Hidden Valley Pastoral Company - HidVal Angus Stud

Why should you buy Hidval Angus cattle? First, because our central aim is to breed hardy cows that put a healthy calf on the ground each year. Any cow that does not do so is culled. The environment of our property, on hilly granite and shale country on the South-West slopes of NSW, favours hardy cattle.

Our AI program uses bulls that are ‘curve-benders’ with low birth weight for easy calving but subsequent good growth with an emphasis on muscle. We look for positive rib and rump fat cover, good scrotal size and reduced time to gestation. Our bulls are selected to breed moderate-framed cows. These can produce more per area than the big ‘elephants’ sometimes favoured. We do not feed grain or pellets, only hay when essential. We have found that bulls given a lot of supplementary feed to make them grow faster go backwards when put out on grass and do not do their job well with the cows. We emphasise good temperament in our cattle and encourage this by handling them gently and carefully in the paddock and yards.

We sell stud bulls direct to buyers on property at a fixed price. This avoids the competition, pressure and mistakes of auctions and results in a much lower price to buyers. We will replace any bull that does to sire calves at first joining as a result of his infertility.

Along with our cattle breeding objectives it is important to us to run a sustainable operation. We are improving the environment of our property by not overstocking, stopping erosion caused by historic wholesale clearing, removal of introduced weeds and replanting and encouraging regrowth of native vegetation.