Gelbvieh Australia Pty Ltd was founded in 1988 by Margaret Wilksch and family. Margaret was then Principle and Studmaster of the successful Vernon Park Murray Grey Stud.
At that time the Murray Grey herd was over 400 females and the Stud had built a reputation for being successful in the Show scene and in winning many Carcass Competition in South Australia and Royal Melbourne Shows. Margaret imported ten Gelbvieh heifers from Canada (part of the original live shipment into Australia) in 1988, as she believed that the Gelbvieh-Murray Grey cross could produce the idea carcass in the weight range demanded by the meat trade. Now 20 years later Gelbvieh cross steers are sought by butchers and the feedlot trade for their efficient conversion of feed to meat and the quality of the carcass. The GA Gelbvieh stud animals have been selected for correct conformation, quite temperament, fertility, easy calving and the ability to do well through hard times.Carcass and in the following year Vernon Park showed the Champion Safeway Carcass.

During the mid eighties, the bulk of the Murray Grey herd was relocated to the Tamboree Property at Keith in southeasten South Australia and Margaret realised that crossbreeding was an efficient method of increasing the kilos of beef produced for a significant lift to income returns. Therefore different breeds were nvestigated to find the right combiation and as more information was gathered on both European and Bos Indicus breeds the focus became the Gelbvieh breed. The more attractive attribute of this breed were, the efficient conversion of feed to beef and the ability to procuce a crossbred product that the market was demanding(ie. weaning a calf of the mother that would dressout in the 220kilo plus reange. The Gelbvieh breed appeared ideal to cross with the British breeds, in particular the Murray Greys, and had many attributes similar to the Murray Greys; quite temperament, fertility, good mothers and able to rear good calves under harsh conditions.

At the 1988 “Echo” Show in Brisbane Margaret spoke to Alison and Clyde Johnson who then were stud hereford breeders and they had used some Gelbvieh semen over their hereford commercial cattle. Their comment was that ‘the gelbvieh cross cattle came through the drought ahead of the rest of the herd’. This was the ‘last piece of the jigsaw’ and an order was placed for young Gelbvieh heifers from Canada. The Gelbvieh Australia Pty Ltd company was formed and ten young heifers from various studs in Canada arrived at Vernon Park on Chritmas Eve 1988 to establish the Stud Gelbvieh Herd.

At the time Margaret was involved on a voluntary basis in Community Development and land and environmental management and served on a number of committes and later in the Landcare movement when that began. Margaret has been active in Natural Resource management in the Adelaide Hills, serving as Chair, and now Treasurer of the Goolwa to Wellington Local Action Planning Association; a member and Secretary of the Central Soil Conservation Board and the Board of the SA Murray Darling Integrated Natural Management Group; until they were replaced by the Natural Resource Management Boards; as a Boards member of Greening Australia SA for the last 15 years, and Board member and Secretary of Fame (The Foundation for Australia’s Most Endangoured Species). Presenly Margaret is a Councillor on the District Council of Mount Barker.

Part of being a good farmer is not only caring for the animals but also caring for the land and environment and it is only in the last ten years that this has become a focus in the wider community. Margaret grew up as a young child on the outskirts of Renmark and her playgound was the Murray River and its environment. Her father Ron Haselgrove was a vingeron and winemaker He studied winemaking at Monpellier University in Southern France in the 1920s and he became one of the early leading winemaker whose knowledge was important for the early development of the present wine industry in Australia. He took over a rundown winery at Mildura, cleaned it up and establish the Mildara Company with many successful innovation that were important in putting the industry on a sound basis from which to grow. He was, in his own way, a landcarer, on his irrigation blocks and in the way he built the Company. He had a wide knowledge of the River environment, he was a avid reader and saw the changes to the riverine environment as the locks were built. He also was a fisherman in the Encounter Bay area, knew the Murray mouth and Coorong area well, and he understood climatic condition and talked of the various changes that had taken place in the River and in wider world and talked of climatic changes in the past and in the future. He died in 1978.

Margaret spent her secondary education in Adelaide and went on to the University of Adelaide where she studied the Social Sciences and worked as a Social Worker until her marriage when she moved to the farming environment. As well rearing five children she became more and more involved in the running and managing of the various family farming enterprises. In the early 1990s when the Vernon Park farm was sold and the Murray Grey stud was dispersed, Margaret retained and developed the Gelbvieh herd into a polled herd, as the Gelbviehs were a horned breed.  In 1997 Margaret moved the Company activities to the Mari-ma Farm at Flaxley where the herd has since been located.