Wongan Hills · Western Australia
Murray Grey cattle, bred in the wheatbelt since 1973.
A family stud at Kalguddering, breeding sires that hold their condition and get calves on the ground in dry country.
- Est. 1973
- Herd prefix CDS
- Murray Grey Beef Cattle Society
- Kalguddering, WA 6603
- Bulls · Females · Semen
Who we are
A working family stud, not a showring operation.
Mungatta has bred Murray Greys at Wongan Hills since 1973, when the late Clive Stickland bought the first females. The stud is run today by his sons, brothers John and Leon Stickland, alongside broadacre cropping and a commercial Poll Merino flock on the same country. Everything we select for has to earn its place in a working wheatbelt operation first.
Bred for the country
Our females are selected for their ability to rear a calf under dry wheatbelt conditions. Softness and doing ability matter more here than frame for its own sake.
Measured, not guessed
We assess BREEDPLAN figures, fertility and overall performance across the herd, and keep only the sires that improve it. Growth, carcase and temperament are all recorded.
Quiet cattle
Murray Greys are versatile, reliable and easy to handle. Temperament is not a bonus in a family operation - it is a selection criterion.
The country
Kalguddering, in the central wheatbelt.
We farm at Kalguddering, a farming district out of Wongan Hills, about 180 kilometres north‑east of Perth in the central wheatbelt. It is an older name on this country than the town is: the pastoral leases of 1843 reached the Wongan Hills borders at Kalguddering, and it was a siding on the Goomalling line when that opened in 1911.
The hills themselves hold more than 1,400 flowering plant species, 24 of which grow nowhere else on earth, and are the largest single area of natural vegetation left in the northern wheatbelt.
It is also a dry place to farm. Wongan Hills averages about 360 millimetres of rain a year, on fewer than 56 rain days. Cattle bred here are bred for that.
What we offer
Sires, females and semen.
Stud & commercial bulls
We register between 85 and 120 calves a year and take only seven to twelve bulls to Gingin. The draft is deliberately narrow: what goes forward has to be better than what we keep.
EnquireFemales
Females selected for femininity, fertility and the ability to rear calves well in dry conditions.
EnquireSemen for AI
Semen available from our most successful and reliable sires for artificial insemination programs.
Enquire
Summer, Kalguddering. The country the herd is bred for.
Why we cull the way we do
A cow either rears a calf here, or she goes.
That is not a slogan. It is what this country measures.
Winter rainfall across south‑west Western Australia has fallen by 10 to 20 per cent since around 1970. In a study of nine wheatbelt sites, Wongan Hills was among those where the reduction was greatest. The rain that carries a cow through the winter is the rain that has gone.
So our females are selected on one hard question: did she get in calf, calve unassisted, and raise that calf to weaning on what the season actually gave her. In this country that is the trait the environment selects for, and we select for it too.
The record
Ten years at Gingin.
Mungatta bulls are offered each autumn at the Gingin Multibreed Bull Sale, run by the Midland Cattle Breeders' Association - a fixture approaching forty years that draws Angus, Limousin, Murray Grey and Simmental buyers from Geraldton to Albany. This is the whole record, good years and lean ones.
| Year | Sale | Offered | Sold | Top | Average | Note |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2026 | 38th | 10 | 8 | $8,500 | $6,312 | - |
| 2025 | 37th | 10 | 5 | $6,000 | $5,200 | - |
| 2024 | 36th | 12 | 9 | $6,000 | $5,333 | - |
| 2023 | 35th | 12 | 10 | $13,000 | $7,700 | Record average |
| 2022 | 34th | 10 | 10 | $13,000 | $7,300 | Full clearance |
| 2021 | 33rd | 8 | 8 | $11,000 | $6,875 | Full clearance |
| 2020 | 32nd | 7 | 7 | $5,500 | $4,929 | Full clearance |
| 2019 | 31st | 11 | 5 | $11,500 | $5,500 | Topped the whole sale |
| 2018 | 30th | 12 | 3 | $5,500 | $5,167 | - |
| 2017 | 29th | 11 | 10 | $8,000 | $5,000 | - |
Results as reported by Farm Weekly and Countryman. Ring the stud to talk about the bulls coming forward.
They breed cattle which are easy‑doing with good temperaments. We also like the calves their bulls produce.
Peter Haydon, Bindoon · Mungatta buyer, Gingin 2025
Enquiries
Contact us today to discuss your cattle breeding requirements.
Ring the stud and talk to John or Leon. Bulls, bloodlines, females or semen - we are happy to talk it through.