Stockman’s profile - Steven Weatherly

STOCKMAN PROFILE Steven Weatherly

Article by Lauren Vest

Steven Weatherly was born on a dairy farm at Newry, near Maffra in Victoria. He had working dogs from around seven years old and living in the foothills of the high country, he remembers annoying all the old mountain stockmen around the area to teach him dog and stockmanship skills. For a kid with a keen interest in stockmanship, he was extremely fortunate to have so many good stockmen around to learn from. Once he was old enough, he was employed as a drover for Gilbertson’s abattoir in Melbourne, working with all the old Newmarket drovers. He stayed there for ten years, learning a lot. He then moved into stock contracting, followed by a stint managing a composite ewe farm at Rosedale, then a steep and rough property at Mount Eccles and a property at Mortlake. He is currently the livestock manager for Andrew Sheridan, looking after properties at Wyang, Bengworden and Wuk Wuk in the Gippsland area. They run sheep and cattle, shearing around 18,000 sheep last year and running a combination of superfine Merinos, First Cross ewes, and Angus cattle. Steven says they are good people to work for, and he even met his partner Kate through the job – she started out as their wool classer and now has a full-time position there as well. The team is rounded out by the third worker, Ben, who is just starting out in working dogs. Steven is really enjoying helping him get started.

A good stockman called Jim Jorgeson gave Steve his first working dog, a red merle Koolie bitch. He did not know what he had at the time – she did everything he ever asked of her, working sheep, cattle, dairy cows and cows and calves. He was also lucky enough when starting out to purchase a Kelpie dog off John Gedye, 30 odd years ago at Lardner Park – Scoriochre George. George is the best mustering dog he has ever had. John sent him another Scoriochre bitch to join to George, and Steven still has that same line of dogs today, including two sons of George. They are big casting, natural mustering dogs. They will do a job in the yards but really excel out in the paddock.

Steven does not mind what breed a dog is – if it is a good dog, it’s a good dog. He has run Kelpies, Border Collies and Koolies, as well as crossbred dogs. They just purchased their first Huntaway from Pip Flower in Tasmania, and so far, they are impressed with her as a yard dog. He currently has three collies, one of which is a good cattle dog, and one they purchased from Sarah Lee for Kate to work. He likes a natural dog – if the dog is meant for paddock work, it must be a natural casting and mustering dog. If it is a yard dog, it must be free backing and barking, wanting to do it, not needing to be pushed or over commanded. They must bark easily – he doesn’t want to wave his hands around to make them bark. Having natural dogs makes it easy – you just put a handle on them and away you go. He likes dogs that are free moving and do not have too much eye or the wrong sort of eye. All the natural casting dogs he has had do not show much eye. The Scoriochre dogs see their sheep and just keep on kicking out and going.

At Mt Eccles Steven did nearly all the stockwork from horseback as the country was too steep and rough to get vehicles in. You often hear people say that working from horseback used to make better dogs, but Steven does not agree. He says you

can work them just the same off a bike, ute or buggy – it’s more about how you choose to use them than what you are driving or riding. Even though he does not use a horse as often anymore he will often pull up at a gate and send the dog to muster the paddock under its own steam. It helps break your stock in and give the dogs more work. He saw a lot of dogs that were really good in the bush as a kid, and did not think there were many around nowadays, however he has recently seen some videos on Facebook that show really good, brainy mustering types. If you go to the steeper and rougher country, you can still find them. Nowadays he sees a lot of dogs being bred with too much eye or the wrong sort of eye.

Trialling is not something Steven is keen to do – he did have a go once at Elmore and another time at Bairnsdale, winning a novice, however he says he is not a good enough handler or trainer to be competitive. Hats off though to the people who do it, there are some excellent and talented trial handlers about and he enjoys watching trials when he has a chance.

Some stand out memories from his life with dogs were seeing the old bush stockmen send a dog into thick timbered country where you would not think any stock were. They would send and forget, leave the dog to go and do something else, then sometime later the dog would emerge with 20 or 30 cows. He thought he had seen good yard dogs until he saw the old Newmarket drovers working their dogs at Gilbertsons. The sheep lane was a kilometre long and the old hands like Bobby Wadden and Gus Fisher, legends at Newmarket, would send their dogs up the lane and they would back the whole way and drop in at the right point, or run up the outside and jump in where needed. The dogs were next level. Working on grating in stifling heat, with one dog, all day.

I asked Steven if he had any advice for people starting off with working dogs or wanting to improve. He said to find the best stockman you can and annoy the shit out of them! Ask questions – they will usually be happy to help you. As far as dogs go, look for natural dogs and do not make excuses for them. They should naturally do everything right. You will get the odd thing you don’t like in every dog, but they have to be natural above all else. They also must be able to move sheep or cattle. There are too many dogs getting around nowadays that cannot shift stock.

Steven’s favourite dog job is mustering stock in hill country. You must have a real handle on your dog at a distance, and the dog must do it all himself – You cannot be there to help. You soon find out how good a dog you have! The same goes for yard work – putting big numbers through yards, often by yourself and with time limits, the dogs just have to get it done. Not much beats putting your dogs to the test and watching them do what they do best!

AUSTRALIAN WORKING BORDER COLLIE REGISTRY

Inc. 9896908

A National Registry for pure bred working Border Collies, our aim is to maintain the stud book and promote the responsible breeding of the working Border Collie within Australia.

Offering members access to the online stud book, provenance in bloodlines and pedigrees.

Pictured - WOOLLYS GRACIE A0681 - Photo by Deb Kelly

www.awbcr.com

Contact: awbcrinfo@gmail.com or Registrar Tricia Thomas E: eastrossgole@bigpond.com

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