Country-Wide Beef – May 2021

MAY 2021

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YOUR MOVE Building an efficient and profitable business

Protect your farm and your family from Salmonella

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May 2021

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May 2021

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May 2021

EDITORS NOTE

Damn the torpedoes

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HE BANNING OF EXPORT LIVESTOCK shipments is another case of legislation based on emotion, not fact. The ban was more to do with a boat sinking in September last year than major breaches of animal welfare.

The NZ Farmers Weekly reported that no Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) officials travelled on any of the boats, talked to industry experts or visited Chinese farms during its review.

This is astounding as the trade has high standards and is reported to be worth $200 million, even up to $500 million, to New Zealand’s economy. It may also cost the country dearly as the ban is likely to offend the Chinese and affect relationships with a key trading partner.

These weren’t cattle heading to China to have their heads cut off but breeding stock so every care would have been taken to make sure they arrive in one piece.

MPI says last year nearly 94,000 cattle were shipped of which only 94 died, a mortality rate of 0.08%. That’s far lower than losses on farms which are 1-2% for beef and 2-5%, dairy.

Reliable sources say the Government decided to end exports straight after the Gulf Livestock was hit by a typhoon on September 2, well before the Government’s review took place.

It was sickening to see animal rights activists focus on animals and not the 43 lives lost.

If a plane went down with 100 people on board, would air travel be banned?

The ban follows on from other anti-farming legislation including that for freshwater and climate change. These are decisions made by the Government which doesn’t affect its voter base, but makes it look good.

Why did climate change replace global warming?

The Paris Accord was based on global warming, not emissions (see p178).

Is it because the climate is always changing so it’s easier to tell that story?

Even if humans are a major cause of global warming our activities should be judged on the warming effect, not emissions. New Zealand farming is shouldering a large portion of the cost of NZ emissions reduction, but it shouldn’t be that way.

NZ sheep and beef methane emissions have dropped 30% since 1990 so farming has had a cooling effect. With the two million hectares of trees on farms, ag’s warming effect is more than covered.

If farming was judged on the warming effect as, it should be, farmers would be getting a rebate.

Still, despite all the torpedoes the Government is firing, many farmers are pushing on, building efficient and profitable businesses especially with beef. Some have diversified their businesses enterprises like finishing bull beef or supplying bulls to the dairy industry. Others have stuck to traditional breeding and finishing but are becoming even more efficient and profitable as we report in this issue.

Terry Brosnahan

Got any feedback?

Contact the editor: terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz or call 03 471 5272 @CountryWideEd

Next issue: June 2021

• Wagyu beef: A recent farm visit highlighted this profitable cattle option.

• DNA testing: A South Island station tests its own heifers.

• Coastal farming: The challenges, and benefits, of building a productive breeding herd next to the sea.

• Competitions: Reports on regional sheep contest winners.

• A history of TB: Two industry veterans share their memories.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

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Contents

158

BREEDING AND FEEDING A WINNING FORMULA Breeding and feeding. That’s the motto at Damien Humphrey’s Manawatu beef cattle trading operation.

80

BEEFING UP THE DAIRY INDUSTRY Generations of Hereford bull calves have emerged from Broadlands Station in Te Apiti to service the dairy cow industry.

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BOUNDARIES 11 HOME BLOCK BUSINESS

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DAIRY IDEAS LEAD TO BEEF RESULTS Barry Gledhill has made the transition from dairy to breeding Simmental weaner bulls.

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22 24 26

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New Whangara Angus owners eye the future Effectiveness versus efficiency Beef clients cattle income up 30% Auckland’s Lady Butcher is looking for a new supplier Pressure on EU cattle feed

MARKETS 30 Beef prices struggle to lift 34 Americans love Kiwi beef 38 Mt Linton Station records high premiums 40 Beating the Aussies at beef exports 43 NZ beef superstar needed in China

INDUSTRY 46 Studs breakaway from Angus NZ 49 Fast, calm finishing the key 52 Information, traceability is power 56 Getting meat facts out there 58 B+LNZ’s Rod Slater to retire 60 The pros and cons of fake meat

MANAGEMENT 66 68 74 76

Giving cattle room to breathe Ways to avoid bloat when finishing Feeding less to hit the target Role of the beef cow expands

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EFFECTIVENESS VS EFFICIENCY

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May 2021

LIVESTOCK 80 Beefing up the dairy industry 90 Balls needed for bull business 96 Dairy ideas lead to beef results 102 Carcase trait emphasis pays off 104 Powerful tool gauges feeding 108 Give bulls a helping hand 114 Progressive beef breeding opportunities 116 Time to re-think feed planning

Country-Wide is published by NZ Farm Life Media PO Box 218, Feilding 4740 General enquiries: Toll free 0800 2AG SUB (0800 224 782) www.nzfarmlife.co.nz Editor Terry Brosnahan 03 471 5272 | 027 249 0200 terry.brosnahan@nzfarmlife.co.nz

ANIMAL HEALTH 122 125

126 128 131 133

A deep dive into drenching Less pain, more gain with hornless cows Lepto may be the cause of poor calving Impacts of BVD ignored Finding the sweet spot Growing great young stock

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EYEING THE FUTURE New Whangara Angus owners eye the future.

SYSTEMS

146 Good intel leads to profitable choices 153 Sexed semen’s implications for beef 154 Future farm a testing ground 156 Next generation beef programme launched

Writers Andrew Swallow 021 745 183 Anne Hardie 03 540 3635 Lynda Gray 03 448 6222 Robert Pattison 027 889 8444 Sandra Taylor 021 151 8685 James Hoban 027 251 1986 Russell Priest 06 328 9852 Jo Cuttance 03 976 5599 Joanna Grigg 027 275 4031

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THE PROS AND CONS OF FAKE MEAT

Partnership Managers Janine Aish | Auckland, Waikato, BOP 027 890 0015 janine.aish@nzfarmlife.co.nz

158 Breeding and feeding a winning formula

Tony Leggett | Lower North Island 027 474 6093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz

CROP & FORAGE 166 Fodder beet gets environmental tick 168 Finding balance on legume pastures 170 Clover the recipe for weight gain

David Paterson | South Island 027 289 2326 david.paterson@nzfarmlife.co.nz Subscriptions nzfarmlife.co.nz/shop | 0800 224 782 subs@nzfarmlife.co.nz

ENVIRONMENT The Northland nurserymen of beef Soils need feeding, not more microbes How B+LNZ can fix climate rules Brazil’s beef has most emissions to lose 180 MAY 2021

Building an efficient and profitable business

Country-Wide Beef

SOLUTIONS 186 FARMING IN FOCUS

Printed by Ovato Print NZ Ltd, Riccarton, Christchurch ISSN 2423-0499 (Print) ISSN 2423-0596 (Online)

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@CountryWideNZ

CHARCUTERIE CHAMP Auckland’s Lady Butcher is looking for a new supplier.

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Cover design: EMILY REES

Design and production Lead design: Emily Rees 06 280 3167 emily.rees@nzfarmlife.co.nz Social media Charlie Pearson 06 280 3169

PRODUCTION

172 177 178 179

Sub Editor Hamish Barwick 06 280 3166 hamish.barwick@nzfarmlife.co.nz

Jo Hannam 06 280 3168

134 Dairy beef bulls offer marginal

price difference 140 Once-bred-heifer renaissance

GENETICS

Publisher Tony Leggett 06 280 3162 | 0274 746 093 tony.leggett@nzfarmlife.co.nz

May 2021

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BOUNDARIES

Winning formula A farm manager has struck twice in the West Otago sheep competitions recently.

Shaun Bradley won the CountryWide West Otago two-tooth and the local ewe hogget competition to be overall winner. Bradley manages Kowhai Downs farm for Nelson and Fiona Hancock. He is running 5000 Romney ewes on 500ha.

One of the three two-tooth judges Kyle Burnett said the winning sheep were well-bodied and looked well-fed. The animal health looked up-to-date.

Bradley won $500 in the twotooth competition and goes on to the regional finals of the hogget competition.

Second in the two-tooth competition was Cory Roulston with Romneys and third, Sam Barton, crossbreds.

UNBELIEVABLE

Bradley entered in 2019 and came third, but did not enter last year due to ill-health. The competitions were cancelled in 2020 due to Covid-19.

A full report on the competition and an onfarm profile with Shaun Bradley will follow in the June issue.

BOOK REVIEW

A Gisborne sheep and beef farmer, John Bracken, has been charged with 39 counts of dishonesty using a document to make financial gain. Bracken, aged 54, was found guilty in the High Court of Gisborne in April.

An investigation launched by the IRD found that the farmer gleaned $17.1 million through false GST refund claims from 2014 to June 2018.

In addition to the sheep and beef operation, Bracken was running a merchandising business.

According to court documents, he took advantage of GST refunds available to local suppliers who on-sell goods to overseas buyers subject to a zero rate of GST. In court, evidence was heard from a variety of witnesses, including a former ANZ Bank teller who processed invoices for Bracken in Auckland until she realised the illegal nature of the invoices. He was remanded in custody for sentencing on May 11.

Bracken now faces losing his farm, worth about $7 million, along with other assets worth $6 million due to forfeiture proceedings filed in the Civil Court by police.

DELAYED

Landcare’s response to the April’s issue story ‘Scientists lash out at RA white paper’ (on regenerative ag) was unable to be run in this issue and will appear in June’s.

SEARCHING FOR CHARLIE Insightful and at times hilarious, Tom Scott explores the complex character of Charles Upham VC and Bar. He endeavours to establish why he was such a single minded, ferociously determined soldier.

Scott details the forces that formed Upham’s attitudes and values in particular key family influences and the impact of time at boarding school. He constructs a strong argument to support his hypothesis that as a result of experiences Charles Upham was motivated by a hatred of injustice and bullying.

Scott travels to North Africa and Europe in the footsteps of Upham providing some very reflective and hilarious moments.

Importantly Scott offers an insight into the post war life of Upham – his roles as father, husband, farmer, and neighbour. The opportunity to interview family members and those who knew Upham in later life adds further insight.

The biography offers fresh perspectives on our most famous war hero. It goes a long way to

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Searching For Charlie.

By Tom Scott.

RRP $49.99 understanding the man and what made him tick. – Peter Snowdon Scott tries to define Upham and concludes he was not a psychopath.

In the context of the times, Upham was a soldier doing his job, who did it well. He was a warrior and if it weren’t for people like him, WWII would have had a different outcome.

The irony is he is portrayed as anti-bullying and anti-tyranny but post-war episodes made me wonder if his toughness turned into meanness. Scott could have asked more questions of his other daughters about their father.

Still, Upham is our greatest war hero and the only soldier to win two VCs. When the Queen dies it is his face which should replace hers on our $20 note. – Terry Brosnahan.

“HE IDENTIFIES AS A HEIFER”

JOKE A man went to the movies and was surprised to find a woman with a big collie sitting in front of him. Even more amazing was the fact that the dog always laughed in the right places through the comedy.

“Excuse me,” the man said to the woman, “but I think it’s astounding that your dog enjoys the movie so much.”

“I’m surprised myself,” she replied. “He hated the book.”

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

ORGANIC TITANIC

LOOK UP TO SEE DOWN Agricultural scientist Dr Doug Edmeades, suggests to look into the sky to help comprehend what is below in the soil.

The numbers are staggering. They estimate that there are about 200 billion stars in the milky-way galaxy, and about 100-200 billion galaxies in the cosmos.

Now look down. A teaspoon of soil contained about a million microbes; a hectare of soil – several billion. Their combined weight was roughly equal to the live-weight of animals living on

the soil. They come in several forms and sizes, the bacteria and fungi make up about 75% of their mass.

“So, the next time you yard some animals think of it this way: chances are you are running about a tonne of animal liveweight per hectare. About the same weight of microbes are living in the same area of soil. Marvellous don’t you think?”

• More on microbes p177

MPI DOCKING POLICE OUT NEXT SUMMER From May 9, new rules for docking sheep’s tails mean docking must be done with a hot iron or rubber ring. The docking must also be no shorter than the distal end of the caudal fold so the remnant tail still covers the vulva in ewes and a similar length in rams, says MPI. Any shorter risks a $500 fine for individuals responsible or $1500 for a business. Serious offending, such as when multiple sheep are involved, could prompt court proceedings and stiffer penalties, warns MPI. Looking at the lambs going through the saleyards this autumn quite a few farms and/ or tailing contractors need to change their ways. We have been warned.

MULLER WINS TWO-TOOTH PRIZE The Muller Station Merino flock, owned by the Satterthwaite family, have taken out the 2021 Marlborough Merino Association twotooth Ewe Flock competition and the wool quantity prize.

