BRUCE Newport reckons he was one of the luckier people caught up in the Black Saturday fires last year.
His family opted to stay at their Strathewen farm homestead in the bottom of a valley while the fires raged all round them in the hills.
Some of their Strathewen Angus cows and calves, which were in an adjoining valley, were not so lucky.
"We lost seven cows as the result of the fires," Bruce said.
"The fire came so fast and we only had about 30 minutes' notice."
The Newports opted to stay because they had a sprinkler system on the roof of the old weatherboard house.
It was a good decision, despite the ferocity of the wind, which tore half of the roof from the house.
This week Bruce was counting his blessings as he assembled his small herd for the stud's annual Beef Week display.
He was also indebted to fellow Angus breeders who helped in the recovery of his herd.
Quality rather than quantity is the goal of the small Angus stud, which has fewer than 60 cows and heifers.
Bruce makes no secret of his quest to use the best performing Breedplan bulls he can in his artificial-insemination and embryo-transfer programs.
Currently he can lay claim to the breed's highest profitability breeding indexes for 2008-drop calves.
While the breed average for the Long-fed and CAAB indexes was +$86, the Strathewen drop was +$114.
