Beef has plenty to crow about, says new Herefords chair
Plenty of beef breeders say working cattle is the best job in the world but in Trish Worth’s case, she has a fair bit of career experience to back that up.
A nurse by trade, she went into midwifery, pathology, management in health administration, and then she entered politics.
The Federal Member for Adelaide for 11 years, she was a parliamentary secretary for three ministers.
At 16, after growing up on a Hereford operation at Riverton, north of Adelaide in South Australia, where she was referred to as her father’s ‘right-hand man’, her plan was to run her own poll Hereford stud.
“It was quite a long journey but I’m there now,” she laughs.
Ms. Worth, who operates Kilkerrin Poll Herefords at Mount Compass in SA with her husband Michael Cobb, has just been elected the new chairman of Herefords Australia. Marc Greening, Injemira Beef Genetics, at Book Book in NSW, is her deputy.
Ms. Worth has great optimism for the future of both the beef industry and the Hereford breed.
“The pandemic has shown us just how much Australians consider beef to be a staple part of their diet – there was evidence that one of the top searches on google during the lockdown was how to cook a good steak,” she said.
“And the industry has shown just how resilient it is. Some of our Hereford breeders have come through drought and fires but are rebuilding strongly.
“The future is bright for the breed. Herefords fit so well into Australia. They’re so versatile and are run on the biggest stations through to small operations and from Queensland to the snow country.
“Collectively, we have an abundance of wisdom and experience in breeding top quality Herefords.”
Ms Worth developed her love and admiration for Herefords as the oldest child in a farming family where everyone was expected to chip in.
While she always had ambitions to be a beef producer, in the tradition of the time her brother inherited the farm and is still working it today with his family.
However, Ms Worth says today she still operates by the philosophies she learned as a youngster.
“My father would say when we were breaking in bulls that you should always be nice to cattle, they’re bigger than you, and I’ve found that works best,” she said.
“There’s never any shouting at cattle at our place.”
She is the first woman to lead the Hereford society and says women all over Australia are heavily involved in the beef industry and the career opportunities the industry affords are many and varied.
Ms Worth, along with Tony Hegarty, Bill Kee and Geoff Birchnell, was elected to the Board in 2017 and has recently been joined by Sam Becker, Ian Durkin, Mark Duthie and Mr Greening.