Angus are cut above for small stud

Angus cattle have been in New Zealand for almost 150 years and for those who breed them there's no better beef animal than the black beauties.
Ninety-eight of the breed's most ardent fans visited one of the country's smallest studs - Rangeview Angus in the Kaimai Range - last week as part of a three-day, 10-stud farm Angus Tour 2011.
It was organised by the New Zealand Angus Association, which represents around 200 breeders nationwide who between them farm more than 25,000 Angus cows.
Rangeview Angus is owned by Dwayne and Diane Harnett, who describe themselves as "lifestyle stud breeders".
"We don't have enough room on our own block to graze the animals year-round, so we lease land from Sharon and Merv McEnteer," said Dwayne.
The McEnteers enjoy the arrangement with the Harnetts and their children Torey and Sonya. While Sharon admits to being a Hereford fan, she's being won over by the black Angus which graze the paddocks adjacent to her home.
In fact the McEnteers like the animals so much they agreed to host the two bus-loads of Angus visitors to their farm, even providing morning tea while they walked among the Rangeview animals and talked beef cattle with their owners.
Dwayne is a Maf approved home-kill butcher, well known among neighbours for his salami and sausage meats. It was the quality of Angus meat which first attracted him to the breed.
"I kill a lot of animals but found I was always surprised at how much meat there was on the black cattle for their size and the quality of it from the marbling to the tenderness," he said.
Diane grew up on a dairy farm and found it took a while to change to dry stock farming, but she too is now a fan of the Angus breed.
The family established their stud in 1998 and today has a herd of just 35 animals, including 14 mixed-age cows and one stud bull. They raise bulls for the dairy industry, steers for their own meat and seek to sell some of their heifers to other breeders.
Son Torey, at 14, is a keen Angus breeder with a good eye for top animals, which he's proved by winning ribbons and awards at A&P and national Angus shows.
It was Torey who picked the current stud bull, Iona 763, who was bought at a fraction of the price most stud bulls sell for. Between them Dwayne, Diane and Torey are constantly looking for genetics to improve the stud blood lines.