The Astralgus Lowline Stud
HISTORY
We are optimistic about Australian agribusiness. Our initial foray into agriculture, the ASTRALGUS Lowline Stud & Vineyard in the foothills of the Macedon Ranges outside Melbourne, was active for 15 years from 2004 until 2018. We produced some magnificent stud bulls and heifers, as well as robust commercial steers. We focused on the Lowline breed, but we also cross bred our Lowlines with Murray Grey cows to produce wonderful steers and heifers.
Our foundation bull, the mighty VITULUS BULLISTIC, sadly passed away in 2017, having been active for 10 years. BULLISTIC was an award winning bull, who also carried the wild red recessive gene.
As a result of our breeding programme, BULLISTIC's progeny are now both red and black, and include the black wild gene carrying bulls ASTRALGUS FLEETWOOD and ASTRALGUS LARRY, the black wild gene carrying heifers ASTRALGUS FII FII, ASTRALGUS JASMINE, ASTRALGUS JEMIMA, ASTRALGUS LOLA and ASTRALGUS LULU, the red bulls FIDDLELEAF RED IVAN (whose semen straws and embryos have been sold in numerous countries internationally), FIDDLELEAF RED MAX, FIDDLELEAF RED LEONARDO and FIDDLELEAF RED PHANTOM, and the red cows FIDDLELEAF RED HONEY and FIDDLELEAF RED LAVENDER.
After 10 years of hard work, in 2018 we removed the vineyard. The Australian glut of wine grapes caused us to rethink our production model. Initially, we pulled vines from several of our original varieties, and focused on producing a small annual vintage of Chardonnay, styled after the wines of northern France. After two more years, we decided to cease vineyard operations, notwithstanding the fact that we were producing quality grapes ..... the costs of wine production, compared with available wines in the supermarket controlled liquor stores, simply made the business unsustainable. We loved the vineyard and have placed some photos of the farm and the vineyard on the next page. It is an important part of our history.
So from 2018 onwards, we have focused solely on the Astralgus Lowline Stud. This was quite challenging in the latter years of the drought, in 2018 - 2021, especially combined with the COVID pandemic issues.
In early 2022 we purchased the remaining breeding herd from the Fiddleleaf Lowline Stud, together with some of their farming assets.
In early 2022 we put FIDDLELEAF RED IVAN over our entire breeding herd, resulting in
ASTRALGUS RED TREASURE, a gorgeous little red heifer calf, as well as ASTRALGUS RED THOR and ASTRALGUS RED TITAN, both lovely little bull calves who will become our next red stud bulls. We also have some lovely commercial steers produced.
In early 2023 we put ARDROSSAN IRWIN over the herd, which should generate some interesting
new herd genetics, both for the stud cattle and also the commercial herd.