After two particularly wet winters a ‘tongue-in-cheek’ remark from Janet Poole to her husband Ray resulted in the arrival of Miniature Herefords at the couple’s Matakohe Polled Hereford Stud.   

Miniature Herefords are easy to handle, and put less stress on pastures and facilities. Photo by Janet Poole.

The Pooles already have standard sized Herefords with standard sized hooves.  

It was the effect of these hooves in pugging up wet paddocks which caused Ray to bemoan the millions of litres of water trapped in the pugged soil.  

“Why don’t we get some miniature Herefords and see how they cope?” Janet asked, not thinking he would take her seriously. 

After a long silence Ray replied it was not such a silly idea and from there the research into these smallest of Herefords began.

A Hereford is a Hereford whether it is horned, polled, standard, classic or miniature and all derive from the same original bloodlines.  None of those variations are separate breeds.  

While some breeders in the 1970s were trying to breed the biggest Herefords possible a far-seeing breeder, Roy R. Largent III, decided to go the opposite way partly due to the increase in smaller acreage farms which could not carry the large stock.  

The first true miniature Hereford bull was born in 1981, and he is present in the genealogy of almost every miniature Hereford alive today.

The advantage of a miniature Hereford is having an animal which is roughly half the size of the conventional breed, requires half the amount of pasture and yet can convert this to more meat, percentage wise, than that produced by a standard sized beast. Shorter legs and neck mean less bone and more bulk. There is also less stress on pastures and facilities.  

Miniatures are also easy to handle with good temperament and are ideal for children to use for showing purposes.  

These little cattle are found around the world in a variety of climates and appear to cope well.      

Miniature Herefords are classified by a system called frame scoring which involves measuring the animal from the ground to a level across the spine at the position of the hips.  

The height is translated into different sections and given a code number which differs slightly  for males and females.   

In most parts of the world the upper limit for a mature miniature cow is 114 cm and a mature bull 119 cm but in  New Zealand animals can be taller.                           

The first Miniature Herefords arrived in New Zealand in 1997 with the importation of live cattle from Australia and embryos from Canada.  

In 2004 the New Zealand Miniature Hereford Breeders Group was established and there are now 27 registered breeders along with a few commercial breeders in the country.  

Miniature bulls are sought after by some dairy farmers to use over heifers for ease of calving and the resulting progeny are solid little meat packages.

At the Matakohe farm the Miniature Herefords go under the prefix of ‘Riverlets’ and the goal is to establish a polled miniature herd, in keeping with the standard sized stud. 

At present there are only horned miniatures in New Zealand but two of the Riverlets females are possibly in calf to imported semen from an American polled bull.  

As this is the only semen available in NZ at the moment plans are in progress to import more from other polled bulls overseas thus providing a working gene pool from several bloodlines.  

It is also intended to breed animals that are neither too big nor too small, are suitable for lifestyle blocks and ideal for the family freezer in that a whole beast can be put in while still allowing room for other produce.  

The same criteria used for breeding standard Herefords is being applied to Miniature Herefords and they are under the same management plan.