The ewe flock was presented to judges Mark Urquhart and Hugh Cameron, by Alice Satterthwaite, one of the several next generation of wool growers that presented their family flock to the touring group. The two-day tour competition attracted good visitor numbers, including farmers from outside Marlborough.

• For more, see Merino Review 2021.

S O R G A N

Platypuses don’t have nipples, so they sweat milk. They secrete milk from specialised mammary glands, just like humans and other mammals. But platypuses don’t have teats, so the milk oozes from the surface of their skin. This makes it look like sweat, but in fact platypuses are aquatic and don’t produce regular sweat at all.

M

KNOW ?

The Australian national beef kill is at a 20-year low, which is making it hard to get manufacturing meat out of Australia and into the US market.

During the 2019-20 drought farmers destocked and were now rebuilding their herds. Along with less cows being sent to slaughter, Australia was experiencing a good growing season, which meant the cows that were being processed had some condition on them. This pushed the chemical lean (CL) levels lower, which meant there was a lot more fattier 85CL beef being produced and less 90CL. This had resulted in a short supply of Australian lean manufacturing beef for the US market. Strong demand for beef in the US was expected to continue as they head into the grilling season, and the numbers of people vaccinated for Covid-19 increased.

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DID YOU

AUSTRALIA’S BEEF KILL HITS 20-YEAR LOW

The “do as I say not as I do” hypocrisy is one of the least pleasant characteristics of human behaviour.

But it is becoming more prevalent, especially among political leaders and people like former US vice president Al Gore and philanthropist Bill Gates who willingly tell others how to live low carbon emitting lives while maintaining a lifestyle with a carbon footprint the size of a small city.

It was therefore unsurprising that there was much cheering and fanfare when Radio NZ revealed the hypocrisy of high profile vegans, Canadian film producer and part time NZ resident James Cameron and his wife Suzy who are running cattle on their Wairarapa farm.

The Camerons regularly commute between homes in NZ and Los Angeles and despite being newcomers to agriculture who have been granted the privilege of buying NZ land, unashamedly lecture farmers that they need to stop farming animals to help reduce the effects of climate change.

Apparently Cameron was going to show us how to do it, by replacing livestock on his 1500ha property with organic vegetables.

According to the RNZ report the project has sunk.

Vegetable growing stopped within the past year, their Greytown vegetable retail store closed then suddenly large numbers of dairy grazers appeared on their land.

Equally concerning is that RadioNZ report neighbours and others in Wairarapa are prevented from talking about their high profile neighbours, having signed non-disclosure agreements due to connections with Cameron Family Farms.

Cameron’s actions in lecturing those in a country into which he has moved and legally preventing neighbours from talking about him, may work in the US but is not the way Kiwis operate and certainly does little to endear himself to his adopted home.

It is therefore little wonder that public reaction has been so euphoric.

IC S

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May 2021

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May 2021

HOME BLOCK Matata

Coming back down to earth Paul Burt laments that those who are most outspoken about land management speak from academic ivory towers and political beehives.

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E’VE ALWAYS HAD A GOOD relationship with the local regional council. When we bought the farm in 1990 it obviously suited a development strategy that would separate productive land from existing native areas and poor hill country more suited to production forestry. So began the first of a series of farm plans also involving the QE2 Trust. That early work has produced a farm to be proud of with a financial base vastly improved by the forestry component.

Throughout this process I am sure the bulk of knowledge resides with us, the people on the land.

It’s not a job that we leave at 5pm, we are constantly exposed, we live it. This opinion was reinforced recently when Bay of Plenty Regional Council staff visited to do soil analysis. Information is collected from farms across the region, I presume to get an idea of how we farmers are looking after the land.

To the day, in February, it had been three weeks since the last wetting rain. High temps and daily norwesters had caused any north facing slopes to dry out to the point of producing nothing. Some dead roots and a few weeds hold the dust together with very few signs of life. A single observation at that point would not suggest the best management but the only difference between this site and flatter or more sheltered parts of the farm is the soil's ability to hold moisture. Chemical analysis is the same.

Compaction is less because of less hoof pressure, my stock don’t want to be where the only feed is dry and non-nutritious. Just along the slope there is a pin hole in a water pipe emitting a fine life-giving spray.

The unintentionally irrigated patch has clover leaves as big as your thumb with bright green rye and fat smiley worms holding hands. Talk about regenerative agriculture, I’ve discovered the Holy Grail. Give me a sounding board and I’ll convert the masses, providing I can reverse gravity and get water flowing freely uphill. This is not as hard as you might think because zealots often don’t ask for proof.

All of these are great ideas but I’m brought back to earth with the knowledge that our farm is not one homogenous whole and recognising and managing its many peculiarities is the challenge. How often are farms talked about as uniform units of land?

Apparently 90% of our governors and rule-makers have social, political and arts backgrounds and yet many dare to speak with authority on land management.

Even those with experience can fall into the trap

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

“Apparently 90% of our governors and rule-makers have social, political and arts backgrounds and yet many dare to speak with authority on land management.”

of blanket recipes. Earlier in our careers when it was good fun on hill country to take a tractor and a set of giant discs to the limit of safety, we were sure we could improve those poor performing northern slopes. Capital fertiliser and the latest whizz bang seed varieties did well if the first year was a wet one.

Years on, the species revert to what can cope with the site's major limitation which is lack of moisture.

In hindsight, more subdivision and heavier stocking would have been better options but still wouldn’t rid the farm of boom and bust grass growth because of uneven rainfall distribution.

Following a down-size a couple of years ago I dispensed with the beef cows which were the best tool to cope with managing pasture quality in our situation. It did away with the need for sires, the hassles at calving and capital and animal health costs. But, effective clean-up of low metabolisable energy (ME) pastures is now more difficult. It’s possible with bigger mobs and smaller paddocks but with a more obvious animal production loss.

I could negate this by feeding a high quality supplement but the economics are dubious and the process complicates my grassonly semi-retired lifestyle. End result is a less effective clean-up which compromises overall pasture production.

The gap between the market value per hectare and the net return/ha of farmland is widening.

On most farms the cost of debt servicing is a high price to pay for the privilege of running a self-determining business. If the powers that be make rules that affect our financial viability, the least the country could do is offer to share the cost by paying more for their food. They could also show us the courtesy of asking to share our knowledge.

The rulemakers are in ivory towers.

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HOME BLOCK Te Kopuru

Rage against the pine machine Northland-based Chris Biddles is grumpy that pine trees and carbon farming are taking precedence over stud cattle farms.

I “This is not good for our industry when young, keen people do not make it on the property ladder because of badly thought-out Government policy.”

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WRITE THIS WHILE SITTING IN A hotel room in New Plymouth on a rather cold and wet day in early April. The beer is cold and enjoyable. I have attended the Angus New Zealand AGM and conference which has been hosted by the Taranaki/King Country ward. This conference and farm tour was cancelled last year due to Covid-19.

There is considerably more grass in this part of the world than in the North where we have had a much better summer than last year but are still very deficient in soil moisture. We also have less than adequate grass. I understand it is raining at home as I write this column which will be good for the grass seed we have drilled, although we have another 20ha to do.

We are experimenting with a completely different mix of seed. Using cocksfoot, fescue, chicory, plantain and red and white clovers.

We have had excellent success with chicory and plantain over the last 15 or so years. We are tired of ryegrass not persisting and also coming with its various problems. We tried fescue and cocksfoot 25 years ago but it was not successful. They tell me it is much improved now. It is a very expensive exercise coming in at around $500/ha. Hopefully it will be a rewarding and successful experiment.

At the conference, I met a couple who have two breeds of stud cattle. They describe themselves as the biggest stud breeders with no land. They have all their stud cattle grazing with other farmers. They are both professionals working within the farming industry, although the wife is a full-time mother.

They want to own land and thought they were nearly there. But no, because of effing pine trees. They now believe they will never be able to afford to buy a farm because pine trees and carbon farming has pushed the affordability beyond their reach. This is not good for our industry when young, keen people do not make it on the property ladder because of badly thoughtout Government policy. We need the calibre of these people in our industry and we need their relative youth but we are losing them. This is not good enough. It makes me grumpy.

An update on my recovery. It is now just over two years since my quad bike accident. This time two years ago I was still in a wheelchair. In October 2020 I had surgery number seven to have the ankle fused with the expected outcome that eventually I will be able to walk without pain. I was making good

Chris is on to his ninth round of surgery because of the quad bike accident.

progress at Christmas time but still use my knee scooter and crutches. Out of the blue in early January, I got an extremely serious infection which had me back in hospital for eight days and surgery number eight to clean out the rubbish that had formed and attached to my 15 items of steel work.

We should all have a C-reactive protein (CRP) reading that is less than five. At my worst in hospital my reading was 313, it was not pretty. I left the hospital with an IV line in my arm that travelled through my shoulder and stopped just above my heart. I had to change the antibiotics bladder daily.

I also had a big suction pump to carry around for the first few weeks and now a small battery-operated vacuum pump. In February, I got a second infection (different bug) which bored a hole into my ankle and eventually exposed the steel work. So, I take two types of antibiotics and having been taking them for 13 weeks I now have some kidney difficulties. That will hopefully improve once I cease the antibiotics.

I am able to do some work now but once in a tractor I need someone to open gates and strip bales of the plastic coverings. I am capable of contributing a little on the farm albeit very inefficiently. I am immobile again as I undergo surgery number nine.

This is to remove all steel work from the ankle to allow the last remaining hole in the flesh to finally heal. When I will be weight bearing again will depend on how much progress the fusion from six months ago has progressed.

So, my recovery continues as a marathon not a sprint, all this because of a super dumb arsed decision made as a result of severe fatigue.

Think about your wellbeing, farmers.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

HOME BLOCK Rakaia Gorge

Grey power on holiday Charlotte Rietveld deals with new age and Hare Krishna guests staying in the shearer’s quarters while her parents get the holiday away.

Charlotte’s parents Bruce and Lyn Nell with their 1955 Humber Super Snipe and e-bikes.

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ITH WINTER APPROACHING we’ve somehow made it through as one of the fortunate patches with sufficient rain. Ten minutes’ drive in any direction tells a different story, one that seems more aligned to reports from around the country. Rest assured what drought has spared us, Covid-19 has not. I’m pleased to advise that none of us have succumbed to Covid19’s ills but our onfarm tourism trade sure has. Unlike so many other tourism business’s tragic state, I find it hard to pity ours. This is purely due to it being a secretive side hustle belonging solely to my mother.

Barely seeing a cent, The Boss and I were rewarded at best with a lavish lunch for our tourism toil. Now with farm tours and accommodation taking a dive, it appears my mother has taken a bow. Not before time, retirement is beckoning and I’m increasingly seeing ‘away’ spanning days in the Gold-Carders’ calendar.

The most recent of such trips was a jaunt to Wanaka over Easter. Rapidly becoming Mecca for any Iron Disease sufferer, Wheels at Wanaka proved irresistible for The Boss. An after-Easter jet-boating trip was quickly added as ‘away’ stretched further across the calendar. Sure enough, their trip coincided with a now uncharacteristic solid booking run at the farm shearers’ quarters. With lambs to fatten, ewes to flush and preschoolers at heel, I was breezily delegated three consecutive accommodation bookings as my parents whisked off down south.

In truth, ‘whisked’ is rather euphemistic. Having been lured into exhibiting at Wanaka’s vehicular extravaganza, their mode of travel was a 1955 Humber Super Snipe. Known as more of a fuelhungry plodder, they’d pimped the look with the obligatory gold-carder accessory; two e-bikes on the towball.

Just as grey power was heading out the drive, in rolled the first of the shearers’ quarters guests. It turned out the contradictions were just beginning; the gas-guzzling Humber made way as Nissan Leafs streamed silently up the drive delivering gently-living poets, writers and weavers on their weekend retreat.

Comfortably at the height of the ethical consumer

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May 2021

“Comfortably at the height of the ethical consumer chain, their organic clothes and virtuous food had me blushing at our heathen ways.”

chain, their organic clothes and virtuous food had me blushing at our heathen ways. Perhaps sensing his mother’s angst, my three-year-old son decided to match their lyrical conversations with some poetry of his own. I remain unsure how many times they heard him riding his bike round the yard shouting “poo poo bum bum honey sandwich yum yum”.

After the Nissan Leafs and poets had enjoyed a recharge and returned to their energy neutral abodes, the second booking duly arrived. If the high energy and gleeful greetings didn’t have me guessing, the bloke with hair to envy, exceptional earrings, flamboyant scarf, hat and jewellery galore should have. Such is my deprived cultural awareness that it wasn’t until a request for an altar that it dawned we had been blessed with a merry band of Hare Krishnas. Even ol’ poo-poo-bum-bum could barely get a syllable out, watching wide-eyed as the dramatic pilgrims kept arriving. Quickly converting the humble shearers’ quarters into an elaborate shrine, the bell-cladded revelry kept both farm dogs and children in spellbound silence. With such enviable talents I couldn’t help but engage. I’m proud to advise an impression was made - I was later advised we were kindred spirits, with Mr Exceptional Earrings and I apparently siblings in a previous life.

