Red Oak Angus Stud

The Red Oak Brand or Stud name has been involved with studstock for nearly 90 years. Firstly with pedigree Jersey’s which my grandfather set up following the W W I. He also had a passion for thoroughbred horses in which he bred and raced successfully till the mid 60’s. My father Ross continued the jersey stud and it was one of the top producing herds in the Waikato when it was dispersed in the early 70’s. the family branched into business for a few years but in the early 80’s a simmental cattle stud was founded and was run through the 90’s by my brother Jon. After completing a dip.agr at Lincoln and working on hill country properties in both North and South Islands during the 80’s, our family purchased a steep hill country farm in the Mangamahu Valley north of Wanganui in 1989. Shortly after the Red Oak Romney stud was founded initially to supply rams for our own 6500 Romney ewes but as our performance results took off so did ram sales around the central North Island area. On the Mangamahu property with a beef cow herd of around 500 cows plus 100 heifers to the bull the Red Oak Angus Stud was started in 2000 when I felt some of the imported genetics were not suited to steep Wanganui hill country conditions. We purchased foundation cows with as much old NZ Bloodlines as possible. As a stud breeder I did not take over the fathers long established Romney or Angus Stud. We started from scratch with definite commercial based objectives of producing as much meat and wool / ha. at the lowest possible cost. In 2001 the family sold its 2 North Island properties to enable my 2 brothers and I to disperse and do our own thing. Debra and I retained the best 9000s.u from Mangamahu including both studs transporting them south to the Weka Pass.