Twenty years ago, Vicki Gilbert was told she was close to death.
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The doctor advised a move to the country to extend whatever time she had left — and it must have done the trick, because two decades on Ms Gilbert is still going a million miles an hour.
But the move to the country changed her into someone her city-based girlfriends could hardly recognise ... someone ... different.
Ms Gilbert got into cattle.
In a big way.
At the 2022 Melbourne Royal Show, her stud Rotherwood Lowlines (which is moving to Terip Terip) dominated the show ring.
Her cow Rotherwood Precious Girl marched right through the competition, taking out grand champion female.
Rotherwood Qointreau On Ice cut a similar path through the male competition and was strutting out as the grand champion bull.
There could only be one supreme exhibit.
The two sized each other up, the judges got busy and Ms Gilbert was forced to pick a favourite.
Winner takes it all
It was a tense moment — the Australian Lowlines were the Melbourne Royal Show’s 2022 feature breed and a sea of industry veterans were paying close attention.
“One of the judges, he stopped and spoke with me,” Ms Gilbert said.
“He said he’d never thought he’d ever say this about a Lowline, but wow, the size of this guy was unbelievable.”
So, Qointreau and his hefty flanks had one admirer — but was it enough to beat Precious Girl who was totting a gorgeous red calf and epitomised the pony-sized height Lowlines are beloved for?
The anklebiter Tsunami Red Alert was really performing for his mother, and Precious Girl was on her best behaviour, too.
“That really surprised me,” Ms Gilbert admitted.
“I’d never taken her to a show before and she’s nearly five, but she’s been coming up to me in the paddock for a long time.
“Precious Girl was an orphan calf and she was bottle raised, so she can be very pushy and bossy with people, but she behaved so well on the day.”
The moment of truth: who was the favourite?
“I have the closest relationship with Qointreau,” Ms Gilbert said.
“But I did want the cow to win because she’s special. I was so close to her mother and grandmother who were terrific show winners, but they’re both gone now.”
Finally, the judges came to a decision.
The orphaned, first-time “showcow” Precious Girl won Supreme Australian Lowline Exhibit, placing her at the pinnacle of the breed in Victoria.
“To have a grand champion male and female go up against each other, it’s unreal,” Ms Gilbert said.
But it wasn’t a first.
Exactly 10 years ago in 2012, Precious Girl’s great aunt Glamour Girl beat out her paddock mate to claim the supreme exhibit ribbon.
The situation repeated again in 2017, but that time the bull won.
How did it start? A bull in the window
Ms Gilbert has been breeding Lowlines for 17 years — a long time for a breed that first hit the marketplace in 1992.
She credits that longevity, plus a good eye for structure and a close relationship with her animals for her genetic success stories — allowing her to carry on the docile temperament and great carcase of the little Aussie beef breed.
“I live for them. I love them. They have such beautiful, individual personalities. I love the breeding side of it, too — when it works,” Ms Gilbert said.
“My bloodlines go back. Especially the cows — they go way, way back. I’ve kept my herd closed, so I know what my bloodlines produce, which is great structure.”
So how did it all start?
It begins with Ms Gilbert moving to the country as a city-slicker who’s livestock experience started and ended with dogs.
By this point she owned a horse and was living in Cann River, so her country education was under way.
“One day I woke up and heard a funny noise,” Ms Gilbert remembers.
“I looked out the window and there was this beautiful bull with a nose ring and gorgeous curls around his face.”
It was love at first sight.
When her neighbours dispersed their Rotherwood Lowline stud, Ms Gilbert was there to buy her bull.
“I bought him, six cows and took over the stud name,” she said.
“That bull and one cow cost me four times as much as the others, but I just had to have them, and they went on to be fantastic genetics.”
Not many first-time cattlemen leap straight into bull ownership, but the Lowline’s docile nature made it a smooth transition.
“I was a little nervous. I’d never patted a cow, let along brushed and clipped them,” Ms Gilbert said.
“But he’d been to shows and was very quiet.”
The bull was called Boxer and the one expensive cow was Wish.
Wish died in early 2022, aged 21, right before Ms Gilbert moved from Cann River to Terip Terip.
“She’s buried on my old property in Cann River. It was very hard to leave her behind,” Ms Gilbert said.
The move represents a slimming down of the Rotherwood operation, decreasing the acreage and going from 80-head to 24.
It also brings Ms Gilbert closer to her nephew who breeds in Tallygaroopna as Cann Valley Lowlines.
Boxer died in 2010 and received his own obituary in the Australian Lowline Cattle Association Journal.
Rotherwood Boxer 26/12/2002 - 22/3/2010
Beautiful Boxer ... the day you broke your hip you also broke our hearts. You were the heart and soul of our stud and such an enormous part of our success. You will always live on through your beautiful progeny and our wonderful memories of you. Your favourite girl ‘Wish’ will also miss you as you were such great companions and had such beautiful babies together. Boxer you will always be special. Thanks for everything Boxer boy.
Anything with “girl” after the name is from Ms Gilbert’s special Boxer/Wish line.
Journalist