Females

Females

Our females are the core of our herd, and go through the same independent assessment as our sale bulls. We do believe that good cows breed good bulls and that is a large part of our philosophy at Fernhill Angus.

Our female herd has been developed on bloodlines from leading Angus herds including, Hazeldean, Coolana, Witherswood, ICM and Welcome Swallow Studs.

Our female program has a strong emphasis on structural soundness, fertility and temperament.

We are now calving 350 stud cows annually, with all females going through an AI program with follow-up bulls from our breeding program and purchased bulls covering those missed.

Our breeding program is overseen by Mr Dick Whale who is responsible for AI sire selection and selection of sale bulls, bulls for use in the stud and female selection.

Liam Cardile performs EMA and IMF scanning and assists with docility scoring and conformation assessment on both our bulls and females.

Cows are classed annually in June before calving and cull cows identified to be sold after they rear their calves from the current pregnancy.

All empty females are sold; there are no second chances. All cows that calve before 15th of August are submitted for AI and all retained cows have access to follow-up sires for approximately three cycles.

They are pregnancy tested at weaning by the end of January and empty cows are sold with the culls identified in June. 

Assistance with calving in cows is very rare. All heifers are submitted for AI and then have access to low-birth-weight bulls for approximately two cycles.

Pregnancy tested in January, all empty heifers are sold.

Approximately 5% of heifers will need assistance for calving difficulty.

Heifers not able to rear a calf are sold.