A LOVE of animals is delaying the inevitable retirement plans of Jim and Myra Currie, Currie Park, Pinjarra.
Mr Currie said they were at the point in their lives where they wanted to retire and enjoy the grey nomad lifestyle, but they also couldn't bring themselves to give up their "hobby" of breeding Highland cattle and ponies.
"We are ready to retire but not ready to give up just yet," Mr Currie said.
"The past five years we have been scaling back.
"It's good to have them but also the more animals you have, the harder it is to get away."
Currie Park has been downsizing the number of cattle in the fold over the past few years so the Curries could spend more time travelling, but they love their "niche" breeds so much that they kept their best stock to produce more calves and foals.
Over the years they have supported the Perth Royal Show and other local shows in the South West with cattle and ponies on display.
With less competition in the local shows over the past few years they have decided to move towards displaying the animals rather than competing, as a way of raising awareness of the breeds.
"At our peak we had 40 head of Highland cattle," Mr Currie said.
"It would have been good if we had had enough to supply a niche market but we didn't quite get there."
When it came time to filling the freezer or processing the cattle, they are now on the lookout for a new processor with their previous one no longer doing custom kills.\
Mr Currie said the older the cattle get the better marbling they produced, otherwise they taste like any other beef.
After scaling back they have about eight Highland cattle on the farm, with one bull, a steer, three cows and three calves.
They are all different colours from brown to blonde and "dun".
One cow has been shown at the Perth Royal Show since she was a calf - about nine years ago.
"She's a crowd favourite," Ms Currie said.
Highland cattle are raised primarily for their meat.
They originated in the Highlands and Outer Hebrides islands of Scotland and were first mentioned in the 6th Century AD.
Originally, small farmers kept them as house cows to produce milk and for meat.
The Highland cattle registry, or 'herd book', was established in 1885 and is the oldest herd book in the world, which makes them the oldest registered cattle in the world.
The herd book described two distinct types of Highland cattle but, due to crossbreeding between the two, only one type now exists and is registered.
They have since been exported worldwide.
In 1954, Queen Elizabeth ordered Highland cattle to be kept at Balmoral Castle, where they are still kept today.
According to the Australian Highland Cattle Society (AHCS), the first arrival of the breed into Australia came on board the Sovereign in 1829, imported by Lieutenant Surgeon Thomas Braidwood Wilson RN, namesake of the town of Braidwood in New South Wales.
Highland cattle were classified as rare in Australia until 2017 when they were removed from the at-risk watch list and reclassified as a recovering breed by the Rare Breeds Trust of Australia.
There are more than 200 breeders across the country with about 2000 head registered with the AHCS.
The Curries are members of the AHCS and Mr Currie was on its council for seven years.
The breed has long horns and long woolly coats that can be coloured red, ginger, black, dun, yellow, white, grey, or tan, as well as brindled.
They are hardy, having been bred to withstand the conditions in the Scottish Highlands.
Their long hair gives the breed its ability to "overwinter", allowing the snow and rain to run off easily.
Bulls can weigh up to 800 kilograms and cows can weigh up to 500kg.
In the past few weeks, like many WA producers, the Curries have completed hay making for the year - securing a total of 104 round bales for livestock feed - much less than the 200 they normally make.
"We've got enough to see us through this year," Mr Currie said.
"We are down on production because the rains just didn't come at the right time."
The story of Currie Park began in 1985 on a four hectare block on the edge of Pinjarra township, where they are still located.
The Curries built all the infrastructure including sheds, yards, stables fences and the homestead themselves.
"I layed all 30,000 bricks for the house myself, with the help of the children," Mr Currie said.
"It was a lot of hard work but we did what we had to do because we couldn't afford it any other way."
Mr Currie worked for Alcoa for 30 years which "gave us the time and money to have the lifestyle we enjoy and be able to run the cattle".
They also leased 40 hectare of pasture nearby to manage the number of animals - where they cut the hay.
The operation now covers three separate blocks in the area with a dozen Charolais and Angus cattle on one block, the Highland cattle fold on another block and the ponies on the home acreage.
Their love of animals has also coincided with their love of travel.
When they first decided to purchase Highland cattle, the Curries looked around the country to see what was available and ended up travelling to Victoria to collect their first cows, while their first bull was sourced from Tasmania.
Over the years they have made multiple trips across the Nullabor and back to either buy or sell stock to or from clients - making new friends all the while.
"We still keep in touch with them," Ms Currie said.
"The highland cattle breeders in Australia are like an extended family and after all these years we still keep in touch."
Originally from Scotland, the Curries moved to Australia in 1968, soon after their wedding.
While their family enjoys visiting Australia and they love to visit Scotland, they call Australia home now and wouldn't consider moving anywhere else.
"Myra's parents were fine with us moving to Australia but my parents - I don't think they fully forgave me," Mr Currie said.
"We came across as '10 pound poms' and I should have done my homework better because when we got here I was eligible to be drafted for the war in Vietnam.
"I would have gone if my name came up, but fortunately it didn't."
Mr Currie has always enjoyed working with cattle, coming from a dairy farming background in the Lanarkshire "lowlands" of Scotland.
When he first arrived in WA he took up a job at a dairy in Coolup, near Pinjarra.
Mr Currie thought being a dairy farmer was a career he wanted to pursue, but things didn't work out that way.
His wife can claim the title of 'Highlander' being born north of the famous Stirling Castle.
She grew up next to a Highland pony breeder and developed a love of the breed from an early age.
Ms Currie has a soft spot for the ponies, as well as a couple of Shetland ponies they bought "just because".
When they decided to breed the Highland ponies in 1997, the Curries found a stallion and a mare from Victoria which were about nine-months-old.
"We drove over and picked them up," Ms Currie said.
Currie Park has 16 ponies on site, including a 19-year-old grey mare.
"The foal is what they call a black dun and is the first born to her that looks like that," she said.
Ms Currie said they usually weaned the foals at five-months-old.
"Highland ponies don't need a lot of extra feed but we do give them a mix, especially as the mare is feeding at the moment," she said.
"The mare is a good milker."
They feed out meadow hay and oaten hay for a change.
The foal was born to a 26-year-old sire which is starting to show his age.
"The life expectancy for a pony is up to 30 years," Ms Currie said.
"That's if they are well cared for and not pushed too hard when they are young."
The Highland pony can grow as high as 14.2 hands maximum.
"They need to be about five-years-old before they do too much heavy work or are ridden everyday," Mr Currie said.
"People think because they are a solid animal they can handle the weight - which is true but if you push them too hard when they are young it can cause health issues later on."
They took Glencoe, a four-year-old grey dun stallion to show at the Perth Royal Show, along with two others this year.
The Highland pony is listed as "vulnerable" by the Rare Breeds Survival Trust, meaning there is now only between 500-900 registered breeding females in Australia.