Alas, the time came for my new-found family to depart. In stark contrast, their replacements were a swanny-clad bunch of 4WDing farmers from Fairlie on a jet-boating trip. After such exotic predecessors, this group of strangers instantly felt like old mates and I had to remind myself they’d come to see each other, not their host. Nevertheless, Speights were shared, as were yarns of boating and bbqs, mishaps and mayhem, kindred spirits indeed.

Despite best requests, unfortunately neither my bank manager nor husband will permit a jet boat. I’m not sure I have quite the temperament for the Hare Krishna clan and thanks to a three year old I fear my admission to the Literary Society might be on hold.

That aside, all were overwhelmingly warm-hearted and I concluded I’d had as much entertainment as grey power on holiday.

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HOME BLOCK

Carterton

A lack of common sense Wairarapa farmer Mark Guscott wishes people were born with a sixth sense - common sense.

T “There would be no tin foil hat wearers and people would know how to react when some farmer was moving sheep on the road.”

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HIS TIME LAST YEAR THE WORLD was changing because of Covid-19. Mostly people thought it was changing for the worse. Those of us who had a bit of space to run around in thought it had changed for the better.

There was no pressure to chase kids five nights a week in various activities. We didn’t have to travel to meetings. Zoom calls and house parties were still a bit of a novelty. We noticed how quiet our road was. Normally it’s a bit of a commuter zone and really busy. We ran stock up and down the road between farms and the only people out and about were essential workers, most of whom have common sense so the stock movements were a breeze.

I was thinking about common sense the other day and how rare it is. The five senses that most people are born with like sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell don’t include common sense. How good would the world be if everyone was born with common sense? There would be no tin foil hat wearers and people would know how to react when some farmer was moving sheep on the road. What would the media do for stories? Between the clowns in parliament and the no common sense brigade the media easily fill the quota for stories each day and if that gets too hard they just make something up.

The kids had their school interviews recently.

The oldest is at college these days so we have two different schools to figure out. She refused to join us at the interviews saying she had volleyball practice.

Not that she needed to join us, the teachers mostly love her. The two other kids still at primary school are required to join us and they run part of the interview and tell us what they need to work on, in their opinion. Gee we’re lucky with our teachers.

They’re a committed bunch and all work hard for our kids. I could never do that for a job, I’m far too impatient. It was the usual result for the kids, doing well with a couple of things to work on and sometimes they were easily distracted.

The school reports will be out in a couple of weeks. An old mate from college shared one of his old reports recently and sh*t, they were brutal. The PC parent brigade would slay those teachers if those

More harvesting is going on at Mark’s farm.

sorts of comments came home on the school reports now. To be honest, they were probably accurate, but he’s gone on to be quite successful. He grew up in a good family and, not that we needed the proof, but parenting is still more important than teaching. You can’t blame the teachers if your kids run amok.

In the Wairarapa we’re hanging out for more of an autumn break. We’ve had decent rain but we’re not in the clear yet. Our new pastures are up and away and have just had the first grazing. A bit more drilling and harvesting is going on. Calves are weaned and lambs have grown well all summer on green feed crops. They are now being shipped out and replaced with a new batch from the guys in the hills. The rams have nearly finished their work for the year and their girlfriends were looking particularly sharp. The cycle is repeating like it always does.

We’re trying to predict the future by doing our budgets for next year and updating the current year’s one to see if there is going to be any money left. It’s all looking quite rosy on the pricing front isn’t it?

China seems to be back in the game and is after our produce. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is trying to get going again even if it is a bit stop, start. The labour problems around the regions don’t seem to be going away in a hurry. There is always something going on. At least Suz and I have bred our own replacements and they’re growing out nicely.

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HOME BLOCK

Owaka

Donate to the rescue helicopter On the farm, dry weather and the meat works are frustrating Suzie Corboy, but she has been kept busy in her second job as an ambulance officer.

M “It doesn’t happen often, but Paul will tell you that an angry, small, Scottish female is not a good person to have an argument with.”

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ID APRIL 2021. IT’S DRY BUT nearly all the lambs are gone. Wish the same could be said about cattle.

Frustrated by the meat company. Very sick or seriously injured people. Visitors arriving. I think this summarises my column in 27 words, but as this is not going to fill the page probably set aside for my ramblings I had better expand on this summary.

The farm is a green dry, but the rocky ridges are browned off. In this area if it doesn’t rain for 10 days we start to say it is getting dry, but in reality our dry is nothing compared to other areas.

The main problem is we are stocked for a moist summer/autumn, whereas areas that expect to be dry are normally de-stocked.

Thankfully we are down to the last 60 works lambs, but unfortunately the same cannot be said for cattle. I dread to have a proper count up, but there are over 120 cattle ready and waiting to be killed. Our meat company promises the earth at the annual farm meeting, but is not delivering when it comes to reality, and this is getting me very worked up. It doesn’t happen often, but Paul will tell you that an angry, small, Scottish female is not a good person to have an argument with. Her bark and bite are much worse than is expected when first sighted.

Our cattle have grown very well, and if all had gone to plan most of the once-mated heifers could have been killed at weaning in March and April, with some good calves weaned for breeding and finishing next season.

We buy our replacement heifers as weaned calves, about half privately and the rest at the local calf sales. There have been good quality calves for sale. We prefer to buy calves in the heavier weight range, as we have our own heifer calves to grow out for mating in December, and

With transport time regularly over 60 minutes, Suzie is often very relieved to hear the thump of the rescue helicopter.

they are generally lighter, being October born and all from heifers. If the bought-in calves are 50kg heavier than ours then this eases the pressure getting everything up to mating weight.

We shore all the ewes and ewe lambs in the past month and I have paid the not insignificant bill.

Not that I begrudge the shearers, they did a great job, and it is one I am never going to do myself to save a few dollars. We are waiting for a price quote for the wool to see if the wool sales will cover the shearing cost. We have heard of local farmers with hundreds of bales in storage, but we have chosen to keep selling as we don’t know when prices will improve, and wool does deteriorate in storage.

My other job as an ambulance officer working at Balclutha has been busy recently. Every officer has attended a number of serious incidents, including cardiac arrests, serious medical events and serious motor vehicle accidents. With our area being rural, and having a transport time regularly over 60 minutes, we are often very relieved to hear the thump thump of the rescue helicopter arriving with extra skilled people to help us and transport the patient to medical care rapidly. I encourage everyone to donate to their local rescue helicopter trust as you never know when it is going to be you or your family who need the help.

On a brighter note, a few of Paul’s friends and partners from his Lincoln College days are arriving at our house tomorrow for a few days together in the Catlins. They have been having these annual catch ups for a few years, and locations have included Great Barrier Island, Northland, Chathams, Stewart Island and they have walked the Routeburn together. Hopefully none need my ambulance colleagues or my skills on the tramping, kayaking and exploring planned this week.

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Left: Tom Sanson (left) with former Whangara Angus stud principal Patrick Lane. Below: Veterinarian Andrew Cribb ready to begin pregnancy scanning the Whangara commercial cow herd.

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May 2021

BUSINESS

EYEING THE FUTURE Farmer Tom Sanson and veterinarian Andrew Cribb have leased the Lane brother’s Whangara Angus stud near Gisborne. Tony Leggett talked with Tom to find out more about the duo’s plans for the farm, which also runs commercial cows and sheep. Photos by Louise Savage.

Tom Sanson and Andrew Cribb, lessees of the Lane Brothers’ property at Whangara.

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isborne young farmer Tom Sanson is expanding his farming business through the long-term lease of Lane Brothers’ Whangara farm north of Gisborne.

He and local veterinarian Andrew Cribb are equal partners in the venture and took over in March after agreeing to a 10-year term with another 10-year right of renewal for the 1006ha (900ha effective) farm.

They bought the entire livestock, comprising 300 Angus commercial cows and young stock plus sheep, and the highly respected Whangara Angus stud cattle herd, developed over decades by stud-master Patrick Lane. The opportunity to lease the farm was handled by Bayleys Gisborne

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May 2021

real estate agent Stephen Thomson who produced a detailed appraisal for the family.

For Sanson, the long term lease is a similar arrangement to his home farm at Otoko which he and his wife Adeline have leased from his parents for the past 12 years.

“The 20-year term means we can invest in the property almost as though we own it ourselves which is great,” he says.

“Andrew and I have both looked for ways to expand and opportunities like this don’t come up often. So, we were keen to give it our best shot.”

The farm has 76ha of flat country and a water system which feeds troughs in almost every paddock from a massive lake on the property. Sanson says the infrastructure on the farm also includes an all-weather central

lane plus several sets of yards and a bull sales complex.

“It’s an amazing property and one that I could only have dreamed of ever owning myself.”

Rent is paid monthly and the rate can be reviewed every three years if required.

The lease agreement also includes an agreed level of annual investment in repairs and maintenance plus minimum annual fertiliser requirements.

“To be honest, the property is better than we anticipated and Patrick has been fantastic to deal with, making the transition very smooth,” he says.

Sanson will oversee the farm’s commercial operations and stud cattle enterprise, while Cribb will contribute to overall strategic

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STUD MASTER EYES NEW VENTURE

Above: Shepherd John Oliver brings another mob of Angus commercial cows in for pregnancy testing. Right: Tom Sanson, shepherd Aaron Kirk and Andrew Cribb.

decision making and provide animal health advice and services.

The pair have employed two permanent staff to run the day-to-day operations at Whangara. Chris Richardson took on the role of managing the farm from mid-April and was joined soon after by a shepherd general.

Sanson says he expects to make the 50 minute trek from home to the farm once a week and occasionally more frequently depending on activities.

He enjoys the genetics side of cattle breeding and is looking forward to building on the great foundation laid by Whangara stud principal Patrick Lane, a stud breeder he describes as innovative and an outsidethe-square thinker.

“Patrick placed a lot of emphasis on breeding values and performance so we want to build on this with a vision to breed high performance, highly functional maternal cattle that will deliver maximum value to our commercial clients on East Coast hill country.”

Their own Gold Creek Simmental stud bull sale is about a month before the Whangara sale slot in the Gisborne Angus bull week in early June, so that will help to spread the workloads for preparing bulls for the auctions.

Sanson says the stud’s fifth bull sale after

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taking over will be particularly significant for them.

“That fifth sale is really our first generation of bulls based on our own selections, so that is the real test of progress we’ve made based on our own decisions.”

Sanson plans to join more than 20 other Angus studs who are leaving the New Zealand Angus Association and basing their herd’s performance data analysis in Australia.

“We know the Australian beef sector is more focused on the use of estimated breeding values (EBVs) in bull selection and we know the science supports the use of EBVs and indexes for selection of the best genetics for our clients,” he says.

Ill health forced Patrick Lane to lease the family’s Whangara farm, but he’s delighted with the outcome.

Local farmer Tom Sanson and veterinary business owner and farmer Andrew Cribb took over the lease in mid March.

“The farm is in excellent hands and I could not be happier for Tom and Andrew who now have the chance to run it like their own,” Lane says.

He has been battling cancer since 2018 but says he’s “on top” of it now.

“I haven’t been here for much of the past two years because I’ve been away from the farm getting treatment. So, the decision to lease the farm out and sell the stud and commercial stock had to be made.”

He is convinced new and emerging technologies will revolutionise the stud cattle and sheep sectors. He predicts traditional animal recording and analysis will disappear quickly as more studs adopt the latest tools based on genomics.

“The whole industry is evolving and changing so rapidly. I’ve seen it in the United States and it’s coming on fast here in New Zealand and across the Tasman too.”

To take full advantage of the power of genomics, Lane says it requires youth and dynamism to capture the gains through innovation and new technologies.

“Every other business is heading that way. They are quickly adopting any new, proven technologies to create better or more products. The beef industry will be no different,” he says.

Lane predicts the wider adoption of genomics-based selection will ultimately lead to fewer larger studs with the size and genetic diversity to deliver large numbers of predictable performing bulls for the beef sector.

These will be used widely, through both artificial insemination and natural mating.

With the day to day management of the farm now in the hands of Sanson and Cribb, Lane is concentrating on developing a new venture on a separate area of the farm.

“Watch this space for further developments,” he says.

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BUSINESS

Management

Effectiveness vs efficiency BY: PETER FLANNERY

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hat is efficiency and how does it differ from effectiveness? Which one of these is more important?

