Marthavale Miniature Hereford Australia

Miniature Herefords

We have just undertaken our first breeding program with our 2 heifers. This involved sending them to be flushed. They flushed 16 A grade eggs a result we were very pleased with. The eggs were then fertilized and implanted into recipients of which 10 tested positive to being pregnant.

The first of our herd was born on the18/01/01 and was a bull calf, the last was born on the 06/03/01 and was also a bull calf, but in-between we managed to have 7 heifer calves and 1 more bull calf.

Of the 2 heifers that we had flushed one is pregnant and we are not sure on the other one yet . So we would class our first breeding program a huge success.

We also believe anyone interested in farming these small viable cute animals would have just as much success as we have had.

The cows are cycling between 9 months and 1 year. Mature females can be flushed, flushing up to 6 or more embryos giving the farmer more cattle on the ground.Miniature Herefords are early maturing at around 14 months which is about 10-20% faster than conventional Herefords.

They are being bred for the adaptability to small land holders and the fact that you can raise 2 miniature Hereford cows on the same amount of land that would normally hold one. This factor allowing more beef to be produced to the acre and therefore more efficient feed converters.
Miniature Herefords also cut far higher percentage yields of meat than the bigger cattle, up to 25% higher for the same size pasture.

Wnen looking at purchasing a Miniature Hereford consider these points
* long hip and loin
* heavily muscled and thick through the hind quarter.
* sufficient bone to support muscle attachment.
*depth of body for sufficient room for food intake, lung expansion and
reproduction
* shortness of leg from the knee to the hoof.
* smooth shoulders set well in.
* short neck
* short small broad head in proportion to the size of the body.
Miniature Herefords come in three sizes
Small - Under 106 cm
Medium 106- 112 cm
Large 112-117cm
The lower the frame score generally the more the cattle is worth.
SCALE
2 year old cow
Frame score Height at hip
2 117cm 46"
1 112cm 44"
0 107cm 42"
00 102cm 40"
000 97cm 38"
0000 92cm 36"

Some of the main reasons to own a miniature Hereford are:
Their manageability and handling.
Feed conversion for small land holders.
Fertility
Quality of the Hereford cattle throughout the years.
Known to Vets. As the miniature Hereford animal is the replica of the large
Hereford with no acondroplasnia the breed.
But mostly for us new mothers it is the absolute cuteness of the baby calf.