They're small, but they're oh-so-perfectly formed. Chris Rundle comes face-to-hip with a herd of Australian Lowline cattle. Main picture: Richard Hudd

The trouble with being a smallholder is you have to think, well, small. You might think of yourself as merely a scaled-down farmer, but when you've only got a few acres, you can't go around having big ideas.

It's fine to picture yourself as the keeper of large flocks of poultry and herds of beasts. But you keep bumping up against the edges of reality.

Chickens? Well, fine. You can get an awful lot into a relatively confined area without compromising their welfare. But the larger the animal, the fewer you have room for. Even half-a-dozen sheep will require a considerable area of grass to survive on, half- a-dozen pigs even more.

But cattle? Simply out of the question for most mini-farms. Well, they have been until now. But one Wiltshire couple may have found a solution to the problem.

Waid and Georgie Helyer have established the country's first herd of Australian Lowline cattle. Before long they hope to be supplying smallholders and some of the new breed of hobby farms – the ones who now occupy the innumerable former farmhouses that have been sold off with 10 acres.

Even these new recruits to country living could probably manage to run a couple of Australian Lowlines because they are, and there are no two ways about it – small. Think of looking at an Aberdeen Angus down the wrong end of the binoculars and you've got the picture.

In fact the analogy is quite apt – they are descended from original Aberdeen Angus stock exported to New South Wales in the 1920s. They are not, however, related in any way to the other small, black breed the Dexter, which tends, apart from anything else, to have a much more fiery temperament.

"In fact they are remarkably placid, which is one of their great attractions," says Georgie.

"That's what has made them so popular in Australia, not only with small farmers, but with schools where they teach the children animal husbandry."

Australian Lowlines certainly live up to their name. Cows stand just a metre tall (or short), bulls overshadow them by just 100cm. Currently, the Helyers have two of the former and three of the latter on their farm in Hanging Langford, near Salisbury, all born to surrogate Jersey and Jersey-cross mothers after being imported from Australia as embryos.

They eventually arrived 10 months ago after Waid and Georgie had been tipped off about the breed by a family member.

"My husband's brother-in-law was dean of Perth Veterinary University and he used to needle us all the time, asking us why we didn't have these lovely little cattle over here," said Georgie.

"For a time we listened and did nothing. Then when we sold the bulk of our sheep and were looking for something to keep ourselves out of mischief, we finally decided to do something about it."

Since their arrival, the Australian Lowlines have been the unlikely stars of a number of agricultural shows. There are no classes for them, but they have taken part in handling competitions. And, predictably, they have aroused a huge amount of interest from smallholders and hobby farmers. So much so that the Helyers are planning to import more embryos later in the year, start a breeding programme and found a breed society.

"We've done dairying, run a beef herd, done arable and kept Texel sheep, but we were finding it harder and harder.

"Keeping these cattle is simple business. They don't need high fences or hefty equipment, and since they can be traced back to the Aberdeen Angus, their meat is reckoned to be second to none," said Georgie.

"They might be very small, but they are proper cows. Even if you have enough room on a smallholding to keep the odd bullock, by the time you have got one of those in the freezer, you are looking at an awful lot of beef.

"It's really too much for one family to handle. It takes two years to eat it and you get tired of beef well before it's all finished.

"But while we haven't slaughtered any yet, we've looked at the size of these and worked out that they will yield the equivalent of eight lamb carcases each. And that's a far more manageable proposition."