The best way I can think to answer that takes us back to the late 1970s. There was a genuine fear that the world was going to run out of oil. Coupled with the cartel of the Organisation of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) nations, crude oil prices soared, and was a large contributor to worldwide inflation.

Anyone slightly younger than a Baby Boomer, may not recall carless days and the ban on the sale of petrol during weekends.

The upshot was, the first question asked when buying a car was “what’s its fuel efficiency?”. It might be a nice car, but how many miles to the gallon does it do?

Efficiency.

However, if you jump in your very efficient Toyota Corolla and get lost driving aimlessly around in the fog, you will have had a very efficient journey, which was totally ineffective because you ended up in the wrong place. And that is assuming you actually knew where you wanted to go in the first place.

Ironically, and slightly off the subject, it now seems we have more oil than we know what to do with. I guess that is a result of the sacrifices our generation of Boomers made back then, and we get blamed for ruining the planet? Go figure.

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Anyway, fast forward to 2021, and we can all get onto Google and solve the riddle of efficiency versus effectiveness. According to Google, effectiveness is doing the right things and efficiency is doing things right.

Cool, but what does that mean?

Effectiveness is about understanding the purpose and the vision you have for your business. Efficiency is about having the right plan to achieve the vision. So you can’t really have one without the other, but you need to start with effectiveness. That is start with your vision and start with the end in mind.

As an example, a client of mine has a simple purpose. Turning grass into profit. There are two parts to that purpose statement. Firstly, they need to grow as much grass as they can and secondly, they need to turn the grass into profit. I would argue that the first part of that purpose is effectiveness and the second efficiency.

So how can they grow as much grass as possible and what elements of that can they control? Weather, soil type, topography and aspect are pretty much out of their control. However, on their farm, drainage, soil fertility, pasture species and fencing all add to effectiveness. It allows them to grow more grass. Doing the right things. Then, pasture management, livestock genetics, stocking rate, stock water and shelter all add to profit or efficiency. Doing things right. Admittedly there are crossovers

between the two. Is this adding to efficiency or effectiveness? It doesn’t matter which, because they do both go hand in hand.

Start with effectiveness, that is, start with your vision. Like the person driving around in the Corolla, if the fog has descended and you don’t know where you’re going how can you possibly end up at the right place? It sounds so simple. The really good businesses have this so clearly defined and are proactive at designing and chasing their vision, whereas those that don’t are reactive and often react too late. They get the default result.

Coming back to growing as much grass as you can. Obviously, this does need to be as efficient as you can. You can waste efficiency in your pursuit to be effective. Or, to put that in layman's terms, you can waste money in pursuit of profitability. Spending one dollar to earn three is good business.

Spending three dollars to earn one is not.

If you can grow more grass or more meat by investing in development projects on your farm that give you a three-to-four-year payback period, that is good business. That equates to about 20-30% return on your investment, when the current cost of capital is about around 4%.

All the same, most businesses do have capital constraints. Borrowing from banks isn’t as easy as it once was. You need to prioritise where to start and be clever enough to know when to stop. Fertilise your best ground first. If you are constrained with access to capital, don’t ignore your best ground in pursuit of developing second class land. Don’t be fooled by doubling production on land that is only growing 3nm/ha. It looks good and might even feel

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May 2021

TOTAL OUTPUT

(Overall quality of work, total work created, etc)

Management

EFFICIENCY

exciting, but it may mean you are lost in the fog.

Whereas by spending half the amount of money, developing or maintaining your most productive land you will get a much better return on your investment. Get your good land producing at its optimum level first and maintain it, then look for the second best alternative and so on.

However, don’t over invest. Understand the concept of diminishing marginal returns and know when to stop. Refer to the graph. You need to understand the key profitability drivers of your business, and I can’t stress that enough.

So you are now effective, but how do you become efficient? In other words, you have done the right things, now how do you do things right? To a degree, it is the difference between governance and management. Governance is about setting the vision (effectiveness) and management is achieving the vision (efficiency).

The old adage says the difference between an average farmer and a good farmer is about three weeks. I believe if you move up the curve, the difference between a good farmer and an excellent farmer might only be a week. That is all about management. It is timing and knowledge. Knowing when to act three weeks before rather than knowing that three weeks ago you should have acted.

Measure, observe, read, go to field days and employ professional advisors. They are all proactive habits. Yes, you won’t always get it right. Refer to our good friend Murphy’s Law - what can go wrong, will go wrong.

However, good habits lead to good results and those results lead to efficiency.

POINT OF MAXIMUM YIELD

POINT OF DIMINISHING RETURNS

Most productive

Diminishing returns

Negative returns

Here, your input leads to productive returns. It pays to invest more time, effort

Each added input leads to a decreasing rate of output.

It’s best to stop somewhere within this phase.

Never get here.

Not only do you not get a return for your effort, you decrease your overall output!

TOTAL INPUT

EFFECTIVENESS Governance

Source: Personal Excellence

EFFECTIVE

INEFFECTIVE

The right vision but high cost leads to inefficiency.

The right vision with short payback periods.

Developing low productive land at high cost. Produces more grass/feed, but at too high a cost.

Developing and maintaining your most productive ground.

The wrong vision and costs are too high.

The wrong vision but is efficient.

Trying to develop what will always be an extensive breeding and store property into an intensive trading/finishing property.

In the current environment, chasing high yielding crossbred wool at the expense of meat production.

INEFFICIENT

EFFICIENT

“So you are now effective, but how do you become efficient? In other words, you have done the right things, now how do you do things right?”

• Peter Flannery is an agribusiness consultant for Farm Plan, Invercargill.

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BUSINESS

Diversification

Beef clients cattle income up 30% BY: CAMPBELL WOOD

A

t AgriFocus, we have seen our clients’ income from beef increase from $65/stock units to $164/ su over the past 15 years. At the same time, the percentage of income derived from cattle has increased from 9% 15 years ago, to 17% last season. On top of this, our client’s income from grazing has gone from 0% 15 years ago, to 12% today.

So all up our cattle income has gone from 9% of our farmers incomes, to close to 30% of income (this is in Southland).

People have had to diversify their businesses as volatility has continued to play a massive part in the agricultural industry, and it will continue to do so. The price we fetch per kg for any of our product is largely out of the farmers control, so it is the decisions we make on the inside of the farm gate that we can control which will

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dictate our success and failure.

From our client base, the ones we have seen do the best out of cattle are the ones who are killing them earlier rather than later. This generally comes down to the genetics of the animal. On the flip side of this, we have also seen a lot of dairy-cross beef animals being reared/bought in at 100kg, which haven’t been finished before the second winter, having to take them through the second winter and killing in spring. Yes, the schedule may be better coming into the spring than the autumn, but we cannot underestimate the cost of wintering a beef animal through the winter here in Southland. With ever increasing costs and pressures concerning winter grazing, a larger emphasis needs to be put on finishing these cattle before the second winter.

An outlet for a lot of these beef X heifers has been the live export market, and with

that looking like it will be halted in the near future, farmers need to analyse what alternatives there are for these animals and what place they have on their farm if they cannot be sent away on the boat.

Beef performance With the movement away from sending calves on the bobby truck, the amount of calves being reared has gone to the point where the market has been flooded. We have seen the store market for cattle drop off in the past two years. Where is the market/opportunities for these animals going to be without this market?

The traits that we see our more successful operators have in common in terms of beef performance seems to come down to quality livestock, and being able to finish the stock early, no matter what breed that may be.

In a trading operation it needs to be

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From our client base, the ones we have seen do the best out of cattle are the ones who are killing them earlier rather than later. analysed on a per kg of DM eaten vs their profit margin. Going forward, if there aren’t these outside markets, people may want to pay more for straight beef calves at weaning sales where they know they can be slaughtered/sold for store in late summer/ autumn. This is weighed up against the risk of having to take them through a second winter if there are no contracts in place in the spring. We have seen some clients be caught with these cattle for long periods, which comes at a detriment to the rest of their business, when they are trying to finish their other classes of stock.

As per usual, it is a risk vs reward scenario, which can be different for each

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cow

The farmers who do the best out of cattle are the ones who are killing them earlier rather than later.

individual business. This is where as business owners you need to know where each class of livestock sits in your business, and knowing what levers you have up your sleeve to pull.

• Campbell Wood is a senior client advisor at Agrifocus, chartered accountants and farm financial advisors, based in Southland and Otago.

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T A L K T O Y O U R S I LV E R F E R N F A R M S L I V E S T O C K R E P T O D O N AT E T O M E AT T H E N E E D N O W M E AT T H E N E E D . O R G

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BUSINESS

Retail

Charcuterie champ BY: LYNDA GRAY PHOTOS: CHURLY’S BREW PUB AND EATERY

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anted: a farmer of heritage breed cattle willing and able to supply A Lady Butcher.

“We’re always looking for something new because we know that customers always want what they can’t get elsewhere,” explains Hannah Miller.

A Lady Butcher is the name of Hannah’s Auckland business started in 2016 focused on total utilisation of pork, beef, and lamb, primarily through the production of quality New Zealand charcuterie (cured meats).

The beef is sourced from First Light Foods and individual farmers in Raglan, Gisborne, and Canterbury. Before coming on board as suppliers Hannah visits each farmer to ensure the management of their land and animals measure up with her requirements

for ethically and sustainably produced beef.

“It’s important we’re on the same page as far as management goes and that they’re comfortable and able to work in a direct supply relationship.”

“Can its origin be traced and how was it raised? For me, it’s about more than just the meat.

The meat is a vessel from which we can tell the NZ story.”

Originally from Oregon in the United States, Hannah’s interest in meaty issues has fed her travels plus her chef and butchery career culminating in the opening of A Lady Butcher. The name refers to the

honorary title bestowed at an Australian restaurant where she worked and honed her traditional butchery techniques. From Australia, she landed in New Zealand and discovered it almost impossible to find NZ produced charcuterie.

“Most of it was imported which seemed insane to me as we produce some of the best quality meat in the world.”

It was her call to action to start the curing of NZ pork, lamb, and beef. From small beginnings a product range evolved: Wagyu bresaola; lamb prosciutto; and free range pork coppa, lardons and pancetta which is retailed and wholesaled to restaurants throughout the country.

The business also does bespoke curing of meat from farmer-supplied lamb, beef, and pork.

A Lady Butcher is situated on a street corner in the Auckland suburb of Mt Eden

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May 2021

and comprises a butchery, and Churly’s brew pub and eatery. The craft beer, Behemoth, is brewed by Hannah’s husband Andrew Childs. The restaurant is a perfect channel for meat eating education. There are weekly Wednesday prime cut steak nights where diners are encouraged to try perfectly prepared and succulent steak including scotch, sirloin, eye fillet and lesser known cuts such as flat iron and tri tip.

“We try to get diners to try different things and cuts of different ages.”

Beyond the Mount Eden base Hannah attends farmers markets, runs butchery and charcuterie classes, presents in schools and to various groups, and offers tastings in specialist retail outlets.

She has a less-is-more approach to meat eating.

“I eat it every day, but not in huge amounts and that’s what I try to encourage.

I say spend the same amount of money but on smaller amounts of high quality meat.”

She also wants people to consider the origin of their meat when choosing where to dine or what to buy from the butcher.

“Can its origin be traced and how was it raised? For me, it’s about more than just the meat. The meat is a vessel from which we can tell the NZ story.”

Her approach to meat preparation, cooking and butchery was heavily influenced while studying at The Culinary Institute of America in New York by tutor and London restaurateur Fergus Henderson.

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Top: Hannah Miller likes to know the farmer and the animals that she deals with. Above: Some of the charcuterie range produced by A Lady Butcher.

He championed old school butchery techniques, sourcing food locally, and total utilisation of a meat carcase as a show of respect for the animal.

The butchery side of her career started while working in a London restaurant where a master butcher taught her the British style of butchery, including traditional seam-cutting. That’s where cuts are made along the natural seam between the muscles. A cut comprising a single muscle has a consistent texture and is easier

to cook than meat mechanically cut across muscle groups.

Hannah uses about half a beef carcase a week but hopes to triple that over the next five years sliver by sliver of the finest charcuterie and modest-sized slabs of succulent steak. Longer term, she wants to replicate and franchise the Churly’s brew pub and eatery throughout the country.

“For me it’s about educating Kiwis on the foods they are eating. We, New Zealanders, should be proud of our produce.”

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BUSINESS

Overseas

Pressure on EU cattle feed BY: CHRIS MCCULLOUGH

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ith greater consumer pressure on beef farmers to produce meat with as low environmental impact as possible the limelight is now falling on the raw materials within feed rations.

Reducing carbon emissions during the production of feedstuffs, reducing the miles the material travels as well as the chemicals used to treat the crops are all in focus these days.

