days and the weights submitted to the Breedplan program.

Sale bulls arescanned for eye muscle area and fat cover and replacement heifers and sale bulls areDNA tested to confirm parentage and polledness.

2022was alsoTarwin’s secondeffortat online selling,withfiveyoung bulls offered on AuctionsPlus as members of the Gippsland Performance Herefords group in September

Tarwin Santa S081 aWirruna Nolantop priced this sale at $12,000.

ThisyearTarwin Poll Herefords will have, available for private sale, bulls sired predominately by Wirruna Nolan and Tarcombe Homeland. When visiting the Meikle family you can also inspect the studs latest sire, HuntersLakes Regal R017 and home bred sireTarwinRegal R014 (son of Wirruna Nolan)along with next year’scropofbullcalves with their mothers.

These include AI bred sons from Mawarra Terminator,Wirruna Papa and Yavenvale Quantitative.

Althoughthe Sykes family’s50thAnniversary Salecelebrations areset to honour the historyofthe stud,the actualsale draft comprising 82 Whiteface and 39 Angus bulls, is firmly aimed at the future.

The first sons of home-bred internationalsires Showtime P277, Hugo P190, Influential Q162, Terminator Q274 and outcross New Zealand sirePuteNascarN13 areset to featureand keen interest in the new bloodlines has already been received.

Headlining the Angus draft arethe first Victorian sonsof$140,000Dunoon Prime Minister P758 and alarge run of Clunie Range Landmark L415 sons.

In whatisa firstfor the Sykes family,and testament to the confidence they have in the bulls they catalogue, they will offer the pick of two full brothers -Lots6Aand 6B. The successful purchaser will choose the Lot they prefer and Mawarra will retain the other Peter said ‘Both these young sires hold great potential.

Theirpedigrees areelite,beingfullbrothers to $53,000Terminator

Matriarchofthe family,Helen Sykes, reflected on the50thSale milestone, “In 1963 my father L. C. (Dick) Rogers gave my then fiancé,Robert, and Ithe opportunity to purchase seven of his most successful Norwood stud cows and the stud sire, Silverton Cyclone.

We saw it as an opportunity to supply not onlyour ownherd’sneeds but also those of neighbouring farmers.

We neverthought of shows and sales, of championships or recordprices, or of Mawarra geneticsinseveral countries.

Now,asIapproach 90 years of age, we (Mawarra) have come full circle.

Three of my grandchildren have studHerefords, including Taylah who is now the principal of Norwood Genetics, and Ihave athree-year-old greatgrandson,Carter, already showing alove for cattle.”

Est. 1944