Bulls available for Private Sales in Autumn and Spring.

Sparta Angus is currently owned and operated by Stephen and Lionel Platts and their families. The Platts’ purchased the stud from former owners Keith & Kathy Murdoch in 2014, and had been purchasing bulls from Keith since the early 1980s for their commercial operation.

Sparta Angus was established in 1965 by former stud principle Keith Murdoch. The stud has purchased over 260 stud females from leading studs including the 1982 purchase of the entire Ballanee stud, Ballan, Victoria. In the early years the stud showed four bulls resulting in two Sydney Royal Supreme Champions and two Suzuki Angus Classic Reserve Champions. The Sparta on-farm bull sales were successful and in 1989 Sparta set an Australasian on-farm record average. Sparta set this record on 2 more separate occasions and were consistently in the top 3.

Our Cattle have been born and bred here on the southern Monaro, known for its harsh conditions and long cold winters. Subsequently our cattle are bred for their doing ability and fast finishing in this environment. We also have the philosophy that our cattle have to perform under commercial conditions, hence all our cattle are run in conjunction with our sheep enterprise with no supplementary feeding with the exception of extreme drought conditions. This gives us the ability to select individuals based on their doing ability and performance to meet our stringent standards. We pride ourselves on being completely free of North American genetics as they do not meet our breeding objectives. Our cattle are known for their quiet temperament and this is intrinsic to our breeding selection. We focus on broad muzzles with a deep strong jaw, soft coats, good sound feet and structural composition.

We also have a strong focus on our females, with high milking ability and good skeletal structure allowing calving ease. Fertility is a high priority with any cows/heifers not conceiving being culled. Sparta and Sparta Blood Angus have a consistent record of topping calf sales and had a very good record at the Monaro Angus Sale including some Australian record prices for commercial females. Sparta has exceptional marbling scores the herd and our clients have been very successful in feedlot trials.

We use our best home bred sires plus an A.I. program involving many promising sires. We have been fortunate in that a number of our leading sires are by outcross bulls. We are holding back three of the greatest sires of the breed: Hingaia 469 NZ; Inverness and Take Over to reintroduce down the track. Absolute purity is essential and all sires used have to be completely free of any North American blood.

Currently running a stud female herd of approx. 200 stud cows plus replacement heifers, alongside our commercial herd of 350 cows (plus replacement heifers). Both cattle operations are ran in conjunction with our self-replacing merino flock of 7000 ewes and 3000 wethers. Sparta Angus currently offers 45-55 bulls for sale a year by private on property sales throughout the year to a very loyal clientele as well as new clients each year who were unaware that this class of Angus are still available.