Father and son team, Geoff and Scott Angel and their families share a commitment and passion for the cattle industry, the Brahman breed in particular.
Their property Glengarry situated 65km north of Rockhampton has been in the family since 1890 with Scott representing the third generation of Angel’s to work cattle on the 3000 hectare slice of land.
Originally a commercial breeding operation, Glengarry, went through several changes of breeds and crossbreeding endeavours before the Angel’s settled on producing pure Brahmans.
Geoff said it was in 1988 that the family started moving away from commercial production entirely with the foundation of the operations stud business which began with the purchase of three Brahman cows.
“To increase the number of bulls we could sell-on we started increasing the amount of females we purchased, which now number at 280 head of predominantly Grey breeders,” he said.
The cream of the bulls produced are offered during Rockhampton Brahman Week, with the rest sold to stud and commercial producers who are mainly repeat clients.
The business motto at Glengarry is “Breeding Quality – Not Quantity” which the Angel’s strive to achieve by going to the Gympie Brahman Female Sale and other sales around the state to pick up a few extra females with a bit of different blood, bring them home and seeing how they perform.
“We’re constantly trying to better the herd and we’re seeing the results with average weight of cattle we’ve sold over the last decade increasing by 40kgs.”
When purchasing at sales Geoff said he’s always on the lookout for good quiet cattle with good confirmation plenty of meat and good udders.
The Angels bought Brahrock MS Oballe Elmo for the top price of the 2016 sale, and Geoff said he’s pleased with how the smooth, well grown Grey who is now in-calf has performed so far.
All things considered Geoff said he loves being a Brahman breeder, even in the tough times, and joked that even if he didn’t, after 71 years it’d be hard for him to find a job he really like now.