John Shoobridge

John Shoobridge, of Cleveland Pastoral Estate, runs 2700 Angus and Angus-Hereford cross breeding cows on 22,000 acres over three properties in Tasmania’s Derwent Valley, about 100km north-west of Hobart.

He joins around 380 yearlings to his nine Lowline bulls annually and says it is the ease of calving and saleablility of the offspring that makes them attractive.

He was initially dubious, but has no reservations whatever now, although he says the bulls require a joining percentage a little greater than some other breeds – “around 3 per cent if you can” – and should be aged two or over.

“If you’re going to get into Lowlines across an extensive commercial herd to join your yearlings to calve as two year olds I think you definitely need two year old, slightly plus, Lowline bulls. That’s no reflection on the breed.” He says.

“They certainly do the trick. They get the cattle in calf and there are absolutely no calving problems.”

John previously tried Jersey bulls which meant calving ease, but he found buyer resistance to the offspring in the saleyards, especially when they had the tell-tale Jersey ‘tiger stripes’ and yellow fat.

His own home-bred Angus-Jersey cross bulls worked better, giving a more uniform black coat and retained the ease of calving. Then he started introducing more and more Angus blood into the line until, at three-quarter Angus, he started to have calving problems again.

“The beauty about the Lowlines [calves] is that they’re very marketable. Once you present them in the market at 8 to 10 months old, they are very, very beefy.”