A trip to a dispersal sale was a pivotal moment for Rob Gundry from Gunwilla Park Holsteins, Gunbower.
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The sale was back in the early 1980s, and Rob had scraped together $1500 to buy a couple of young cows from Ron Crossman.
“I paid $750 for each of them, and it was a lot of money back then, but they were good cows, and I couldn’t believe how tall and dairy they were,” Rob said.
At the time, Rob was milking with his dad Winston, and the herd was a mixed bag of cross-breeds, with Guernsey herd bulls bought from a local farmer.
“When I think back now, Ron and his cows were ahead of their time,” ROb said.
“Ron was using a lot of American and Canadian genetics, and I just thought to myself, I want more cows like that, and really, I was hooked from that moment on.”
Rob soon put a call into Holstein Australia and began the journey of registering his own herd via the appendix system.
He also became involved with the North West Sub-Branch at the same time.
Whenever he had any spare money (or even if he didn’t), Rob would purchase cows from sub-branch sales, International Dairy Week and then later on, on-farm sales at Clydevale, Gorbro and Elmar.
Rob loves a good type cow and has targeted a few cow families over the years that have performed well for him in his own herd, including the Barbies, Randells and Lilly’s.
He purchased Woodlawn Fever Randell from Flannigans in Finley about 10 years ago.
“She has been a great family for us — not a big cow, but full of dairy strength, which is what we are targeting.”
Another great purchase has been Atwood Lilly Pilly, her Jagger daughter is currently featured in the National Herd sire catalogue.
The famous Barbie family has also delivered for Rob, and he now has quite a few lines developed within his own herd.
While Rob has bought in cow families, his own Gunwilla cows have also had some success.
Gunwilla Fredia Medallion, who came through the appendix system, with Jersey in her linage way back, was Rob’s first cow to classify excellent.
She also came first in the four-year-old sub-branch on-farm challenge around 2015, and went on to come second in Victoria that same year.
Rob has a granddaughter coming though now who is looking pretty good — she featured in this year’s on-farm challenge team.
Rob said he had learnt a lot over the years about confirmation and classification, and has been surprised by the quality of his own genetics.
“I come from a commercial background, and like most people, we just used to put the cups on and milk the cows,” Rob said.
“It wasn’t until I started to get my own cows classified and classifiers were pointing out things I couldn’t see, that I really started to learn.
“Adam Dee was a great help to me in those early years, along with people like Jeff Harrower and Richard Anderson, who were always willing to share their knowledge.”
Rob said receiving Master Breeder this year was a bit of a shock and a lovely surprise.
“Everyone knew about it except for me, but it is a great recognition for a lifetime of dedication to breeding.”
While he was a bit sceptical at the start, Rob is now dipping his toe into genomics.
He is about to start genomic testing his calves and embark on a genomic mating program with Jo Holloway from Semex.
“I am hoping it will help when it comes time to sell our young stock because we always have too many of them running around.”
Rob has been selling 50 or so in-calf heifers to farmers over the last 12 months.
Rob, along with his wife Suz, are milking 530 cows across 810 hectares of owned and leased land.
He has no intention of increasing numbers any further in the future and is happy with where herd numbers are currently sitting.
Rob said he had been lucky over the years to have purchased additional land, with high security water shares, which has enabled him to expand his dairy business to where it sits today.
“Building the rotary was a big game changer for us, and enabled us to manage our workload without hours spent in the shed — although I would much rather spend time working with cows than be sitting on a tractor.”
Rob is unsure where his love of cows comes from, but it is something that has remained with him from the very start.
“I was 17 when I first got my AI ticket, and I have been interested in breeding ever since.
“There is nothing more rewarding than watching cows you have bred and looked after, find their way into the herd.”