PATRICIA Brown has a clear-cut list when it comes to selecting bulls for her Kent Park Hereford herd.
And confirmation and temperament make the top of that list.
"I look for bulls with a good back and strong rump," Mrs Brown said.
"Bulls need to be dark-coated and have good milk -which is what I think we've got."
Hailing from a sheep and cropping property near Forbes in NSW, Mrs Brown and her husband Geoffrey, originally from Sydney, settled in Calulu in East Gippsland in 1975 after spending time in England and later in Ballarat.
The couple cannot go past Gippsland-bred Basford or Newcomen bulls for their reliability.
"They're not fed-up as much," Mrs Brown said. "I hate to get them home and they melt away."
The Kent Park property and herd at Mt Taylor, nearby to the home farm The Stonehouse, was purchased in 1999 and the prefix was retained.
The two properties total 1400 hectares with close to 590 breeders as well as 200 replacement heifers are run across the two.
Mrs Brown said she looks for a good pelvis in their heifers, eye pigment, confirmation and good temperament when it comes to selecting breeders to retain.
"We still have cows that are 12 years old as long as they're getting in calf and producing a good a calf," she said.
The Browns were impressed with the milking ability of the Kent Park cattle and their blood-lines; largely based on Kaludah and Dunoon.
Last year the couple retained 200 heifers - 100 autumn and 100 spring calves - to rebuild numbers after the drought.
"The plan is to build the numbers up to 750 - we should be there this year," Mrs Brown said.
"We were at 800 head (before the drought), but I think that's pushing it a bit."
The breeding herd is split to calve in autumn (May/June) and spring (October/November) which means less bulls are carried and makes calving more manageable.
The couple - and their cattle - are familiar faces at the Bairnsdale saleyards.
Steers are sold straight off their mothers at 9-10 months and average 300 kilograms.
The autumn-drop offering is a feature at the March special store sale while the spring-drop is sold in August mostly to South Gippsland buyers.
Last year the 135 autumn-drop steers made from $765-$908 to average $887.
Calves are weaned at Kent Park and trucked back to the home property to smaller paddocks, where retained heifers are kept to calve down.
With the help of part time employee John Hancock, the Browns stick to an annual fertiliser regime of 125 kilograms of superphosphate per hectare while straight super is applied on the 1200ha at Kent Park.
And thanks to an earlier break this year, the Browns have 1000 tonnes of silage on hand after missing out last year.
"The break was a bit too late last year for silage," Mrs Brown said.
A reticulated water system across Kent Park has been installed while each paddock has a dam as well as a water trough.
The Browns decided to become European Union accredited at the start of last year and are also members of Cattle Care.
While Mrs Brown said they haven't seen significant value in the accreditation to date, they try to be "on the ground and running with those kinds of things".
The Brows have always had a love of Herefords and while de-horning ads to the work load, Mrs Brown said she is happy to wait for a good polled bull to come along before she heads down that road.
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