The production of animal feed is widely recognised as being responsible for creating emissions and many feed plants are undergoing change in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

Annually the EU imports about 14 million tonnes of soya beans with 40% of this coming from Brazil.

Susanne Fromwald is the executive director of Donau Soja, which aims to support the sustainable development of Europe’s farming and food businesses by improving the production and use of protein for European consumers.

The organisation’s most important objectives are the support of regional soya bean cultivation according to clearly defined quality criteria.

This includes supporting the cultivation

The production of animal feed is widely recognised as being responsible for creating emissions and many feed plants are undergoing change in order to reduce their carbon footprint.

of sustainable soya in Europe according to European Union (EU) farm regulations and Donau Standards. Also establishing value chains with and in members’ businesses and contributing to a European supply of plant protein. Supporting research and innovation activities that support the development of European soya production.

The main result confirmed that by using Donau Soja/Europe Soya it was possible to avoid about 40% of greenhouse gas emissions.

Fromwald said about 24% of global greenhouse gas emissions are due to agriculture and forestry. Livestock and feed plays an essential role here with about 60% of greenhouse gas emissions.

“Soya is accountable for 50% of deforestation when it is imported into the EU.” She said deforestation was the main driver for greenhouse gas emissions and that was why talking about soya in feed is a relevant issue.

On the protein hunt

Mealworms are a suitable source for animal feed production. FarmInsect founder Thomas Kuhn says that insects have been approved as feed for farm animals in the EU since 2017.

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Farmers, feed manufacturers, retailers and consumers are all on the hunt for alternative sources of protein pushing up demand and the imagination to new boundaries.

Many products based on protein plants or insects have already found their way into the supermarkets, but established companies in the food industry and countless start-ups are researching different

food concepts based on an unmanageable variety of alternative protein sources.

There are estimated to be somewhere in the region of 2000 species of edible insect in the world. Of these species, those considered the most suitable for the purposes of animal feed production include mealworms.

Thomas Kuhn, one of the founders at FarmInsect, outlined how his company gels well with consumers and agriculture alike.

He said his company was formed to try and help with offering more sustainable protein and reduce the reliance on soya from Brazil that leads to the cutting down of the rainforests.

“We want to make animal husbandry more sustainable and efficient. For this we use insects and the concepts of the circular economy. The challenges and needs of farmers are the focus of our efforts.

“With our innovative approach for regional insect breeding, we want to give farmers the prospect of producing their protein feed themselves. Insects have been approved as feed for farm animals in the EU since 2017 and offer the potential to replace the import of soy or fish meal with a regional and sustainable solution. With FarmInsect we make this potential available to the farmer,” he said.

Thomas added that the prices of soy and fishmeal have gone up significantly over the past 20 years, and that by using insects farmers can save up to 20% of their feed costs in the future.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

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MARKETS

Beef prices struggle to lift Now is the hour for beef prices to shift higher due to supply shortages in overseas markets and the tightening of winter supplies in New Zealand, writes Mel Croad.

H

ow well are beef prices really doing at the farmgate level? Ask any beef farmer and they will likely express frustration in the lower prices received this season. After what looked like a recovery in beef prices heading into the spring last year, albeit only getting back closer to five-year average levels, prices since then have tracked lower to bottom out in mid-January on the back of higher supplies. There has not been a great deal of upside since with prices trading sideways.

This is despite some improvement in key markets as Covid-19 becomes less of a dominant factor.

The background

Through Covid-19 and since, consumer demand for beef has not wavered.

30

In comparison to lamb and mutton, farmgate beef prices have been languishing at historically low levels for close to 12 months. Much of this has been a direct result of the strong downside prices felt through New Zealand’s level four Covid-19 lockdown in April last year and the lack of ability to recover from those pricing lows. AgriHQ data shows just how weak market conditions became.

Farmgate bull and steer prices in the North Island were averaging $5.60-$5.65/kg in January 2020 only to bottom out at $4.85/kg in mid-April at the height of NZ’s lockdown. In the South Island, prices fell from $5.35-$5.50 for prime and bull to $4.35-$4.40/kg at the low point in May. Processing disruptions combined with uncertain export market conditions drove beef prices to these historically low levels, a position they held for a month. A fall in pricing levels to that magnitude means any recovery takes considerably longer.

This is because once prices start to lift, much of the upside is absorbed by simply regaining lost ground.

Market conditions and farmgate beef prices did start to show some improvement from June 2020 with prices closing in on five-year average levels leading into spring. However, since then, pricing downside at the farmgate has returned and been more pronounced. This has been an ongoing combination of higher slaughter rates domestically and Covid-19 disruption on the foodservice sector and global markets in general. For the past five months, farmgate beef prices across both islands have been tracking well below average.

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

Slaughter rates rise NZ average beef export value (NZ$/kg) Source: StatsNZ

9.5

8.5

7.5

6.5 Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

NZ beef exports (thous. tonnes) Source: B+LNZ

60 50 40 30 20 10 0 Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

North Island prime slaughter price ($/kg CW)

Aug

Source: AgriHQ

6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5 4.0 Oct

Dec

Feb

Apr

Jun

Aug

Oct

Looking at slaughter statistics it is glaringly obvious that despite the subdued pricing levels received at the farmgate since October – it hasn’t been enough to stem the flow of cattle into the processing plants. Season to date (latest data to March 6), the NZ beef kill is 7.3% ahead of last year.

Underpinning these higher kill rates has been a surge in the supply of steer and heifer for processing with slaughter rates up by over 15% on last season or 73,000 head nationally.

Surprisingly despite processing disruption through Covid-19 lockdown within NZ, total kill rates in the 2019/20 season didn’t stray too far from normal levels – indicating just how advanced this current season’s kill is. Part of the increase in numbers can be put down to a lift in breeding cow numbers in recent years and the subsequent lift in steer and heifer supply. The kill rates were more pronounced in the three months to December, indicating farmers were keen to offload on the spring market rather than risk holding onto near finished cattle into January.

Over this five-month period farmgate prices for prime in the North and South Island respectively averaged $5.19/kg and $4.77/kg. This compares with the five-year average of $5.53/kg and $5.38/ kg respectively.

Recent export data shows NZ beef is once again performing well in export markets. February volumes soared to a record 51,000t and average export values lifted from January despite the high volume shipped.

South Island prime slaughter price ($/kg CW) Source: AgriHQ

6.5 6.0 5.5 5.0 4.5 4.0 Oct

Dec

Feb

5-year ave.

Apr

2019-20

Jun

Aug

2020-21

Oct

On top of higher supplies domestically, prime beef prices have suffered more than other beef cuts as they are strongly connected to the foodservice sector – namely the restaurant trade, which relies on consumers eating out. The spread of Covid-19 promptly placed restrictions on dining out and social gatherings around the world, thereby instantly driving demand for our premium beef cuts lower. The average export value for NZ beef into global markets in the 12 months to February 2021 was NZ$7.56/ kg compared to NZ$8.07/kg for the preceding 12 months. This partly indicates why farmgate prices have not tracked at the same levels as previous years.

Continues

››

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

31

The return of African Swine Fever in China, albeit smaller than in 2019, is supporting further interest from China.

NZ cattle slaughter (‘000 head)

Source: NZ Meat Board

80 60 40 20 0 Oct

Dec

Feb

5-year ave.

Apr

Jun

2019-20

Aug

Oct

2020-21

The turning point A key lesson learnt through this pandemic is that consumer demand for beef has not wavered, it’s simply been an issue to get our products into the international markets. As the global market learns to adapt to the disruption Covid-19 has placed on it in the past year, market conditions should start to recover back to where producers and exporters would like to see them.

Recent export data shows NZ beef is once again performing well in export markets. February volumes soared to a record 51,000t and average export values lifted from January despite the high volume shipped. Our reliance on the US and China markets is strong with 69% of our beef heading to either of these countries this season.

The US beef import market has made strong gains this year as a shortage of supply out of Australia underpinned higher asking prices for NZ manufacturing beef. Despite the higher steer and heifer kill within NZ, slaughter rates of manufacturing bull and cow are mixed with far fewer cows making up the slaughter mix in recent weeks. This has tightened our ability to supply the volume the US requires. This trend will change as the autumn cow kill gets underway from early April, but it’s unlikely to gain enough momentum to pressure farmgate prices. Working in its favour is the expectation the recent upside in the US market will be maintained and a NZD which has pushed below US70c.

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China is also showing renewed interest for NZ beef with a jump in import volumes in February. The return of African Swine Fever in China, albeit smaller than in 2019, is supporting further interest. However, this doesn’t immediately result in higher asking prices for imported beef. There are numerous options for China to dial up supply in the face of tighter protein accessibility.

The supply availability of imported beef in China is far greater than what the US relies on for their own market. This is because key South American countries can offer much larger volumes of beef to China but are hamstrung to do so in the US due to quota restrictions. Despite this, NZ exporters are welcoming the lift in interest from China.

AgriHQ is indicating now is the time for beef prices to shift higher due to supply shortages in key markets coinciding with tighter winter supplies in NZ. In addition, a more favourable exchange rate should ensure upside is finally felt at the farmgate.

While mindful that global markets remain

highly reactive to influences outside of their control, this upside in farmgate prices is expected to extend well into spring, therefore injecting some well needed optimism into the sector.

Any upside at the farmgate slaughter level would be welcome for those selling into the store market. Due to the lower slaughter prices this season and caution around summer droughts, store activity has

been more subdued, and prices received reflect that tone. Fortunately, recent weaner fairs and calf sales across the country are showing some solid pricing, reminiscent of 2019 levels, indicating buyers are sensing market patterns are returning to some level of normality and are confident of future gains.

• Mel Croad is a senior analyst for AgriHQ.

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33

MARKETS

Beef exports

Americans love Kiwi beef New Zealand beef exporters are capitalising on United States’ demand for lean trimmings. Joanna Cuttance reports.

N

ew Zealand has exported 20% more beef this season (October-February) to the US beef market than last year.

RaboResearch senior analyst Angus Gidley-Baird said despite a 12% drop in average per unit value to NZ$7.26/kg, total value had increased 2% to NZ$426m so far this season.

Covid-19 restrictions have led to a change in US consumer eating habits. Restrictions in food service activity and reduced business travel have limited eat-in restaurant style

34

dining. This restricted channel for beef had affected the higher primal cut trade, GidleyBaird says.

US food service sales for February 2021 remain 17% below February 2020, meanwhile food retail sales are up 12%.

Gidley-Baird said with the large stimulus packages, we have also seen that consumers have been willing to spend more on better quality meat bought through retail.

This meant some of the primal cuts, such as rib and loin cuts, that were destined for food service had found strong demand

through retail outlets.

He said from a manufactured or trimmings market point of view, this market had been quite strong.

“Quick service restaurant trade had been able to leverage their takeaway, drive through and home delivery options, to maintain or increase sales.”

McDonald’s Corporation in the US had seen a 5.5% increase in same store sales for quarter four (Q4) 2020 and this followed a 4.6% increase in Q3.

Gidley-Baird said NZ was in a good

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

position with regards to the US market.

That was because Australian volumes were down, and the quick service trade, which demanded lean trimmings, was strong. Australian export volumes were down because they experienced high stock turnoff with the drought through 201819, and were now in a phase of rebuilding.

This meant large numbers of cattle and in particular cows, that were being slaughtered and exported had dropped. In Australia production in 2020 was down 13% and exports down 15%. Exports to the US were down 16% in 2020.

Although the US was producing more lean trimmings themselves, the US domestic price for lean trimmings remained strong for this time of year, which created a favourable market for imported lean trimmings.

The US was in a period of contraction in their beef herd.

“As part of a normal cyclical pattern the US is selling down more cows at the moment and hence generating more lean trimmings themselves – this is the key market that Australia and New Zealand supply into,” Gidley-Baird said.

The US was starting to export more product to China but the domestic market was more important to the US than export markets. They export only about 12% of their production, he said.

Australia to bounce back Over the medium term, three to five years he expected Australian production to increase, leading to more exports from Australia and competition for NZ. Though the US herd would go through its rebuild phase, the US domestic production of lean trimming would ease, placing a stronger

With large stimulus packages, US consumers have been willing to spend more on better quality meat bought through retail.

reliance on imported products.

These two factors might balance each other out. The strength of currencies would also play a factor. At the moment it looked like both the AU and NZD were appreciating against the USD. Meat Industry Association (MIA) stats showed in January and February of 2021, NZ beef exports to the US had totalled 30,424 tonnes. This was 5% down on the first two months of last year, despite the

ongoing high demand for beef in China.

It was likely that one of the reasons for this was the lack of supply coming out of Australia.

Like Gidley-Baird, MIA noted Australia was undergoing major herd rebuilding, and Australian beef exports to the US in the first two months of 2021 totalled 16,841 tonnes.

