Flower growers reinvent themselves as cattle breeders
FLOWER growers Hettie Biersteker and Andre Groot reinvented themselves as cattle breeders.
FLOWER growers Hettie Biersteker and Andre Groot weren’t looking for a career change when they bought two Belted Galloway cows as pets in 2011.
Seven years later, they have well and truly reinvented themselves as cattle breeders.
“The cows started out as a hobby and changed everything,” Hettie said. “We started breeding and it got quite serious. For the past two years we have been purely concentrating on the stock.”
The Dutch couple are horticulturists at heart. For 17 years, Hettie and Andre lived and breathed flowers, running a growing operation at Silvan.
No longer in flowers, Hettie and Andre run Silvan Park Belted Galloways stud on about 48 hectares at Murrindindi. Convinced Belted Galloways’ docile nature and excellent meat quality would appeal to other landholders, they quickly built herd numbers and made the move to Murrindindi about two years ago.
They run about 50 breeding cows and have a few commercial cattle. Hettie said they put in a trough system and covered cattle yards to accommodate the livestock.
“It is a new venture and we love our animals. The hardest part is probably selling them because I love them all,” Hettie said.
She said Belted Galloways were particularly attractive because they were known for being easy calfers, good mothers, good milkers, docile, and not overly big.
“That is important, especially for people who don’t have experience with big strong animals,” Hettie said.
“In our breeding, temperament is important and we handle the animals a lot to get to know them.
“Not just temperament, but also structure. They are good feed converters.”
They sell animals to producers with an interest in alternative breeds, new farmers who want easy-to-handle animals and people who want them as pets.
The couple will show two heifers at Seymour.
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