AngusPRO Front Footing NZ Beef Industry
Since shifting their cattle recording from Angus New Zealand to Angus Australia, the group of New Zealand breeders known as AngusPRO, has been making great progress by utilising the benefits of the new relationship.
As progressive breeders with a focus on meat quality, carcass and breeding functional cattle to suit the, at times, very rugged New Zealand environment, AngusPRO has found themselves closely aligned with the progressive and forward-thinking Australian membership.
The continuing research and development progress at Angus Australia gives the New Zealand members great confidence in the proactive approach to ensuring the vision of ‘Angus for Every System’ comes to fruition.
The recent addition of Mature Body Condition and Mature Cow Height EBVs will greatly benefit hill country New Zealand farmers who want to ensure greater efficiency and moderate cow size on high country farming operations, where the landscape is unsuitable for larger framed animals.
The Net Feed Efficiency EBV is another big commercial advantage for AngusPRO, since Angus New Zealand doesn’t provide this as a selection tool. New Zealand has a big focus on environmental impact and animal efficiency, so to be able to utilise this genetic tool in breeding programmes now will future-proof the opportunity to gain potential premiums for efficiency in years to come.
The NZ members are actively participating in Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme, which is in full swing with a strong focus on increasing the uptake of utilising genetics in the beef industry.
AngusPRO continues to be actively involved in the seven-year programme by hosting events such as Better Beef Breeding workshops and through their participation in Progeny Tests and methane reduction and feed efficiency trials.
Last year, B+LNZ ran 13 Better Beef Breeding workshops, several hosted by AngusPRO breeders, along with webinars that covered topics such as Genetic Evaluation 101 and new trait development.
As an affiliated group of Angus Australia, AngusPRO’s newly elected Chairman, Damien Reynolds of Totaranui Stud, says the group are keen to contribute wherever they can to ensure they add value to Angus Australia. To date, the group has been very fortunate to have been assigned Nancy Crawshaw as the extension manager for New Zealand, and she has been making her way around the country, visiting herds one by one.
The NZ members gain valuable insights and enjoy doing business with like-minded cattle breeders when they’re visiting fellow members on Australian soil, and are always welcoming to their fellow Aussie members who may wish to visit them in NZ.
The current state of the industry in New Zealand is strong, with Angus weaners fetching near-record prices across the country in 2025. As well as a strong Angus category, the dairy beef market is also strong, and the new Dairy on Beef research index is warmly welcomed in NZ.
Proving their worth in Australia, three NZ AngusPRO sires were selected for Cohort 15 of the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program — Rissington Titan T330, Stokman Stellar S346 and Seven Hills T53 — and Angus Australia’s partnership with the World Angus Evaluation allows equal benchmarking of New Zealand’s AngusPRO sires with cattle from Australia, America and Canada.
There are some top genetics in New Zealand, and these are now being sold on the world stage.
The AngusPRO breeders contributed over 12,000 active females to the Angus Australia inventory in 2024, making them a valuable contribution to both TACE and the wider Australasian beef industry.
AngusPRO Members Bolstering Angus Australia
It’s great to have three AngusPRO members actively involved in operations at Angus Australia. These roles are bringing a great deal of value and a New Zealand perspective to Angus Australia, building greater insight into differing farming systems and commercial interests. The ‘Angus for Every System’ vision is only reinforced by having a New Zealand presence on the Board.
In August 2024, Ben Todhunter from Cleardale was appointed as an Optional Appointed Director of Angus Australia and he brings a wide range of farming and governance skills and knowledge to the role
“The Board of Directors welcomes the talent and experience of Ben to the Angus Australia Board and looks forward to Ben adding valuable insights,” Sinclair Munro, President of Angus Australia said at the time.
Daniel Absolom from Rissington Cattle Company sits on the Genetic Evaluation Consultative Committee which provides a forum for consultation between users of Angus Australia’s genetic evaluation services and the Angus Australia Board of Directors and management team.
The Angus Sire Benchmarking Program (ASBP) Consultative Committee elected Bryan Bendall from Seven Hills Angus to assist with the purpose of guiding the Angus Australia Board of Directors and management team in developing policies, strategies and plans related to ASBP.
– Sarah Horrocks, AngusPRO NZ
