History
Brancepeth was originally settled by my Great Grandfather and his brothers in 1856.

The land was covered with bush which they set about clearing and in order to fulfil the requirements of the agreement with the government they stocked the property with 400 ewes, most of which were never seen again. A partnership with TC Williams, who had married their sister, was formed and the business flourished. By the turn of the century the property had grown to 76,000 acres and employed some 300 staff. Due to Government policies and tax the partnership was dissolved in 1905. Subsequent settlement Acts further reduced the property to the 1500ha it is today.

The 1970's and 80's
My interest in Charolais developed when in 1968 I was in France and came into the Charolais valley in a bus and was struck by the magnificence of the cattle.

I arrived home from overseas to find my father had purchased a half bred bull from Jack Sutherland. We then continued to breed the daughters to AI. and registered the herd. The breeding up program at that time was wrought with problems, no one knew which were the easy calving bulls, and we were breeding yearling heifers to try and get ahead.

Brancepeth at that time had a herd of 550 Hereford cows, using Charolais as a terminal sire.

Highcliffs the 90's
Highcliffs is a property of 950ha's 20 kilometres east of Masterton at Wainuioru. We carry about 9500 stock units including 190 Angus and Charolais cross commercial cows on rolling east coast hill country. The cows calve from the 15 August and are mated for 3 cycles. They calve on hill country and no assistance is rendered to them during calving. We can usually manage 90% to 95% from tested in-calf cows. The progeny are all sold - steers and heifers store, and bulls to the works. The charolais cross bulls do very well, there is no problem getting them to 300+kgs by 20 months of age. The replacement heifers are bought at 18 months of age and come from Te Whanga, a well known local Angus Commercial and Stud breeder.
Highcliffs 2000
We have built the stud herd up over the latter years with the addition of some female purchases to where it comprises some 70 cows in calf to Kairua Leandra and a sire I bought from Silverstream two years ago in the form of Outsider, a son of Loader. The stud cows are also calved on the hills and commence about the 25th July. Leandra was 1st runner up at the National sale all breeds 1997 and has put a lot of size and bone into his progeny. Previously we used another Silverstream bull in Futurist and my old friend Auahi Ebinier Pride, a son of the mighty Carabineer and a bull of extremely good temperament, which he passed on. AI and ET have also been used.
We are selling 15 to 20 yearling and two year old sires a year by private treaty.