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Lilliput
Australian
Lowline Cattle Stud is situated at Tylden. This
is between Melbourne and Bendigo. The
stud is run by Bev Crowley and Graeme Podbury.
Bev is a laboratory and computer technician at the local high school and
also runs a trophy business from home. Graeme
is a mathematics teacher at a school in Melton.
Our stud is run before school, after school and at weekends.
At present we have about 140 animals not all lowlines on seven different
properties. The drought has created
a few problems for us.
Lilliput
Lowline Stud was established in 1995 with the purchase of two heifers (Joy and
Jill). From the start we decided
that it was important to try to develop our own individual line of quality
lowline cattle. Bev rang most of the studs in Victoria and we were lucky to find
two nine month old heifers that we liked.
It was an interesting trip bringing them home, they tried to jump out the
back of the horse float before we had traveled a kilometer down the road.
It was a couple of months later that Bev decided to start to break then
in. It was after the disappointment
of Geelong loosing another grand final that she blocked the two heifers in a
shed and managed to put some old horse halters on them. She tied them to the
back of a trailer and dragged them around the front paddock.
.
Lowlines were first shown in
Victoria at Bendigo in 1995. It was
quite an experience for most of us showing for the first time.
The handlers were more nervous than the animals and I remember having the
halter rapped around my hand a number of times and was determined not to let Joy
get away from me. She was reserve champion and the judge commented that had he
been able to feel her she might have been champion. This was a sign of things to
come.
Then we had the problem of where
do we find a good bull. We had seen
a young bull at Bendigo Show that had good length of body and although not in
show condition had plenty of size about him and won his class.
The purchase of a share in Beag Ni Ben Nevis proved to be a master stoke
for us. He produced Lord Zackary.
In 1998 nearly two years latter we
went off to Melbourne Show for the third time with two animals.
Joy went on to become grand champion cow and supreme exhibit and Zack her
first calf was grand champion bull. We
were also the most successful exhibitor. This
result made us, and it gave all the other small breeders confidence to get out
there and have a go. We decided
that once an animal goes grand champion at Melbourne we would not show them
again. We wanted to prove that we
could continue to produce champions. Our
bulls Lord Zackary, Lord Phythagoras and Lord Kevlar have been judged grand
champion three of the last five years. The
other two champions were judged reserves to our bulls when they competed with
them. Our bulls were judged
champion over the last three Sydney Champions and many of the champions at other
royal shows. This has been pleasing
as it is difficult for us to travel interstate to compete at other royal shows.
It’s great to see the emergence
of a number of newer studs at Melbourne over the last couple of years.
This will ensure the quality of lowline cattle in Victoria continues to
improve.
We have continued show our cattle at Royals and local
shows. We are now Victoria's leading lowline stud and have won seven Grand
Champions at Royal Melbourne Show. We have won four Grand Champion Cows
and Three Grand Champion Bulls. Our breeding has now produced our fourth
generation show champion.
We have exported our cattle to China and the USA and have
sold to most states in Australia.
Lilliput set out to produce our
own unique line of lowline cattle. We
have chosen genetics that were not widely used and we have kept the majority of
our bulls to our selves. The cows
we have purchased have been related to superior showing lines.
This means that we have something that is very special which enables us
to produce consistent lines of top quality cattle.
We have worked hard to improve the
quality of our farm. Bev organized
a course in Kyneton that benefited many lowline breeders. It taught us how to
grow and graze grass, now we have more than doubled the carrying capacity of the
farm. Our land is quite hungry and
it is a credit to the type of cattle we have that they show so well.
Lilliput is in the process of
establishing a commercial herd based on the lowliness released from Hamilton.
We have used our show winning bulls over the Hamilton cows we purchased
to form a small but top quality commercial herd.
Our herd is made up of 15 cows with a number of replacement heifers. We
lease our bulls to about twenty other breeders in the area.
We see lowlines as the perfect
breed for the many small farms that are being established in our area.
We believe from the comments that we have received from those people that
have eaten our meat that we are on a real winner.
Their easy doing capability in trying conditions makes them the perfect
type of cattle for those people getting started.
We have come a long way since we
started in lowlines and the most enjoyable part is we still have a lot to learn.
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