Duncan Makeig purchased the property ‘The Meadows’ at Taralga from Jeff Knox in 2002 and subsequently renamed the property ‘Wirrabilla’. When the property was sold, Jeff Knox, through Knox Farms, dispersed his Fleckvieh stud herd and part of this was acquired by Duncan Makeig.

Jeff Knox first brought Knox Farms Fleckvieh cattle into Australia in 1995 with the importation, from the US, of two Austrian bloodline Fleckvieh cows – Red Pepper and Sage (Switz Pol genetics). These cows were homozygous polled. Once in Australia the cows were used as donors in an embryo program.

To source more genetics, Jeff Knox later travelled to South Africa, which had an international reputation for outstanding Fleckvieh cattle. There he acquired some high performing Fleckvieh females. This time the females remained overseas and were flushed to top performing South African Fleckvieh sires. The resulting embryos were imported into Australia and implanted into Knox Farms recipient cows. This endeavour delivered some great results for Knox Farms and these genetics went on to be the foundation of the Wirrabilla Fleckvieh herd.