According to the Hendrys, the cattle have "the best genetics ever developed for producing grass-fed beef", and with their paddock-to-plate operation, Native Angus Beef, they've set out to prove it.

 

ALMOST GONE

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Mrs Hendry said, 30 years ago, Scotland's native Angus were on the brink of extinction.

"The UK Aberdeen Angus Society realised in about 1995 that less than one per cent of their registered cattle females had not had imported genetics added to them," Mrs Hendry said.

To save the breed, the UK Aberdeen Angus Society, The Rare Breed Survival Trust, and Geordie and Julia Soutar of Dunlouise Native Angus Stud banded together to find what was left of the old native-bred Aberdeen Angus genetics. Everything needed to be able to be traced back to the original Scottish genetics and have no imported bloodlines.
 

With a concerted effort, native Angus numbers were slowly rebuilt and the breed saved from dying out.

The Native Aberdeen Angus has now been trade marked Native Angus to help with its preservation.
 

Mrs Hendry became interested in Native Angus several years ago while looking for a new Lowline bull for her paddock-to-plate business. She'd just lost her main stud bull, and wanted another that had good grass-fed and finished type genetics.

"Everything I could find had been heavily grain-fed ... so I got interested in looking online and found native genetics.

 

She suggested they import some semen, but after reading more about the breed (and discovering one of his ancestors wrote one of the first books on Angus bulls in Scotland, Mr Hendry decided to take it a step further. He set a goal of bringing a complete set of the old Angus genes to the Southern Hemisphere to help preserve the breed.
 

This would ensure that if there were an outbreak of disease like foot and mouth in the UK, there would still be a genetic base in Australia.

In 2017, the Hendrys imported 62 embryos from Dunlouise, which included genetics from seven of the nine remaining Native Angus families.

Since then, they've been focusing on line breeding and making sure they keep those families as pure as they can, and are working with Dunlouise in Scotland to bring embryos over from the two remaining families.

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COMMERCIAL HERD

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Now, the Hendrys are working on demonstrating the commercial relevance of Native Angus and proving them out as a beef product.

They have about 1000 commercial cattle, all of which are at least 50per cent Native Angus.

"Some are 75 and some are higher. Everything that's been born this year is at least 75pc native," Mrs Hendry said.

While Australia's modern Angus have adapted to be finished on grain, Native Angus excel as a grass-fed and finished animal, and can convert forage into top quality beef.

"They're extremely good at foraging," Mrs Hendry said.

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"They'll forage on stuff others will just walk past and leave."
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"If you think back to the glens of Scotland … some of those hills were just covered in heather and shrubs … and the cows thrived on it."

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A former biochemist, Mrs Hendry has a special interest in health and nutrition, and says the diverse diet of the Native Angus  for a more flavoursome and nutritious end product.

The Hendrys' steers are turned off at 36-40 months old at 600-650kg, and return a 320-350kg hot standard carcasse weight. Rump fat measurements (P8) is above 12mm and up to 20mm.

Mrs Hendry says the extra hold time required for the Native Angus is balanced by a higher carrying capacity due to their smaller size and superior foraging ability.

Native Angus are moderately framed with very little leg, but are very wide and deep. Calving wise, the Native Angus have a shorter gestation period and low birthweights, with 22-28kg calves that double in size within two to three weeks, Mrs Hendry said.

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GREAT ON GRASS

The Hendrys launched a direct sales website for their Native Angus beef 12 months ago.

They've also been selling their product and raising awareness about Native Angus at farmers markets in the New England district, and are in talks to supply butchers in Sydney and Brisbane.

"My long-term goal is to have an export market," Mrs Hendry said."To a niche of course - we're not going to be large providers - but I'd like an Asian export market. Somewhere like Japan or Korea, maybe Singapore."
She believes the old genetics of Native Angus deserve a place in the modern Australian beef industry, especially as interest grows in grass-fed and finished beef.

"All those things that made Angus famous the world over come from these genetics," she said.

"They're easy cattle to manage, they survive in a variety of environments from cold to hot, they are really good foragers and they produce good beef.

"We keep getting further and further away from the traits that made (Angus) famous to start with.

"Our goal is to move back toward what they used to be and to hold those genetics so that they're not gone forever."

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