About Us
History

  • Eastern Plains Angus is family owned & operated by Andrew & Sally White.  Our children Eliza, Evey & Gus are all involved in our business & also work off-farm.  Andrew is the 5th generation in his family to breed Angus cattle in northern NSW.
  • Eastern Plains Angus has a continuous, unbroken 120+ year family history of breeding & performance recording Angus cattle in NSW.  Our Angus herd can trace its origins to the importation of Angus cattle from Scotland by the White Bros of Edinglassie, Muswellbrook, in 1888.  Eldest son, FJ White, then brought Angus cattle to Saumarez Station, Armidale, with his son, HF White, registering Bald Blair Angus Stud, Guyra, in 1908.
  • HF White’s sons, Richard & Graham White, ran Bald Blair Angus in partnership until 1985. When they dissolved their partnership, the stud & commercial herds were divided between them.  Graham then established Eastern Plains Angus stud with his portion of the female herds.  In 1997, through family succession, Graham’s son Andrew White, assumed ownership & management of Eastern Plains Angus, continuing to the present day.
  • We’re very proud of our continuing association with Angus cattle.  They have always been & remain our 'bread & butter', 'the icing on the cake', 'our work day week & Sunday rest'!  We truly 'live & breathe' Angus & know it is ‘the business breed’.  Our family ethos, for over a century, continues to be ….. ANGUS BEEF IS BEST!!
Location

 

  • Eastern Plains Angus is located at “Eastern Plains”, Guyra, on the New England tablelands in northern NSW.

 

  • Our stud Angus herd is run alongside a commercial Angus herd across 4 properties totalling approx. 7000 acres, just outside Guyra.  Our stud Angus cattle run on “Eastern Plains”, where our selling centre, main cattle yards & home are located.  Our commercial Angus herd is run on properties “Merton” & “Beckmore” further west of Guyra in the Ben Lomond district & also "Greendale", Llangothlin, just north of Guyra.

 

  • Soils across the 4 properties are largely basalt.  However, approximately one third of Eastern Plains has lighter, less productive soil types with areas of heavy scrub & rock.

 

  • Pastures are predominantly improved pasture species of phalaris, red & white clovers, cocksfoot, rye & fescues & receive an application of superphosphate based fertiliser in alternate years.  The lighter soil type areas of Eastern Plains are largely unimproved, native type pasture species & not fertilized because of a lack of access due to the presence of scrub & rocks (agghh!!).

 

  • Average annual rainfall is 900 mm, which usually falls over the Spring & Summer.

 

  • Winters are very cold & heavy frosts are experienced April to September with minimal pasture growth during this time.  Undoubtedly, the greatest challenge & limit to our production system, is the harshness of our Winter.

 

  • We rely heavily on Spring & Summer rainfall to produce enough pasture growth, to enable us to carry stock through our harsh Guyra Winters.

 

Breeding Philosophy

SELF-REPLACING

  • Eastern Plains Angus comprises a stud Angus herd of approximately 220 females, all fully performance recorded & registered with Angus Australia since its’ inception.
  • Alongside our seedstock Angus herd, we run approximately 600 commercial Angus females.
  • Both are entirely self-replacing, so breeding our own replacement females is an important aspect of both our seedstock & commercial breeding programs. We have never introduced bought-in breeding females to either of our stud or commercial herds.


BALANCE

  • Our breeding program at Eastern Plains Angus aims to produce seedstock Angus bulls with a balance of growth, fertility & meat quality traits.
  • We deliberately breed for moderation in traits rather than extremes in the one trait.
  • In both our stud & commercial herds, our experience has been that selecting for balance & moderation in a range of traits is more profitable in the long term.


STRUCTURAL SOUNDNESS

  • We continually assess both bulls & females for structural faults whenever they're in our yards for husbandry. Animals deemed inadequate are culled from our breeding herd & sold slaughter.
  • Additionally, both bulls & heifers are independently assessed for structure (by Liam Cardile, LRC Livestock) at approx. 20-22 months old.
  • All these raw structural scores are submitted to the TransTasman Angus Cattle Evaluation (TACE) to form part of the data set for calculating structural EBV's.


