WILD Bear Herefords is based in Paris Creek – about 30 minutes from the central business district of Adelaide – but have developed a number of repeat clients in the south-west of Victoria over the past four years.

Ben and wife Katelin Davies started their stud in 2011. A shared passion for Herefords and the gift of two Yarram Park heifers for a wedding present, spurred their jump into the Hereford stud business.

The couple have taken the name of their stud from the Canadian Hereford Stud owned by Katelin’s parents, who have been out here to Australia to purchase Hereford genetics, particularly Yarram Park.

While building the maternal base, Ben and Katelin imported embryos from the Canadian parental Wild Bear Stud. They have built the business slowly and now have 40 breeders in their stud. They currently rely on artificial insemination from selected sires – which returns a 65-75 per cent success rate, backed up by a stud sire.

“We have bought cattle out of South Boorook and Dunoon dispersals. We are very strict on the structural and visual traits of the animal and use scans for muscle and fat depth, EBVs and DNA test all our cattle so that there is full sire verification and genetically enhanced EBVs to get better linkage through our genetics. We are trying to use the latest in technology to get the best outcome for our customers.”

Ben admits that this season has certainly had its challenges.

“It’s 1000mm rainfall country here – high production country, but the season has been particularly wet during the late winter and spring – it’s probably held our growth back a little but overall, we have come through it well – it’s a nice part of the world.”

Wild Bear’s development of repeat clients from this area is what prompted Ben and Katelin to bring them to Hamilton for Beef Week.

They had seven bulls on offer this year at Hamilton, and are taking another two to Wodonga for the Hereford National Show and sale on May 10 and 11.

Ben said: “It’s a great experience (the Nationals) – you get to show your cattle and you get to see where they fit amongst the other cattle on offer. We have been supporting the show for a few years now, and it’s a great event and catching up with other breeders – it’s a good benchmark for where we are.”

The Friday of Beef Week did not turn on the best weather, but that did not stop our farmers from getting amongst it – even if rubber boots were the best footwear option.

“I have been a livestock buyer based out of the Western District for the best part of 20 years, and I was very humbled by the support we received at Hamilton – the day, weather wise was probably a bit against us, but we had well over 150 people through – not just Hereford enthusiasts but other breeds too – who made the effort to come and see our cattle and hear about our program – it was a great day, we made the best of it and we really enjoyed it.”

“We priced the bulls to sell – we just want to get them out there, and into herds – we want to see how they perform – so we have sold them by private treaty, but as time goes on we might try a helmsman system or something like that to give buyers equal opportunity to purchase, but the priority is to get our bulls out performing.”

“We have had a great reception from Hamilton, so next year we hope to have a slightly bigger offering – somewhere between 12 and 15 bulls on offer – and really look forward to catching up with both existing and new buyers then. We will just keep growing our stud slowly and building the quality up.”