Ross Marriott

Ross Marriott runs almost 3000 Simmford, Angus, Red Angus and Angus cross cows on his East Gippsland and Western District properties in Victoria. He uses a dozen Lowline bulls as terminal sires in a beef operation that’s large enough to sell direct to Hardwick’s meat wholesalers.

“With our heifers, we were running into a lot of problems with low birthweight Red and Black [Angus] bulls. So about 5 years ago [2001] we tried to get 20 Lowline bulls, with great difficulty”, he says.

“We got a few heavy end and a few lighter end and it just proves pretty conclusively that you want the heavier end of things – bulls that are going to grow out to about 600 kilos.”

“Lowline generally share the calving ease, that’s the very reason we went for them. But we also wanted something that’s worth something at the end of it”.

“We use the Lowlines as terminal sires and we sell everything at about 18 months of age. We wean them at six months but then we run them on for 12 months; they are a really good weaners.”

“We get calves that are dressing out at 230-230 kilos at 18 months old. Ross says he was tempted to try three-quarter Lowline, one-quarter Angus bulls, but doesn’t ever want to get back to his calving problems.