Brief History

William ‘Bill’ Kjestrup returned home from World War One after being wounded in the Battle of Somme. Bill applied for the Return Serviceman’s Land Ballot and was successful in 1919 and this is when farming at KayJay started.

Bill and wife Norah had four children, two sons Terry and Graham and two daughters Noeline and Judy.

Terry returned back to the farm in 1940 after a brief education and this is where he stayed until 1980. For a brief time in the 1950s Terry farmed in partnership with brother Graham and in 1958 they established the KayJay Angus Stud. Females were sourced from a number of studs around the country including Elgin, Cricklewood and Waiterenui. Terry and Wife Zellah had 12 children with the 3rd eldest being Neil.                                        

In 1980 Neil took over the stud master duties and had great success with selling bulls at the Wairarapa combined breeders sale annually which set the stud up well for its first on-farm bull sale in 2005. This sale was one to remember for Neil and Joan with a high of $30,000 for the Bull KJ West 422.

In 2018 Roddy and his wife Sam bought into the stud and jointly run KayJay Angus with Neil and Joan.

Over the years KayJay has become renowned for producing powerful cattle that carry huge amounts of flesh. We Place huge emphasis on the breeding cow thus the consistency in bulls annually. The KJ Premium is realised around the country and we are proud to offer these genetics.