This was less than half the volume of beef that Australia exported to the US in the first two months of 2020.

Continues

››

THE EXPORT STORY – SNAPSHOT Meat Industry Association (MIA) chief executive Sirma Karapeeva reported: • Compared to February 2020 the overall value of exports was essentially unchanged but there have been shifts in destinations.

• In February 2020 Covid-19 hit China, and New Zealand exports to China basically halved and product was diverted to other markets.

• February 2021 exports have followed the pattern of recent months, with ongoing high exports to China, and

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

steady increase in exports to other markets, as NZ comes into the peak of the processing season.

• Australia was the only other top 10 market (apart from China) where there was an increase in exports compared to last year. The majority of NZ exports to Australia are co-products, but the increase was largely due to growth in beef exports.

• Australia is undergoing a major herd rebuilding phase, with

slaughter levels and export volumes significantly lower. For example, Australian beef exports in February decreased by 30% compared to last year.

• NZ beef exports of 47,467 tonnes in February this year was the highest February total in more than 20 years.

This was probably supply-driven, with high levels of steer and heifer slaughter in late January and early February, but was also driven by demand in China.

35

Labour processing costs are rising and shipping costs are skyrocketing which will affect farmgate prices.

While the volume of NZ beef exports to the US was only down by 5% in January and February, there was a larger drop in the valuedown 17% to $217 million. It was likely that the exchange rate had contributed to this drop in value. At the beginning of last year, the NZ dollar was trading at about US65cents, but in the early part of this year it had gone up over 70 cents.

US stimulus package ANZ agriculture economist Susan Kilsby said people experiencing Covid-19 lockdowns in the US did not get the same level of support from the Government as New Zealanders did. But US central banks had been putting more money into circulation to stimulate the economy and keep things ticking along, as it was easier to keep an economy going, rather than retrieving it once it had fallen. This meant people had the money to buy easily prepared, higher quality beef cuts. There was still demand for NZ’s lowfat beef, which was blended with US high fat beef for the burger beef market.

Kilsby said, shipping costs were skyrocketing and labour processing costs were rising which

would affect farmgate prices.

Moving product in a timely manner was another challenge facing exporters.

Kilsby said the Los Angeles port was congested, making it much harder to get product to shore. This was because there was a greater demand for products from China to the US. Kilsby said because Americans were unable to buy services during lockdowns, they had changed to buying products, which were taking container space. Also, many US ports were closed down during lockdowns and/or were not operating at full capacity.

She said this situation was challenging for NZ, not only for beef exporters but also for the horticulture industry which was looking for space. This could go on for months and no one really knew when it would be resolved. In NZ the South Island was not being serviced so well, as containers were not flowing nicely.

Kilsby predicted consumer demand would lift in the US as lockdowns were removed and sporting events and other activities were opened up, combined with the vaccine rollout.

There was more optimism compared to a year ago, she said.

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37

MARKETS

Eating quality

Station’s premiums high BY: TONY LEGGETT

A

strong emphasis on improving eating quality is delivering substantial premiums at slaughter for beef cattle from Mount Linton Station in

Southland.

The station’s general manager Ceri Lewis also runs the cattle operation, comprising 2400 commercial cows and an 800 cow Angus stud.

“We’re very fortunate to have the commercial side to the business because it acts like a benchmark for our stud cattle programme. We can see the progeny coming through, getting killed and see their kill results, the marble scores and the carcase weights,” he says.

Three key areas are focused on to ensure eating quality – genetics, feeding and management.

“Without genetics, you’re never going to get there. If you haven’t got an animal that’s got a genetic propensity to marble, (it) doesn’t matter what you feed them or how you manage them, it’s not going to come through.”

Lewis says the aim is to have cattle that are fed to grow every day.

“Our target is to grow them at 0.75kg1kg a day throughout their lives. That’s from the day they’re born, right through to slaughter.”

“We’re targeting a 300kg carcase animal at Mount Linton, minimum, because we find that if they’re not up to 300 kilos then they don’t express that marbling, so that’s a minimum.”

“You do need a level of rib fat and rump fat because we need it to be prime enough to be able to finish at 300 - 325kg before its second birthday and to do that, we need some fat in the system. “

Mount Linton Station general manager Ceri Lewis.

Once the Mount Linton calves are weaned they go on to hill country over the winter for six months on swedes and kale. In spring, they are mustered down the hill onto what Lewis calls “rocket fuel mix”, a clover dominant pasture with both red and white clover, plus plantain and fescue.

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Docility and quiet handling of Mount Linton Station steers is paying dividends at slaughter time.

“They do really well on that pasture, typically putting on sort of a kilo, to a kilo and a half a day on average, right through till the autumn. Then in May, we transition those animals onto fodder beet.”

Lewis says the bonus with fodder beet is that if the animals have a genetic propensity to marble, consuming the crop will enhance that. Cattle grazing pasture alone will show good levels of marbling at 16-17 months of age, but he says once they have been on fodder beet for up to 40 days, they show a higher marbling score.

Docile cattle Management of cattle is also critical.

“First and foremost we aim to have quiet animals so docility is something that we are really strong on in our selection process when we are looking for bulls.”

“It also impacts how we manage those animals throughout their lives really, so every time those animals come through the yard we want them to have a stress-free experience.”

Changes have been made to yard design to create a natural flow for the cattle into and around the yards as they are weighed and sorted.

Staff don’t use huntaways, only heading

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

dogs, and the cattle are herded in at walking pace if possible.

“We don’t let them run, we don’t use sticks in the yards at all, we just make sure the yards have good flow and every time they get weighed, it’s just a really calm experience for everyone involved.”

“Our target is to grow them at 0.75kg-1kg a day throughout their lives.”

He shares kill sheets with staff and the trucking company to make sure everyone involved knows how the cattle perform.

In the early stages of setting up the system to produce high quality beef, they found some cattle were producing high pH, dark meat so they investigated to find out why.

“I was scanning everything on to the top or bottom deck and found that the animals on the top deck were the worst. So, we built a double-deck loading ramp and virtually solved that pH problem overnight.”

The other tool used at Mount Linton to maximise the genetic potential for marbling

is through carcase scanning the heifer replacements and removal of the bottom cut to lift the average score. Marbling has high heritability.

Mount Linton supplies cattle to two premium beef programmes.

It was a pilot farm for the Silver Fern Farms Beef EQ programme. Lewis says only a little over half their cattle were meeting the specification to attract the premiums when they first began supplying. Now, their hit rate is consistently reaching the low 90s.

More recently, the station has also begun supplying the Alliance Group’s Hand Picked Beef programme which is paying significant premiums for carcases that have a marble score two or better and up to marble score six.

“A recent line of Mount Linton cattle that were killed through the Alliance programme averaged a marble score of just under five which is very pleasing.”

Footnote: This article was written from a video presentation featuring Ceri Lewis which was delivered during the recent What’s the Beef roadshow at nine venues nationally.

• Visit whatsthebeef.co.nz for more information.

39

MARKETS

Beef prices

Beating the Australians at beef exports BY: TONY LEGGETT

A

ustralia’s vast beef cattle herd is in the early stages of rebuilding following prolonged and crippling drought.

That’s positive news for New Zealand beef farmers because it means reduced competition from Australian beef exporters, particularly in the high volume United States manufacturing beef market and premium niches in Asian markets like China.

But the window of opportunity for NZ beef exporters could be short lived, according to Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) which is predicting a 10% rebound in beef exports over the next three years.

Its latest analysis notes recent forecasts predicting 5% growth in global economic activity in 2021 which will strengthen demand for beef.

The speed of recovery of China’s domestic pork sector from years of dealing with African Swine Fever is the most globally significant factor to watch, it says.

The disease has created huge demand for imported beef protein in China, fueling demand from competing sources, including New Zealand and particularly South America.

MLA is warning Australia’s beef exporters to start investing in growing and consolidating new and existing markets to position themselves as preferred suppliers for when China’s pork industry recovers and competing beef exporters increasingly look for new customers in other markets.

In the meantime, the focus across the Tasman is on rebuilding its cow herd.

A modest increase of 2% in the size of Australia’s national cattle herd to 25.2 million head is expected by the end of 2021. This rebuild comes after Australian

cattle numbers fell to their lowest level in two decades in 2020, following the prolonged, severe drought.

Fueling the recovery in numbers are the improved seasonal conditions in southern Australia throughout much of the second half of 2020 and above-average summer rain in northern Australia during the 2020– 21 wet season. These factors are expected to produce excellent feed conditions in all the major cattle producing regions, with the exception of parts of West Australia.

MLA expects the finished cattle supply to tighten for most of 2021, as farmers retain more breeding stock to rebuild their herds. Weekly slaughter statistics are already showing the percentage of females slaughtered are under 50% of the total, a strong signal the rebuild is well underway.

About 3% fewer cattle are expected to be slaughtered this calendar year compared with a year ago, bringing the number

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May 2021

Bull sales in Australia

200,000

March quarterly slaughter

190,000 180,000 170,000

Source: MLA’s NLRS

160,000 150,000 140,000 130,000 120,000 110,000

20 00

20 02

20 04

20 06

20 08

20 10

20 12

20 14

20 16

20 18

20 20

March Quarterly

down to 6.9 million head. Some of the dip in slaughter numbers will be offset by a predicted increase in average carcaseweight of 9.3kg/ha, taking it to a record 301kg/ head, as farmers hold cattle for longer to capitalise on available feed.

This lower slaughter trend was already clear in the first few weeks of 2021 from noticeably smaller store sale yardings and lower cattle slaughter numbers on yearago levels.

FLAGSTAFF

POLLED & HORNED HEREFORDS

The March quarter beef slaughter total was the lowest recorded in 20 years.

With less than 100,000 cattle being slaughtered each week since December last year, some Australian processing companies have temporarily closed plants to match the reduced supply of prime cattle. It could have been more noticeable if not for the record high prices currently available which are helping to draw cattle out.

Commercial bull buyers prepared to pay more than $30,000 for herd bull replacements are the real driving force for the extremely strong 2021 autumn bull selling season across the Tasman.

Just as sales averaging $10,000 became reasonably commonplace during the spring sales period in Australia late last year, quite a number of bull sales during the recent autumn bull sales period have been routinely breaking $13,000 averages.

And many are doing it without one or two very high priced ‘headline grabbers’ at the top. There have been plenty of sales averaging $11,000 to $13,500 for bulls over the past two months, where the top price has been just $20,000 or less.

Full 100% clearance rates at sales are now almost routine as commercial beef farmers are lifting their sights on bull buying this season to inject better genetics into their herd rebuilding efforts.

The strong results this autumn have in fact been across a number of breeds, and most, if not all regions.

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May 2021

41

THE

FACTOR Faster liveweight gain. Increased fertility. Superior meat quality.

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May 2021

MARKETS

China

NZ beef superstar needed BY: HUNTER MCGREGOR

A

ccording to New Zealand Trade and Enterprise in 2020, NZ sold $1.2 billion worth of beef to China. This was down 26% from 2019, but in a Covid-19 world this number is still very impressive. Combined with lamb (and offal) NZ sent about $3.1 billion of meat to China representing 36% of all our meat exports.

This accounts for about 6% of China meat imports and ranks NZ as 6th in import market share.

This all sounds very good and you will most likely assume that NZ beef sits at the premium end of the market in China.

Unfortunately, it is very difficult to find NZ beef in Shanghai. As someone that has spent the past six years right on the market coal-face selling meat, NZ beef has plenty of room for improvement.

There is a very clear long-term trend of Chinese people eating more beef, and in the foreseeable future it looks likely it’s only going to continue. So there is no shortage of demand for beef. If you open a restaurant in Shanghai, beef is a must-have protein on the menu. However, there is no demand from the chefs or consumers for this beef to be from NZ. Here in Shanghai you will never see NZ beef on a premium steak house menu, and it’s very difficult to find it on any restaurant menus at all.

As I write this, there is now only one restaurant that I know of in Shanghai with NZ beef steak full time on their main menu.

The restaurant has a Kiwi chef. Now there are places that sell NZ beef, but it is often not a permanent fixture on the menu.

Only one restaurant in the city has NZ beef steak on its menu all the time.

Grain-fed beef dominates The grass-fed beef story is not a positive point of difference in China, and often results in lower price points. I do think for a small group of Chinese consumers this will change, but it is going to take a lot of effort to find and target them.

Grain-fed beef dominates in China, this has been led by Australia and their many high profile brands for the past few years.

Australia may be still the leader in top end beef here but this is changing. There are a number of reasons for this: • US beef was allowed back into the market

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May 2021

a couple of years ago and the Chinese consumer really likes this product.

• Plenty of great quality South American beef brands have come into the market with a good product at a very competitive price point.

