Etiwanda Red Angus
Rangeland ‘Red-y’
2016 saw the start of our Red Angus breeding program. We set out to breed red cattle that will perform and thrive in an extensive and highly variable environment. Red Angus suit our local, southern markets and creates a great cross with Bos Indicus cattle to suit northern markets. We are using our Red Angus bulls over Droughtmaster females in our commercial herd here at Etiwanda, and we are extremely happy with the calves. We currently have Etiwanda bulls performing very well in the Northern Territory.
Our Red Angus herd is designed to be moderate framed, efficient, and profitable. They are animals that can thrive unassisted on grasslands. We are building our female herd on cows that consistently wean a calf each year, and by running the animals extensively, we apply sufficient pressure on the herd to force out the unadapted and infertile animals.
Cattle are also a critical tool in our landscape management as we shift it towards our desired landscape of healthy, open, wooded grasslands. Our herd of 500 stud & commercial cows fulfill an extremely important role by cycling carbon, creating animal impact and spreading seeds in dung. The country responds very well to planned/managed grazing and impact by the cattle, setting it up to utilize rain events.
We are currently breeding bulls predominantly for our own use & will have bulls each year that we will offer for sale. We will be breeding and growing our bulls following the same philosophies that we use for our rams.
We import bull semen from Pharo Cattle Company (PCC) in the US to use over our herd. Their cattle, values and breeding philosophies align closely with our own & the operation we run - giving us access to excellent genetics that complement our herd extremely well. In 2021 we purchased a semen share of PCC Hiawatha, collected 1500 doses of semen from him and imported this to Australia. We are attracted to the thickness, moderate frame size of this bull and his extreme calving ease. PCC are also using this bull in their own herd (description from their page: Hiawatha - Pharo Cattle Company)
“Calving ease at its Very Best! Hiawatha’s birth weight EPD is in the top 2% of the Red Angus breed. His calving ease maternal EPD is in the top 4%. His maintenance energy EPD is in the top 6%. Hiawatha is another Braveheart son. He goes back to Johnny B Good on the bottom side of his pedigree. This bull is consistently producing extremely thick and heavy-muscled calves. He is being used heavily in the US and Australia.”
We have used PCC Hiawatha in a number of our own AI programs, and we are extremely happy with his progeny – they are cracking calves, born small and vigorous, growing quickly into thick, stylish stock. It’s great to be able to join heifers and be confident they will calve easily to this bull.
We have semen for sale from Hiawatha for $33.00/dose inc. GST
PCC Bulls we have used:
https://pharocattle.com/forte/
https://pharocattle.com/gold-mine/
https://pharocattle.com/johnny-mizzou/
Hiawatha