Building a thriving future for a rare and ancient breed of cattle is the passionate concern of a small group of Australian farmers – the most active of whom are to be found in the countryside around Bangalow, reports Digby Hildreth.
The name of the breed, British Whites, contains two fundamental strands of their story: a Northern Hemisphere heritage, and white hair, which makes them very well suited to the harsh Australian climate. Currently there are about 800 British White stud cattle registered across the country and the breed remains on the Rare Breed Trust ‘At Risk’ list in Australia.
Heritage is the key word: British Whites are one of the oldest breeds of cattle native to the United Kingdom, meaning they have a broader range of genetic characteristics than most of the varieties commonly farmed in Australia. As a consequence, they are robust and resilient, non-selective grazers that produce marbled beef on pasture alone. They were traditionally a dual-purpose breed, good for both milk and beef, and high-quality milk means healthy, well-grown calves.
There are about 55 farmers registered in Australia to help to conserve them. They range from devoted stud breeders to hobbyists, and their enchantment with the breed is remarkable.
Among them is director and company secretary of the British White Cattle Society of Australia, Dierdre Mikkelson. Following a successful corporate career and early retirement, Dierdre’s youthful hankering for a career in agriculture was re-ignited when she and her husband Earle bought a small block 10 years ago at Eltham. Her new life as a farmer launched her onto a steep learning curve: animal husbandry, pasture Cattle and a rare breed of farmer development, soil science, biology, botany, entomology and chemistry.
Wanting to put their land to meaningful use, Dierdre set her sights on establishing a stud herd of heritage cattle to be raised within a regenerative farming model. British Whites’ rarity, attractive appearance and docile temperament were the deciding factors for her when choosing the breed. “They are the most amazingly calm, lovely cattle and yes, we get emotionally attached to them,” she says.
She admits that as a hobbyist she is “by no means a proper farmer”,and hates it when she has to part with an animal. She is, however, hard-nosed when it comes to breeding quality stud stock and promoting British Whites as a viable commercial breed – most likely in niche markets such as paddock to plate, regenerative and hobby farms, or bulls for northern Australian breeding programs.
Dierdre’s introduction to British Whites was through Society president Lindsay Murray, of Dingo Lane Farms, and she bought her first three “girls” from him – Josie, Carmen and Ettie.
Farming got real when the three were old enough to ‘join’ with a bull and nine months later she and Earle had their first experience of calving; it was challenging, as she failed to heed the vet’s warnings to not let the heifers get too fat. Even tougher land-care lessons followed, with additional acreage the couple bought near Lismore going under water in the 2022 floods, and twice after, resulting in water-logged soil, followed by pasture dieback at their Eltham property. The experience strengthened Dierdre’s interest in regenerative agriculture – with its focus on soil health, energy, water cycles and species diversity.
“The more I learn about commercial agriculture, the more it worries me,” she says. “The genetic concentration in crops and livestock brings a massive risk. Nature thrives on diversity.”
A side-effect of “retiring” early was the desire to keep her brain active, and, although she loves being out on the land, she admits to a need for people – through various volunteer activities and, for three years now, part-time work at the Bangalow Post Office. “I need interaction with others,” she says. “It’s a small community, and I can get to know people. It’s a terrific place to work and so different from my old corporate life.”
The land – and community – are also in Lindsay Murray’s blood. He grew up on a mixed farming operation in the Riverina, but left home at 17 to study medicine, which he practised full time until recently in senior roles at Lismore Base Hospital. His childhood experience made farming “very attractive”, he says, “but we were also very aware of how destructive agriculture was becoming in the 60s and 70s” and he dreamt of doing things differently.
In 2010, he bought 130 acres in Myocum. Cleared for dairy 100 years before, and neglected for the previous half a century, it was infested with lantana, camphor laurel and privet. Lindsay says he knew that he couldn’t restore it all to original forest in his lifetime, and also that he wanted to produce food in a sustainable way, so he and his partner developed a plan that would see 15% of the farm restored to native rainforest, with the remainder allocated to grazing cattle to produce beef within a regenerative system. “And British Whites ticked all the boxes,” he says.
Lindsay now runs about 55 to 60 stud breeding cows and grows out their offspring for sale as breeding animals or for slaughter. A similar number of steers brings the total herd up to 120. The purchase of a neighbouring farm took the farm to 100 hectares, 20-25% of it under environmental restoration.
A key role of the Society is to maintain a herd book of pedigreed animals. It’s a meaningful responsibility. “In the last 70 or 80 years there’s been highly selective breeding to meet criteria set by industrial farming, and the genetics of certain breeds have narrowed,” Lindsay says. “However, the genetics required now may not be those we need in 50 years, or even sooner. It may be that having a cattle breed that can do quite well purely on grass and produce good food with minimal inputs is exactly what we need in the future. And if we lose those genetics, we can’t recreate them.”
Maintaining these rare breed genetics is a primary concern of the Society’s treasurer, Wayne Cross, and his partner and former treasurer, Chris Malden, who together work 120 acres at Vale Hill Farm at Knockrow, primarily a stud operation, with 40 breeders and a dozen bulls.
They came to the Northern Rivers six years ago from Victoria, where they ran British Whites and Hampshire Down sheep. They also owned a hotel and restaurant, where their produce was on the menu – a real hands-on paddock to plate operation. Once here they cleared the land of camphor laurel and other weeds, replaced all the fencing, installed new irrigation and concentrated on pasture improvement, including planting about 20 acres in rye grass to keep the weeds down. They have also worked with Bangalow Koalas to plant thousands of food trees along their boundaries.
Their aim is to spread the British White breed around the country, and they have been selling their females and quality bulls to new and established British White studs for many years.
Farming is more challenging in the Northern Rivers than in Victoria, Wayne says, what with a greater incidence of diseases, ticks and flies, more noxious weeds, the rain, and tropical grasses with their undesirable high moisture content.
But the challenges are worth it and Wayne and Chris say they still prefer to farm up here. “It’s nice to have green grass all year round”.
They add that they have met so many lovely people here too, both within the dedicated British White community and outside it. Considering Bangalow’s commitment to heritage values and the region’s support for farmers markets, humane farm practices and regenerative agriculture, it’s only natural that they and their fellow visionary caretakers of the land – and the rare breed they champion – would be warmly welcomed.