• Restaurants are looking for a point of difference, as such was the dominance of Australian beef for a while, everyone had the same products. This means a lot of places are open to change for a right quality product.

Superstar NZ brand missing NZ beef is also missing a superstar brand in China. I can name a number of Australian, US, South American and even a couple of Japanese beef brands, some of these are real super star, must have brands.

The NZ beef industry does not have this in China, and it’s difficult to name any NZ beef brands. Most of the top chefs I talk to, could not name one NZ beef brand and a couple were surprised to hear NZ even produces beef!

Continues

››

43

Hunter McGregor managed to find some NZ beef in City Super, a high end supermarket in Shanghai.

“...There is no demand from the chefs or consumers for this beef to be from New Zealand.”

This is a major problem, as without a super star brand, how do you create interest?

I have spent the past six years working very hard to position Mountain River venison as a premium product in China. We have built plenty of credibility because we are on menus, unfortunately not all year round, of many of the top restaurants around China. Both Te Mana and Coastal Lamb brands are doing a great job of lifting the profile of NZ lamb in China. They are both high quality brands that open doors for the entire NZ lamb industry. How can NZ beef be positioned as a premium product, without being sold in any of the top steak houses or restaurants in the most influential Chinese market in Shanghai? I don’t see how it can be, but I hope I am missing something.

Beef supply issues Consistency of supply is a major issue. I hear it all the time from all restaurants when they talk about products. A commonly held myth is that Chinese businesses have “long term thinking”. The reality could not be further from the truth. Recently, I was in a meeting with a chef of a very high profile restaurant in Shanghai. They just added a NZ

44

beef cut on to their menu, and after two weeks of starting, the supplier was out of stock for the next month or so. They double checked before starting, if the supplier had enough stock on hand in China. The answer was yes. I hear this all the time, as a lot of suppliers only sell for today's sale and don’t worry about tomorrow. Unfortunately in this case the chef will most likely not use NZ beef again because of this bad experience.

I have heard many stories like this about the consistency of NZ beef supply over the years.

This happens with most imported products and it’s not just a NZ beef issue. Another high profile restaurant group owner told me they are trying to remove beef as much as possible from all of their restaurants because of supply issues. However, they don’t use NZ beef.

China is a big market and there are plenty of opportunities for NZ beef to find its place. One thing for sure it is going to take a lot of hard work on the ground to get things moving in the right direction. The exciting thing is that the market moves fast and anything is possible.

• Hunter McGregor is a Chinese-speaking Kiwi based in Shanghai selling NZ meat into China.

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INDUSTRY

ANGUS STUDS BREAKAWAY AngusPRO breakaway group ditches Angus NZ, to join the Angus Australia society which is well resourced and forward focused. Tony Leggett reports.

T

he talking is over, for now.

After two decades of debate within the Angus New Zealand membership, 24 of the country’s studs have left and joined Angus

Australia.

Breakaway group spokesman Tim Brittain says it was a relief to finally announce the formation of AngusPRO, which represents the departing studs, and to explain the reasons behind the move.

AngusPRO members own 10,000 registered female cattle, more than 40% of Angus NZ’s total number.

He says the move gathered momentum in April last year when the 24 studs formed their group to begin negotiating directly with Angus Australia.

Brittain, who was president of Angus NZ from 2012-2014, says he accepts it is natural

to resist change. But he believes the breed society risks becoming an outdated, underresourced breed society unable to deliver world-leading services to its members.

AngusPRO representatives met with Angus Australia’s board and executive in late 2019 and early 2020 to discuss the logistical requirements to transfer their data across the Tasman and to consider the suite of technology and resources available to them as members.

Brittain says Angus Australia rolled out the welcome mat, including the required change to its constitution to allow the NZ group to join.

“That was finalised at the start of November last year and passed the 75% majority mark without any difficulties,” he says.

The process to send the data to Australia

was finalised a month later, but it will not happen until July because of the volume of the data being shifted and a couple of logistical hold-ups. The delays made it more sensible to hold off until July, after the coming round of two-year bull sales.

Strong international links Brittain says the group has joined Angus Australia because it is progressive, well resourced and forward focused.

“Angus Australia has scale. It’s got strong linkages with the United States and Canadian Angus associations. It has close ties to Meat and Livestock AU and is partnering with them and other countries on research and development of new technologies,” Brittain says.

“It has 33 staff and the resources to help with education plus a suite of technology

AngusPRO spokesperson Tim Brittain and wife Kelly are confident their decision to join Angus Australia is the right move and will deliver massive benefits to their bull clients.

46

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

“Angus Australia has scale.

It’s got strong linkages with the United States and Canadian Angus associations.” tools that are available to members and bull buyers. By comparison, Angus NZ has only one staff member,” he says.

However, Brittain says AngusPRO’s move is more significant than just tapping into a larger, more comprehensive suite of technology, education capability and research by linking with Angus Australia.

“The future of breed societies is already under some threat. You don’t need pedigree animals to develop your own estimated breeding values (EBVs) these days, thanks to the power of genomics.”

“This is about keeping up with the rest of the world.”

AngusPRO members have already seen the scale of the education resources available to Angus Australia members through a series of three webinars specifically provided to the NZ studs as part of a wider induction package.

“We see our move as a true partnership and several of the AngusPRO stud owners called me after viewing the webinars to say how impressed they were about what’s on offer to us,” he says.

Angus AU chief executive Peter Parnell says the AngusPRO members will likely join one of the new affiliated Angus breeder groups. These were created to recognise the specific needs of groups of breeders, based on more than just their location.

“Each group has its own extension provider and we’ll be looking to employ a fourth full time person to provide this for their group in the near future,” Parnell says.

He and Brittain refute any suggestion the NZ studs will be out of place within the AU organisation, perceived by many to be dominated by a grain-fed, feedlot-based beef industry.

“Only around half the beef produced in Australia is from feedlots, so the rest is grassfed just as we pride ourselves on here in NZ. So, we’ll be well catered for,” Brittain says.

“EBVs are produced in a way that eliminates the influence of the environment anyway. Suggesting our EBVs will be biased because of claims AU’s beef industry is all about feeding grain is a red herring.”

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

BENEFITS FROM THE MOVE Joining Angus Australia will deliver massive benefits to commercial bull buyers here in New Zealand, says AngusPRO spokesperson Tim Brittain.

Bull buyers at AngusPRO sales will see the same information offered on each lot at this year’s sales, after the call was made to delay the transfer of performance and pedigree data to Angus Australia until July this year.

Each bull’s estimated breeding values for various traits are already derived from the Trans-Tasman Angus Cattle Evaluation (TACE), so these will remain consistent in the future.

However, Angus Australia offers additional estimated breeding values (EBVs) to the NZ breed society plus a different set of EBV indexes, built on multiple EBVs which are tailored to specific beef production systems.

Three examples of the extra EBVs available are net feed efficiency and foot score which incorporates both claw set and foot angle.

Brittain says the net feed efficiency EBV is critical for NZ commercial beef producers to incorporate into their bull buying. Selecting bulls known to produce progeny that are more efficient at converting feed into beef will play a big role in reducing each farm’s greenhouse gas emission profile.

“Angus NZ can’t offer its members that EBV at present. It’s symbolic of where we

AngusPRO announced its intention to join Angus Australia just after the 2021 Angus NZ annual general meeting at New Plymouth on April 8.

The news was already widely known among the Angus stud world after the Angus NZ board emailed all members of its association in early February to announce that a large group of members were leaving the association.

Angus NZ “disappointed” by exodus Angus NZ president John Cochrane says he is disappointed by the exit of the studs and says the board had put enormous effort and time into discussing ways to accommodate the group’s ambitions.

“Was it a surprise? No, probably not to me. You will know there have been some

as a group want to take our animals in the future.”

Another example of the progressive nature that Angus Australia has is its long term involvement in a trial to confirm the commercial beef production value of using growth EBVs. The trial is ending in the United States and the early results will be reported in July this year.

“New Zealand was involved initially.

However, it has since been left out of it.”

Many in the AngusPRO group feel that Australia is much further ahead of its NZ counterpart on meat eating quality. He credits Meat Standards Australia (MSA) which has developed a grading system for meat processors to apply to improve the supply of consistently high quality meat, for putting Australia ahead.

“Angus Australia is up to cohort 11 of bulls in its progeny test which is focused on advancing meat eating quality. They are collecting real carcase data on 40 sires each time and feeding that into the EBVs for carcase quality to improve the accuracy of them all the time.”

Brittain says getting access to that extra depth of carcase information is very attractive to the AngusPRO group because improving eating quality is its primary focus so beef producers can support new and existing branded beef programmes like AngusPure, Silver Fern Farms EQ and Alliance Group’s Handpicked Beef.

politics at play for a while within the NZ Angus, so it was no surprise this group of studs decided to leave.”

Cochrane says it was initially unclear how many studs were involved in the breakaway group and who was representing the group until late last year.

“We were trying to build a bridge with them but most of the studs wanted to remain anonymous so that was challenging.

When it did become clear that Tim (Brittain) was a spokesperson for the group, we tried to meet but couldn’t line up times that suited both the board and Tim.” He feels the rising success of the Angus Pure brand in NZ may have contributed to the decision by the studs to leave, thinking they could pursue greater emphasis on eating quality traits evident across the Tasman.

Continues

››

47

Angus NZ president John Cochrane says he’s disappointed to see the 24 studs leave for Australia, but stands by the quality and scope of the services offered to breeder members.

“Angus NZ has to accommodate everyone in the membership. It is not there to tell anyone how to breed cattle or sell their bulls. Angus NZ is there to serve the needs of all members, not just a group within the membership,” Cochrane says.

“That said, Angus NZ has been in very regular contact with Angus Australia and we will continue to collaborate and build on our strong relationships,” he says.

Angus NZ will soon release a new long term strategy which Cochrane says will show members what’s ahead in terms of services and marketing.

Another new feature about to be released ahead of bull sales season is a set of trait ‘scores’ for bull buyers which provide a score of 1-10 on several key traits to make it simpler to incorporate data into their selections.

Cochrane confirmed Angus NZ would take a massive financial hit from the loss of 24 member studs and more than 10,000 registered female cattle.

“We’re fortunate that Angus NZ is in a very strong (financial) position now and we’ll be okay for the foreseeable future.

However, we will need to continually look

for new revenue streams in the future and that will mean we have to be very smart with decisions made with members about their herd data.”

He also refutes the suggestion from AngusPRO that Angus NZ is underresourced with staff. Although it employs just one staff member, it contracts all its registry, financial, membership management and media relations out to external contractors.

He says he is unaware of any other studs contemplating joining the breakaway group.

Brittain says he’s had a few conversations since AngusPRO announced its move to Australia and is expecting a second wave of studs to join the 24 already there.

From the North Island, the studs in AngusPRO are Focus Genetics, Kauri Downs, Lake Farm Genetics, Ngaputahi, Puketi, Ranui, Ranui W, Rimanui Farms, Rissington, Seven Hills, Stokman, Storth Oaks, Takapoto, Totaranui, Twin Oaks, Wairere, Waitangi, Waiwhero and Whangara. The South Island member studs are Cleardale, Kakahu, Mount Linton, Te Mania and The Sisters.

Get your hands on this a free copy of the 2021 NZ Hereford magazine!

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48

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May 2021

INDUSTRY

Quality

Fast, calm finishing the key

BY: ANDREW SWALLOW

W

hat did your beef finishers average in $/kg cwt over the past year?

Once, the only driver of that was the market price for a particular stock class on any given day, but these days the quality of carcase produced can make up to a 20% difference in price per kilogram.

So how do you ensure your beef animals earn top dollar on the day?

While a proportion of it is down to genetics (see panel p51), management from weaning to slaughter is a major factor too, as Macfarlane Rural Business (MRB) consultant Jamie Gordon relayed

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May 2021

to recent What’s The Beef* events in the South Island.

The good news is this means earning the best prices is largely within your control. The bad news is that months of careful management can all be undone in a few days or even hours if things go badly wrong.

The starting point to achieving high quality meat scores is providing a constant and adequate supply of at least moderate but preferably high quality feed, says Gordon.

“It’s no good having high quality feed if you’re only feeding it at 60% of what they require,” he stressed to delegates at the What’s The Beef event.

The higher the quality of feed offered, Continues p51

›› 49

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May 2021

the faster stock digest it, so not only do they grow faster thanks to the better feed, they eat more of it so there’s a “double whammy” benefit in growth rate, he added.

Rapid growth in turn translates to more tender meat, and, as animals finish, more marbling which improves cooking and flavour.

Gordon explained intramuscular fat is both the last to be laid down by the animal and, in times of stress, the first to be used up so handling just prior to slaughter is critical.