TEMPERAMENT

  • Temperament is continually assessed in both bulls & females, whether in the paddock &/or yards.  Animals exhibiting nervous, flighty or aggressive behaviour are culled from our breeding herd & sold slaughter.
  • We formally score all bulls & heifers at weaning as they exit the crush. Scores are collected at weaning as calves have had minimal handling & so will express their natural variation in temperament rather than ‘learned’ behaviour.
  • These raw scores are submitted to TACE to be included in the calculation of Docility EBV’s.
  • Additionally, both bulls & heifers are independently assessed for temperament (by Liam Cardile, LRC Livestock) at approx. 20-22 months old. Though we submit these raw scores too to TACE, only the first docility score is being analysed by TACE at this stage.


HARDINESS

  • In an environment dominated by long winters with severe frosts, our stud Angus females have been continuously selected for fertility, low maintenance & hardiness for over 5 decades.
  • They run in our toughest paddocks; light soil types, stringybark scrub, rock with predominantly native pastures. We do not supplement stud females nor graze them on crop. These are deliberate selection decisions to ensure our stud females are truly tested for ‘doing ability’ & hardiness.
  • NB – we fed maintenance fed females the last half of 2019 due to drought conditions. 2026 will see us doing the same from mid-May until the season breaks, Spring hopefully (OMG!).


COMMERCIALLY PROVEN

  • For more than 50 years, year in, year out, we have routinely tested the performance of our stud genetics across our own commercial Angus herd.
  • We join only our own stud bred yearling Angus bulls to our self-replacing commercial herd of approx. 600 Angus females. These yearling bulls then go on to be part of our Bull Sale Team the following year as 2-year-olds. Our stud genetics are mirrored in our commercial Angus herd.
  • In effect we are our own largest client. We have long-term, first-hand experience of how our stud genetics perform in a commercial setting & understand the importance of functionality & genetic merit in a bull.
  • This practice sets us apart in the Angus seedstock industry as we’re one of just a few Angus seedstock producers who have actually used their own genetics over their own commercial females on a long-term basis.
  • The focus of our commercial operation is the turn-off of feeder steers at 18 months of age at approx. 500kgs to 530kgs, mostly sold into (JBS) Caroona & Riverina feedlots, destined for their mid & long fed markets. We also sell cull & surplus heifers into an MSA graded, grassfed program. Older cull cows are sold over-the-hooks to JBS Dinmore.
Joining Program

 

  • We rank FERTILITY as our most important trait for profit.

 

  • Our joining program, whether in the stud or commercial herds, selects for Angus females who will wean a calf early March, calve (unassisted) Jul/Aug when pasture nutrition is poor, & re-join again Sep/Oct without the added cost of supplementary feeding or grazing crop, & importantly with an interval of less than 12 months between calves.

 

  • Using a short controlled joining period, we’re continually selecting for females who not only fall in calf, but to do so early in the breeding season. Late calving females are less profitable; their calves are lighter at weaning, they are more likely to PTE next year or have another less profitable late calf.

 

  • Joining up early in the breeding season is a particular requirement for maiden yearling heifers who are Spring joined for a 6-week period giving them 2 cycles at most to fall in calf. Older females are Spring-joined for a 9-week period, following on from a Jul/Aug calving, giving them approx. 3 cycles to join.

 

  • Females, especially 1st calf heifers, can do it ‘tough’ in a harsh, cold Guyra winter, & be in ordinary condition coming into Spring joining. However we do not supplement females or graze them on crop in the lead-up or during the joining period. Rather, we deliberately use this environmental pressure to select females who are moderate framed, low maintenance, who cycle & join whilst lactating, with out the added cost of feeding, supplementation or grazing crop.


  • NB - Drought forced feeding is an exception to this practice, when we maintenance fed cows the 2nd half of 2019.  2026 will see us doing the same from mid-May until the season breaks, Spring hopefully (OMG!).

 

  • Artificial Insemination (AI) has been used in our stud herd for the last 40 years.  Stud females are synchronised & AI'ed 12hrs post observed standing heat early in the Spring (not FTAI).  Andrew is our 'resident' AI technician & has AI'ed all our stud females for the last 37 years!  Following our AI program, stud females are then run with our own stud bred, yearling back-up bulls; approx 4 week period for yearling heifers & 6 weeks for cows.


  • We use a combination of Australian & USA bred AI sires.  We find Australian bred AI sires are best for structural soundness, fertility & maternal traits, whilst USA bred AI sires are used as ‘outcross’ genetics for carcase traits.