English Longhorns catching the eye of farmers wanting something different

English Longhorn cattle are catching the eye of farmers looking for something a bit different and with horns spanning nearly a metre across, how couldn't they?

The breed was first brought to Australia with the first settlers and its genetics can be found throughout the beef herd, but cross-breeding has diluted its purity over the years.

Not all is lost as some keen enthusiasts are getting stuck into upping the breed's numbers and they're already starting to see results.

Baldhill English Longhorn stud principals Vikki and Greg Templeton, Nar Nar Goon, first started breeding the cattle five years ago and have seen their interest grow and grow.

"We always do things a bit differently," Ms Templeton said.

She said the couple had been rewarded for not following the crowd to a breed like Angus.

"When you get up every day to do this job, it's not always an easy job," she said.

"You've got to like what you're looking at.

"If you don't like what you're looking at, it makes it awfully hard."

However they insisted it wasn't just the English Longhorn's roan coat and impressive horns which made them suitable for beef production.

"Their eating quality is awesome," Ms Templeton said.

"They're very easy calving and you could cross them with any breed and get a smallish calf and it adds hybrid vigour," Mr Templeton added.

"Because they're such a purebred, the hybrid vigour is more advanced."

He said the stud's new clients were coming from all over.

"They all want something a bit special and different," he said.

Mr Templeton said some farmers liked the look of the breed, others wanted to have them on their small, heritage properties, and there had been even one who bought a bull to join with dairy heifers.

This dairy farmer would breed up numbers from the resulting heifers and eat the steers.

"When we ate the first cross steers, we got further hooked on them," Mr Templeton said.

"Once you get the skin off, it comes down to the quality."

He explained the significance the breed should have to Australian agriculture.

"They were on the first fleet as ships' cattle," he said.

"When they arrived in NSW, they were used for their meat, their milk and their horns, and also as draft animals.

"But as time went on and other herds came, they got diluted.

"They didn't bring any more longhorns out and when other breeds came, they got diluted from there."

Mr Templeton said the descendants of the Longhorns escaped to the famous 'Cowpastures' south of Sydney where 'wild' cattle numbers climbed to several thousand at one stage.

In 1788, two bulls and five cows brought out on the first fleet wandered off from Sydney Cove and were lost.

Then, in 1795, the wild cattle were found thriving, south of the Nepean River and the area was given its Cowpastures name.

By the time 1804 came, there were an estimated 3000-5000 wild cattle in the area.

Mr and Ms Temleton also hoped to increase their numbers of the English Longhorn cattle.

"We'd like to build our numbers," Mr Templeton said.

"I'm going to England in July and I'm going to study how to market the meat at farm gate or freezer, something like that.

"I think we'd like to have a nice herd of 40-50 cows."

The stud participated in Stock & Land Beef Week on Sunday and welcomed about 40 visitors.

"It's been very good and we were pleased with the stream of visitors all morning, since 8.30am," Mr Templeton said.

"It's a great way to show off your cattle and we really like the concept of Beef Week."