PROBABLY the last thing Philip Worthington would have imagined when he put the lid on a 30-year journalism career in 1996 was that he would end up as an international cattle judge.
But that’s just the position he found himself at Beef Australia 2009 recently.
It is Australia’s national beef expo, where he was invited to judge the Lowline and Red Poll cattle classes.
Beef Australia, held at Rockhampton, Queensland early last month, is enormous. This year it featured 2064 stud cattle from 31 breeds, as well as 2600 commercial cattle. It is estimated to be worth $50m to the local economy.
Philip and his wife Kay Forrester farm a partially irrigated farm of about 100ha between Rangiora and Cust in North Canterbury where they run a Lowline cattle stud, an Angora goat stud, and grow hybrid vegetable seeds.
They have developed a reputation for the high quality of their animals, winning the supreme champion Lowline four times out of the last seven Royal Shows with four different animals.
They have had a high level of success with the goats too, winning the supreme champion goat and supreme champion fleece at the Royal Show, as well as winning the Jim Wickens trophy three times for the top mohair fleece in the country.
Although Philip has judged goats before, his cattle judging experience is limited. He was nominated to judge at Rockhampton by the Australian Lowline Cattle Association.
“I started at the deep end. The reason I was asked was because of our success with Lowlines locally.’’
While Kay still works as a journalist at The Press in Christchurch where she is news editor for the Fairfax hub, Philip cut short his career at The Press in 1996 to go farming.
He was of that generation of journalists that started off at the bottom as copy boys and were expected to gradually work their way up through the ranks. He did that with distinction to become reporter in the Parliamentary press gallery for several years in the mid 1980s, and ended his career as an editorial writer – his writing won him a Qantas Award.
In 1969 he was in a serious car accident which left him with partial paralysis.
“If anyone had said the net result of that would be that I would go farming, I’d have had them committed,’’ he says.
“I was contemplating life in a wheelchair at the time.’’
While Kay was brought up on a farm, Philip was a definite townie. However in 1986 they bought a 12ha block at Balcairn and he became hooked on farming.
“I always wanted more land once we started,’’ he says.
That came about when Kay’s father died and the family farm was going to be leased out. They bought some of the land and that is where they now farm. At about that time Philip decided to take the plunge, leaving a safe, successful career in Christchurch to try his hand at farming.
At the Beef Australia expo he was one of only three overseas judges, and the only New Zealander.
So how did he go? “Well I got away from there with my life and they were still talking to me,’’ he says with modesty.
“I was lucky in one way because the Lowline judging was one day and the Red Poll was the following day. Therefore I started with my own breed which made me a bit more confident.’’
“From my point of view the biggest compliment paid to me by an Aussie breeder was when he said ‘you are very consistent’.’’
As a judge he was looking particularly at confirmation and adherence to breed standards, as well as ease of walking and muscling.
Philip reckons he’s learnt the judging craft by watching other judges very carefully. Because he walks with a limp he never leads his own cattle into the ring, preferring to view proceeding from the outside. “Therefore I’ve probably had a more objective view.’’
Various Australian judges have commented that the best Lowlines in New Zealand compared well with the best in Australia, he says.
“Having been there I would have to agree. Their average lines would be stronger, but the top animals would be on a par, especially the females.’’
Woolstone Park is now one of the biggest Lowline stud in the country with 71 registered animals.
While Kay does most of the goat care, Philip has always liked cattle and was able to persuade her that Lowlines were docile.
“We started with two embryos in 1999. The arrangement we had was that if they were both bulls we would get another embryo at reduced rates. They were both bulls, and the next one was also a bull, so we bought some heifers and that was the start of our herd.’’
Woolstone’s biggest market at the moment is bulls for the dairy market “as beef cross Lowlines are good with their easier calving and a short gestation period’’.
The gestation period is about a week less using a Lowline bull, and for dairy farmers that means a bigger milk cheque.
“So far every farmer we’ve sold bulls to has come back for more. An initial worry (for farmers) is whether the bulls will be able to get up on those big Friesian cows, but they do.’’
Philip says the market for branded Lowline beef is good in Australia, and a Lowline was top of the carcase competition in Queensland in 2008. In New Zealand there are not yet enough animals on the ground for a sustainable business.
However Philip plans for some of the latest crop of calves to be steers, and maybe test the waters in the Steak of Origin competition in a
couple of years.
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