Lowline

Lowline cattle came out of a research herd, not a breeding programme. In 1974 the Trangie Agricultural Research Centre in New South Wales split a registered Angus herd into high-growth and low-growth lines to study the effect of selection on feed efficiency.

The low line was kept going for fifteen years, and the small, sound cattle it produced turned out to be worth something in their own right. They were released as a breed in 1993.

So a Lowline is Angus. It is fully Angus in origin, roughly sixty percent of the height of a modern Angus, and it carries the same polled black coat and the same marbling.

The point is stocking rate. More small cows fit on the same acres, and they suit a smallholding where a full-sized cow is too much animal.

The trade is the carcass. A small animal hangs a small carcass, and it will not fit a commercial packer's target weight.