“I’ve been here for 76 years, and we think our father if not our grandfather started the herd,” Jeff Fraser said.

“There were a lot of Herefords on the Monaro and dad had bought bulls from the first Beggan Hill sale, and we bought bulls from South Bukalong to join with dad’s cows.”

With a natural preference for the Hereford breed, Mr Fraser said it made sense to continue with the whiteface herd as they were already meeting market expectations, and were suited to their country.

“Herefords have the ability to respond quickly after tough times here,” he said.

The Fraser family settled on the Monaro at Middlingbank, west of Cooma in 1840 and in 1927 Jeff Fraser’s father purchased the 880 hectare “Thornleigh”, Adaminaby.

Respecting their heritage, nevertheless the Fraser family are not content to rest and they continue to improve the quality of their herd. 

Replacement bulls are purchased from the whiteface sale in Dubbo, and in recent times have included sires from Yalgoo, Gunyah and Eathorpe studs, buying Polled bulls as a preference.

“We are focused on temperament, early growth, milking ability and good conformation,” Mr Fraser said. 

“They have to be able to walk around our country which is rocky and a bit steep, and they must be able to convert our native pastures into production.”

Complimenting the flock of 2400 Merino sheep, the 120 cow herd is joined in October for a mid-winter calving in a program which fits in with the seasons on the western Monaro.

“The calves are old enough to take advantage of the extra milk and pasture during spring,” Mr Fraser said.

He noted their females have inherently high fertility because those that don’t calve after they have been given a second chance are sold.

“We also focus on buying bulls we believe are highly fertile, taking note of scrotum size and overall masculine appeal,” he said.

“Eye pigment is very important, along with soft skins because they are good doers.”

The autumn weaner sales held in Cooma are targeted by the Fraser family for their steers and surplus heifers.

“We aim to get our steers to around 300kg,” Mr Fraser said.

“Unless it is really dry we don’t feed the steers but we can get them through to those weights on our native country with a bit of pasture improvement.”

Cows are kept while they are still producing, as it puts extra pressure on the selection of their replacement heifers, and continue lifting the herd standard.