JWBeef is a family farm in Southeastern Connecticut. We raise all natural Grass-Fed Angus Beef and Registered Full Blood American Lowline Angus Cattle.

Lowline cattle & our farm

80 years ago a group of Australians were interested in developing an animal that would produce tasty, marbled meat on a diet of grass alone.  Lowline cattle are the result of this effort.  A group of the finest Angus cattle were taken from Scotland to Australia’s Trangie Research Station.  Pure Angus cattle were selected for mild temperament, small calf size, early maturity, small cow and bull size, marbling on grass and ease of calving.  Since being made available to the cattle industry in 1992, the breed line has done exceedingly well.  

Lowline cattle are smaller than other breeds, and they are highly efficient.  These animals are docile and easy to handle. They mature on grass alone without the need to grain finish.

Our cows pregancies last 270 days, slightly shorter than the 283 days more common in larger breeds.   Grass-fed steers are ready for market in an additional twenty months.  It takes two and a half years just for us to be able to bring you limited quantities of high quality beef from a single steer, and four to eight years to buid an operation to a scale that is meaningful.  We acquired our first five lowline angus in 2008.  Since then our herd has grown to twenty-eight animals.  Our herd is constantly evolving as calves are born, steers are sent to market, and heifers are purchased.   We had a group of calves hit the ground from October through December, 2010, three in July 2011 and four in September - October 2011.  "The key to a good operation", as one lifetime farmer says frequently "is keeping everything fully f&%^#d".  All of our cows are currently bred.    All of our cows have been bred by one of our registered fullblood bulls or with semen from an Australian sire.   We raise angus lowlines exclusively; all of our fullblood (100%) lowlines are registered with the American Lowline Registry.   We are always interested in talking with other lowline owners.

When we started this project, during the winter we fed our cows square bales of hay in bathtubs and left them out all year round.   We used our old dairy barn for the occasional vet visit.  After buying a Farmco haywagon and a Mahindra tractor in 2009, we were able to switch to round bales.   During the summer of 2010, our friends from Twin Hollow Construction in Pennsylvania built a new barn for us, designed on the back of a napkin by our friend Ted Lewis.   The excavation and foundation work was done by local contractors.  The new barn is engineered for our smaller cows and is open on three sides.  We used to leave the haywagon inside the barn during inclement weather, and easily scrape manure into an adjacent structure.  There are calving stalls, head locks, and a chute for tagging, weighing,  and veterinary work.   The concrete floor of our barn has a diamond groove pattern, providing superior traction.  

In the summer of 2011 we added a considerable amount of high-tensile electric fencing which should facilitate rotational grazing next year.  In the fall of 2011, after looking at traditional hay racks, we built our own.  Most hay racks - including our wagon - involve lots of waste as hay piles up and ferments at the bottom.   Our hay rack, made from cedar and dougl fir, has the advantage of 'serving' the animals at head height.   In additon, eighteen animals at a time can eat from this inexpensive rack. During the winter of 2012 we acquired a Bobcat S175 which is wonderful for handling round bales, scraping the barn, and moving small loads efficiently.

In the spring of 2012 we brought water from the barn to a series of hydrants in the fields where our herd spend the summer.  In the past we have used a combination of hoses, rubbermaid stocktanks, and floats to provide water for our animals.  Tired of busted floats and leaky hoses, we recently acquired three Miraco waterers which we are adapting specifically to our needs.