Bruce and Margo Duncan have been breeding commercial Angus cattle for over 25 years on an aggregation of properties – “Boambee East”, “Sinclair’s Point”, “Balickera”, and “Rosehill”. We both studied at Tocal Agricultural College in the 1970’s, and agriculture has been, and still is, our passion.
We are located in the lower Hunter Valley of NSW on the Williams River. The total size of our properties is around 1000ha, where we grow all of our own fodder. Our herd consists of around 400 commercial females and around 100 stud females.
We are located in the lower Hunter Valley of NSW on the Williams River. The total size of our properties is around 1000ha, where we grow all of our own fodder. Our herd consists of around 400 commercial females and around 100 stud females.
It was decided around 20 years ago to use stud bulls in the commercial operation to improve the genetic base. This has proven to be very successful, giving very good structurally sound cows with excellent temperaments and fertility. Most of our stud bulls have been sourced from Hazeldean at Cooma, with some unregistered foundation cows coming from Witherswood at Glenrowan.
After the untimely loss of Bruce in 2015, and some further property purchases, it was decided to expand into the stud breeding side. A small number of cows and heifers were purchased from Witherswood in 2017 and this was followed up with a purchase of a large number of cows and heifers in 2018 at the Witherswood dispersal sale. It was decided to use this line as our base, as we have found them to have great structure, excellent temperament and fertility, and are wonderful mothers.
Our main focus is on breeding quality females for future breeders, as well as quality bulls for use in our own operation and also for sale. We retain around 50 females each year for use in our commercial herd, with all stud females being retained. Our belief is that quality females is the basis of any good commercial and stud operation, and our focus is to continually improve our commercial herd to produce good quality commercial cattle, that are easy doing, have good fertility and great temperaments.
Boambee Angus is a family operation, Margo being the principle, with daughters Pennie and Kerrie, son in law Aaron, and four granddaughters all involved with most day to day activities. Jamie Grosser is our farm and stud manager, coming to us with a cattle background and with a wealth of knowledge!