What's It All About

Australian Lowlines are essentially 'miniature' Angus cattle, the by-product of a 30 year research project conducted by the New South Wales State Department of Agriculture at it's Agricultural Research Centre located at Trangie, NSW.

The first phase of the project, from 1963 to 1973, looked at using selection procedures based on genetic principles and measured performance. Funded by the then Australian Cattle and Beef Research Committee, the project sought to demonstrate, from within a stud herd, the application of selection procedures based on sound genetic principles and to isolate superior genetic material and to make this available to the Australian beef industry.

The Trangie Stud's Angus herd was established to provide high quality Aberdeen-Angus cattle for New South Wales beef producers. The original foundation stock were imported from James D. McGregor's Glencarnock stud in Canada in 1929.

Subsequently, more animals were obtained from Canada, as well as from the USA, Scotland and a number of leading NSW Angus studs.

Phase 2 of the experiment involved the establishment of three closed lines, a high, low and a control line in order to create a rapid divergence in growth rate between the two extremes. In this manner, it was expected that the differences between the Low and High lines achieved over a 15 year period would equate to a 30-40 year program of breeding in one direction only.

In 1974, 50 head were randomly selected from the Trangie herd of 220 performance recorded cows. The remaining animals were distributed evenly into either the High or the Low lines based on their individual growth performance at yearling age.

While all Control line replacements were randomly selected, the High and Low lines replacements were chosen based on their growth rate from birth to yearling age, adjusted to take account of the age of their dams.

For the first 8 years, until 1982, the High and Low line herds were maintained at approximately 85 head of females and 5 sires were used each year. During the period 1983-85, all potential breeding females were retained in order to create satellite herds at Glen Innes (in NSW) and Hamilton, in Victoria.

On 30 October 1993, the New South Wales Department of Agriculture conducted a Complete Dispersal Sale. Some 22 bulls, 44 cows, 52 heifers and 29 Low Line calves were sold. These animals, together with those obtained from Trangie earlier, formed the basis of the today's Lowline herd.

As a result of their breeding and the selection process followed, Lowlines are, on average, between 100 and 110 cms tall at the hip. Smaller and larger animals currently exist within the herd and the Australian Lowline Cattle Association, formed in 1992, has yet to determine a definitive height standard for the breed.

Like their Angus forebears, Lowlines are black and naturally polled. Like other Angus, Lowlines potentially carry the red gene, however, no red Lowlines have yet been recorded. (Trangie actually bred first registered red Angus in Australia).

Being smaller-framed the Lowline's feed requirements are less than those of larger sized cattle, although it is interesting to note that during feed efficiency trials, at Trangie, on all three selection lines, some animals were found to be up to 100% more efficient than others in the same line. Similarly, at the Hamilton trials in Victoria, the Low Line animals were shown not to require supplementary Winter feeding, unlike the Control and High Line animals in the same trial.

During the course of the Hamilton trials, which compared the three selection lines at a range of stocking rates per hectare, it was observed that the productivity of the Low line cows was still rising when compared to the High line animals at the same stocking (2 per hectare) rate.

Just as all Lowlines share a diminutive size, as a result of the Trangie research experiment, they also carry the prime beef qualities, and potential, of their ancestors.

In the 1940-50's, the breeding policy of the Trangie stud was to produce early maturing animals with good fleshing qualities and which demonstrated an economy in the utilisation of feed - traits that persist within a number of animals within the Lowline breed.

Because Lowlines (and High-lines) were selected on the basis of a single trait, namely their rate of growth to yearling age, vis a vis their group, the degree of variability between animals in relation to other criteria increased. As a result, it is difficult to categorise animals as an homogenous type. This 'variability' is one of the main advantages of the breed.

While no two Lowlines are identical, there is sufficient variation within the Lowline gene pool to enable breeders to develop the type of animal they want. While some breeders are attracted to the idea of producing small, easily-managed animals that are ideal for small areas, other breeders are more intent on maximising the production of beef per hectare. Lowlines are perhaps the only breed of cattle in the world today that can fulfil both of these objectives.

There is no doubt that the Australian Lowline breed will develop further, to combine all of these traits and truly become the cow of the future.

Lowlines are also the direct descendants of prize-winning Angus blood-lines. Although Trangie discontinued showing its animals in the 1960's, because of the need for uniformity in its feeding regimes, it had had considerable success in the show ring up until this time.