Metcalfe Pastoral is a family run farming business on the south coast of Western Australia based 40km east of Albany. The team includes Richard & Christine Metcalfe alongside their sons Chris and Tim and their families.

Chris and Tim are third generation Metcalfe’s farming in Manypeaks after Richard’s parents Patrick and Ellen relocated from Yorkshire, England in 1969. Traditionally, the Metcalfe’s have run Murray Grey stud and commercial cattle alongside a sheep flock.

In 2015 the family had the opportunity to purchase the highly regarded Koojan Hills Angus stud from Lew Smit and moved the herd from Kojonup to Manypeaks.

Lew founded Koojan Hills alongside his parents Peter and Anne in 1963. Lew prioritised breeding structurally sound cattle of the required type and temperament. He was an early adopter of Breedplan technology in 1986 and began introducing North American blood into the herd in the early 1990’s.

Since relocating to Manypeaks the Koojan Hills herd has continued to grow, supplying bulls into the local market as well as steering the genetic improvement of the Metcalfe’s own growing commercial herd. In 2024 the Metcalfe’s mated approximately 3,000 cows including 550 stud Angus cows and 150 stud Murray Grey cows.

The commercial herd primarily supplies the domestic supermarkets during the spring and into summer producing grass-fed, hormone free yearling steers and heifers. They target a 300kg cwt with 3-18mm of fat at 18 months of age.

This market drives the Metcalfe’s breeding philosophy and they continue to strive to breed quiet, structurally sound cattle with adequate growth and carcase merit for the supermarket grids without sacrificing any maternal traits in our future breeding females. They pride themselves on cattle with adequate length and neck extension, strong top lines, udder quality and our sandy loam soil types mean we place a huge emphasis on foot quality.