Cruachan Highland Cattle

Cruachan Highland Cattle

Bill Wilson
PO Box 228
Maffra, Victoria
3860, Ausralia
e-mail: cruachan.com.au

Our History ...
Born and brought up in Scotland I emigrated to Australia over twenty years ago.
The farm is located in southeast Australia about 250 kilometers east of Melbourne in the foothills at the tail end of the Great Dividing Range in an area known as Gippsland, Victoria. The closest town is Maffra with a population of around 4000 people.   This part of Gippsland was opened up by Scottish explorers who traversed the mountains from New South Wales some 150 years ago ... so the cattle fit in pretty well.
The Scottish influence is noted with names like MacAlister River and Lake Glenmaggie. To the northwest of the property lies Ben Cruachan, presumably named by the above explorers after a mountain of the same name in Argyll, Scotland ... hence the name of our fold.   Cruachan in Gaelic means "rounded or conical hill" and is pronounced "crew - ach - an"    or     "crew - ack - an" depending on your ability to pronounce the guttural "ch".
I started breeding Highland Cattle in 1987 by means of a "grading up" program using beef shorthorn as a base.    A first cross cow with a heifer calf at foot was the foundation of my herd which was at that time "a wee bit of nostalgia".   The fold rapidly outgrew the "hobby" label with the importation of a delightful young "full blood" heifer from New Zealand in 1989 .    Since then I have imported embryos from Canada and semen from America as well as running embryo programs with my own imported female.
This area is in a "rain shadow" and has only around 600 mm rainfall annually. Most of this falls in the spring time with a little or none through the summer and sometimes (with a little luck) in the autumn.
Due to the lack of natural rainfall, there is a large irrigation scheme which supplies a lot of the commercial farms in the area.
My farm is just off the flatlands and into the foothills.   Hence it does not have access to the commercial irrigation scheme. However, there is irrigation on the farm using lateral sprays, supplied from a bore on the property.
At 40 acres (16 hectares) the farm would not be considered large enough to be a sole supply of income. The Department of Agriculture would recommend a stocking rate of a cow and calf to 3.5 acres for non-irrigated farms or a cow and calf to 1.5 acres for irrigated farms.
I generally aim to have around 28 breeding age females plus bulls, steers and young heifers ... giving a total between 40 - 50 head. While this number of cattle is considered to be somewhat larger than a hobby, it may be a while before I retire from the rat race.    Running "stud" type cattle, in this case Highlands, I can maximize the earning capacity of the property.
I spend a considerable amount of time promoting the cattle, both at agricultural field days and major agricultural shows.   Highland Cattle are promoted for their ease of calving, flavorsome beef, their hides as a by-product, and the fact that they will hold their condition for longer than many other breeds in poor country.

Bulls available

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