IT all started with a six-year-old's passion for a Charbray cow and its Charolais calf.
Now that young woman is at the helm of a successful family farming enterprise breeding Charolais cattle.
Tegan Winterbottom has taken over management of the family farm, Saddleworth, from her father Tom and mother Karen.
The 1335 hectare property is situated at Allanooka, around 80 kilometres south east of Geraldton and 50km north east of Dongara.
"We are in a triangle between Dongara, Mingenew and Mullewa," Tegan said.
"My father and grandfather bought the property in 1969 and my grandfather was a Hereford man."
It was about 24 years ago, when Tegan was just six, family friends had some calving trouble and asked Tom to assist.
As it so happened they offered a little heifer to Tegan to buy - and so the story of their current enterprise began.
Tegan said her grandfather saw what a Charolais could do in the feedlot, in terms of hybrid vigour, and went out and purchased a Charolais bull.
Tegan and her father Tom were the ones that really made the overall switch to the breed and according to Tegan they have not looked back since.
Their farming enterprise has gone through many changes over the years, but has settled at a 50:50 ratio of cattle to cropping and their cattle enterprise consists of both a breeding program and a feedlot.
"Over the last 10 years we have gradually made the shift to 50:50 cattle and cropping," Tegan said.
"This combination works well for us and at present we have a breeding herd of 110 head.
"We use all Charolais bulls, but the older cows are mainly Angus with the younger cows and heifers being Charolais-Angus cross."
The breed was a success from day one with its ability to withstand and thrive in the environment, which is prone to harsh, hot and dry conditions.
The introduction of the Charolais bulls into their program 24 years ago, saw the Winterbottom family purchase their first sire from David and Jan Ellis's, Kooyong Charolais stud, Coolup.
"We have continued to buy all our sires from Kooyong for 24 years," Tegan said.
"Their progeny perform well in terms of breeding and in the feedlot.
"They thrive in this environment and are easy handling."
The breed has a good growth rate and great temperament, with the cows having good mothering instinct.
She said they were very protective mothers and had good milking and calving ability.
"Even though it is harsher up here compared to Pinjarra or Coolup, the cattle still continue growing well," she said.
When selecting bulls for their breeding program, Tegan said the EBVs were not as important as the visual aspects and traits.
The fact they had such a longstanding relationship with the Kooyong stud, meant they were assured of the quality and performance of the genetics.
It was more a matter of specific traits they were looking to establish and maintain in their herd.
The last five years has seen Tegan taking on more and more responsibility in terms of the management of the farm as a whole, but in particular the cattle operation.
In terms of sire selection she said the visual appraisal was definitely the main factor in the final decision of which bull to buy.
"We know they all have good temperaments," she said.
"But I also look for animals with good hindquarters, and although it is not a prerequisite, I do prefer poll bulls.
"I prefer also to buy on-farm out in the paddock rather than at auction."
She said she liked to see the animal in the field, where she can see them interact with others.
They used the first bull ever purchased for eight years, until he finally injured himself, proving the breed and Kooyong genetics had good constitution, were strong, sturdy and virile.
The Charolais are good calvers according to Tegan, with calves not being too big and the larger size of the cows allows them to cope with slightly larger offspring anyway.
She said they had tried other breeds over the years, but the performance of the Charolais was just so much better.
At Saddleworth, calving begins in April with the weather hopefully cooling down around then, and continues for around 10 weeks.
Tegan said they were working on shortening their joining period, but it was a slow process and would take some time.
They operate a single sire joining program, which sees one bull for a maximum of 40 cows, but they have mobs of various sizes around the property so numbers can be mixed and as low as 30:1 ratio.
Theirs is a fully self replacing breeding herd and after pregnancy testing is conducted in late January, early February, any dry cows are culled from the program.