Goolagong buys Kingarth cows

Brian and Heath Tiller, Warnertown, who run the successful Goolagong Santa Gertrudis stud recently bought most of the females from Kingarth, SA's oldest Angus stud at Nairne.

Stud co-principal Heath Tiller said it was too good an opportunity to miss out on to expand and diversify their stud operation.

Most of SA's Angus studs are in the South East but Mr Tiller believes they are well positioned to breed black bulls acclimatised to the northern areas where large numbers of the state's cattle are.

"There is a growing trend towards Angus and over the past few years we have come to like them too," he said.

"Most of the Santa bulls we sold last year have gone into Angus herds.

"Some of our existing clients were putting Santas over their Angus cows but were also looking for a few Angus bulls to breed replacement females so we thought we might as well supply them too."

The sale comprised 45 Angus cows with calves, and rejoined, and 20 pregnancy-tested-in-calf heifers.

"They are structurally correct females with very good muscling and good breed character and good figures," Mr Tiller said.

Kingarth was founded in 1934 and has been run by Andrew and Patrick Taylor.

It was one of the early adopters of performance recording enrolling in the National Beef Recording Scheme at its inception in 1972, later transferring to Angus Breedplan.

It had strong success in carcase competitions across the state and a strong client base for its cattle, run strictly under commercial conditions.

Landmark stud stock's Malcolm Scroop who negotiated the sale said while it was sad to see the Taylors relinquish their stud after so many years it was pleasing to see the herd sold as a whole.

"The exciting part is that it goes to a young, enthusiastic breeder who really shows passion to do it and take the stud forward," he said.