“We can do a fantastic job of finishing beef and then unravel it in the last couple of days,” he warned.

quality, so good growth rates throughout their lives are needed to ensure they “finish” before too much connective tissue is laid down.

“Finishers need to understand which lines of cattle grow best for them and know with some certainty they will hit their target weight and quality by a certain date.”

Adequate fat cover, the traditional measure of whether an animal is finished, is important to prevent cold shortening post slaughter. Too little and meat chills too rapidly causing it to go tough, Gordon explained. Too much fat and it needs to be trimmed, which is costly and inefficient – both onfarm and for the processor.

Minimise mustering distance Fat colour is driven by breed and feed, Mustering distance prior to yarding for certain breeds such as Jersey taking up transport should be minimised and other more of the fat-yellowing compound stresses, such as poor found in pasture, handling facilities or β-Carotene. Fat stores TOP TIPS TO ENSURE mixing of mobs, should ‘turn-over’ in about MAXIMUM BEEF QUALITY be avoided.

60 days which is why • Fully feed finishers at Minimising stress feedlots hold cattle on all times. in the days leading grain for at least that • Offer as high quality up to slaughter is also long to ensure all fat has feed as possible. essential to achieve a gone white by slaughter. low pH in meat, which “There’s not much we • Avoid all stresses as far in turn means meat is can do about fat colour as possible. tender, bright coloured, because we use pasture • Get mobs and has a long shelf-life. based systems but fodder accustomed to The low pH comes beet will reduce it,” handling facilities. from conversion of Gordon noted.

• Don’t mix mobs in final glycogen in the muscles Fodder beet finishing months or transport. to lactic acid after has also been shown to • Aim for consistent slaughter, Gordon increase marbling scores, growth – no nutritional explained. Undue provided other stresses checks. stress on the animal don’t undo the increased • Select genetics to prior to stunning at fat deposition the high marble – estimated the processing plant carbohydrate feed breeding values depletes muscle promotes, he added.

(EBVs) work. glycogen stores, so pH Ensuring good animal doesn’t drop so low health throughout post slaughter and meat finishing by minimising quality is impaired. High feed quality parasite pressures and avoiding mineral in the final months of finishing boosts deficiencies is also important to maximise glycogen storage so animals are better the chances of achieving the best quality able to cope with stresses, should any be grading, said Gordon. unavoidable.

“I’ve been on farms where all the deer Stress may be induced psychologically, get selenium and copper, but the cattle such as by unusual handling or don’t. If in doubt, get a test done. The yarding procedures or introduction cattle might not get as clinically sick but of new animals into a mob, and/or they can still be deficient.” physiologically for example due to hunger, thirst, oestrus, temperature *What’s The Beef was a PGGWrightson extreme or injury. and Angus Pure initiative run with the Age is another key factor in meat support of Beef + Lamb New Zealand quality. Older animals lay down more during March and April. For more, www. connective tissue, jeopardising meat whatsthebeef.co.nz

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May 2021

Breeding to max marbling Much of the potential for marbling in a beef finisher is determined long before those final months, in the animal’s genetics and management of its dam during pregnancy and through to weaning, MRB consultant Jamie Gordon (see main story) told the What’s The Beef seminar.

Bulls with high intramuscular fat (IMF) breeding values should be used, cows fed well in late pregnancy and during lactation, and calves weaned onto high quality feed and never checked, he advised.

Genetically, propensity to lay down IMF is highly heritable so using high IMF bulls will pay dividends within a generation or two. Selecting for quiet temperament is also important to avoid highly strung animals eroding a mob’s marbling scores and causing pH problems (see main story).

Of all the drivers of meat quality, Gordon highlighted pH and marbling as the two main ones – “they can have a massive impact” – and of the stresses that cause problems with those, inadequate nutrition is the most common.

However, we’re “not as bad as Australia” where droughts regularly undo efforts to produce higher quality beef, he added, and it’s clear New Zealand’s product is improving in general.

“Ten years ago it was rare to see beef in supermarkets with marbling, but it is more common now”.

51

INDUSTRY

Value chain

Information, traceability is power Jason Archer advocates combining beef animal identification, location with other data for better industry results.

S

itting down to write this article, I’m pondering “what is one thing that could make our beef industry better”?

There are many answers to this question, but the one I’m going to address is the opportunity to use information and traceability up and down the value chain more effectively. This is something that should, in theory anyway, be relatively simple and we could realistically do something about as an industry in the next five years. It would support our industry’s strategy to capture premiums for our beef based on a great natural product which provides an excellent eating experience. I’m

aware that I’m banging a drum which has been beaten before - but surely addressing this must be getting more feasible from a technology viewpoint, and the benefits are increasing from a market viewpoint, so perhaps it is time we took another step?

So what do I mean by information and traceability? Don’t we already have a traceability system in NAIT? Well, yes – we have traceability that deals with animal identification and location, primarily as a backstop for animal health management – particularly disease incursions. New Zealand’s recent Mycoplasma bovis experience has shown us how important that can be. But given that we have a

national identification scheme, and electronic tags in the ear of every cattle beast in NZ, what else could we be doing?

We could use the system we have now to link the location and ownership history of an animal to other attributes and trace these attributes through the value chain. This would help retain value in the animal which is otherwise lost as it is transacted, especially in our beef industry where animals are frequently transacted two to three times in their lifetime before processing.

This might best be explained by way of example which demonstrates how ownership transfers in the life of an animal

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52

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May 2021

“...if it is not a great eating experience, they are very unlikely to buy it again.” can impact on creating and retaining value. We have opportunities to make our beef eat well more consistently. A good part of this comes back to how we breed, feed and handle animals onfarm. Several meat companies now have markets based on improved eating quality and share some premium with suppliers of cattle that meet the specifications. Good eating quality underpins all the other attributes that we also market on – such as environment, grassfed, welfare. You can sell the story around the beef, and affluent consumers will pay a premium price for it – but if it is not a great eating experience, they are very unlikely to buy it again.

Genetics, early-life feeding I often find myself talking about genetics and early-life feeding and handling as factors in improving beef quality to groups of farmers... and receiving some blank or frustrated looks in return. Why? Because the people I am talking to are breeders who get paid by having heavy weaners for sale. In the short term, the breeders would get no extra value from using a bull with good estimated breeding values (EBVs) for marbling, or from making the effort to yard-wean their calves to improve temperament. These are both relatively simple actions that result in better eating quality.

On the other hand, I might be talking to a finisher, who might be willing to pay a premium for calves with better production and eating quality potential as they will in turn attract a premium from the processor. However, the finisher finds it difficult to consistently source cattle where these attributes are known and guaranteed. So, some of the actions that might improve the system for everyone do not happen, because information is lacking and the value created by doing something slightly different to previous practice is not shared back down the value chain.

This information is not shared because we have no way of knowing and verifying the practices that went into producing the better calves. Consequently, we all end

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Above: Jason Archer suggests that merging NAIT location and ID data with other information such as breed or sire would have enormous benefits for the beef industry.

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“Good eating quality underpins all the other attributes that we also market on..”

up playing a game of averages, and not putting in place simple actions that have minimal cost or system impact and can make a significant difference.

Meat quality is one example, but there are plenty of other examples of attributes that could be better used to improve the market acceptability of our beef by having a verification which applies over the animal’s whole lifetime, not just the time on the farm immediately before it was slaughtered.

We could capture the fact that every farm the calf has been raised on, from birth to slaughter, is certified to meet a high standard of environmental care.

Or include a verification around the standards of animal welfare practiced on the properties the calf has been on throughout its lifetime. In the future, we could verify that the animal has been produced with a lower greenhouse gas footprint or at least been bred and grown on properties taking measures to reduce carbon footprint.

ATAHUA

Taking the extra step I’m not advocating creating new certification schemes which are rods for farmers' backs. However, a lot of these requirements, such as the New Zealand Farm Assurance Programme and the Beef + Lamb New Zealand farm plan, are either coming or are already here as part of the social licence to farm in NZ. So why not take the extra step to match what we already have (animal id and location) with other information to support our NZ beef story? This level of verification and traceability will be critical if we are to have any realistic chance of getting consumers of our products to pay a share of the cost of meeting these standards.

There is additional benefit to be extracted as well, with information going back down the value chain as well as up it. To use the meat quality example, imagine if the person breeding the calf received some feedback as to how the calf graded for meat quality – and not just

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the minimum NZ classification grading, but some more detailed information on marbling, fat depth, yield, etc. What if the breeder was able to link that information to other factors, such as the bull that sired that calf, whether the calf was yard weaned, etc. Perhaps in the short term that might not lead to a transformation – it would be easy to blame the finisher for any problems – but in the long term the knowledge gained would likely lead to some improved practices. Yes, there will be some commercial issues around data sharing – but these can be managed, and we should keep our eyes on the long-term prize.

All this would be possible if we created an industry information system which brought together information which is either currently measured (e.g. a simple example might be whether the farm has a farm plan) or could be collected at low cost (e.g. weight of individual animals at a couple of key times, breed, or even sire), and combined this with the information on animal identity and location over

“...imagine if we had a national grading scheme that targeted meat quality measurements.” time. Data linking should be as painless as possible e.g. if a farm plan was recorded against a property, then it should automatically be linked to all animals registered as born on that property for the life of that farm plan. This information would need to be accessible to participants in the value chain, including processors/ marketers to use in branding and finishers looking to buy cattle with the right attributes for target markets.

To work most effectively, such a scheme should be implemented at a precompetitive industry level rather than company level. For example, the breeder producing high quality weaners for sale should not have to be concerned as to whether five different sets of standards are being met, as the breeder has little or no control over where the animals will

eventually be processed. This might be of even greater benefit if we moved further towards national consistency in some of our standards. For example, imagine if we had a national grading scheme that targeted meat quality measurements, and was consistent between all processors.

Imagine if all of our certifications such as environment, welfare, emissions were consistent across the country – something I’m sure our industry bodies are aiming for. Participation need only be voluntary, because even if only a modest amount of value was added,and compliance effort was minimal (e.g. through effective and automated data linking) then why would you not participate?

• Jason Archer is a consultant at AbacusBio, based in Dunedin.

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55

INDUSTRY

Website

Getting meat facts out there

F

armers who want to get their facts straight on red meat should flick through the new ‘Making Meat Better’ website, created by Beef + Lamb New Zealand and the Meat Industry Association.

It gives plenty of reasons why NZ-grown red meat is tops.

The website directly answers ‘Does Red Meat stack up for the Planet’ (courtesy of Professor Derrick Moot rattling off some very digestible facts in a four-minute video) while giving evidence why he is comfortable choosing to eat NZ red meat.

Stewart Ledgard, AgResearch principal research scientist, answers ‘does it take 15000 litres (L) of water to grow 1kg meat?’.

This headline-grabbing figure out of the Netherlands included natural rainfall, he said. Extraction of water (known as blue water) is the figure you want to look at, he said, and this is 210 L/kg for beef and 46L for sheep in NZ. Far less than 15,000.

Heading out to dinner with a group of eco-warriors or conscious foodies? SWOT up on your beef facts by visiting ‘Making Meat Better’ website first – www.makingmeatbetter.co.nz

Where food is grown is more important than the type of food itself. Consumers should compare inputs/outputs per nutrients provided by the food and meat proves a winner in this regard.

As to whether a non-meat diet is as healthy and balanced? Nikki Hart, nutritionist, answers this one. Ministry of Health guidelines are to eat up to 700

grams/week (raw weight) of red meat. This is three portions spread through the week.

“It’s about eating what you need.”

Come on, Kiwi farmers. Get sharing this website on social media and get the facts out there. Yes, it is meat industry-funded, but it’s upfront on this. The aim is sharing and discussing the science that underpins the facts.

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57

INDUSTRY

Domestic market

Rod Slater to hang up the apron BY: GLENYS CHRISTIAN

A

butcher by trade, he teamed up with Peter Leitch, later to be known as the Mad Butcher and knighted, after a chance meeting on a flight from Auckland to Wellington to stave off union protests at plans for Saturday opening of butchers’ shops. Flying back together they hatched the idea of a chain of butchery shops throughout Auckland, with the deal sealed on just a handshake.

“Peter was a marketing genius,” Rod said.

“He was the first to talk about his own business on the radio which people didn’t do.”

Despite there being a supermarket right next door to their first shop at Hauraki Corner on the North Shore, interest was so great that traffic pointsmen were posted all the way from the Harbour Bridge to direct shoppers.

“And when we opened our second shop in Mt Roskill there was a queue 500 metres up the road of people wanting to get in.”

Higher volumes of sales with lower margins were the order of the day with 90 percent of meat pre-packaged but customers also had the choice of personal service.

In the early 1980s they protested about the compulsory levy butchers then paid to the Meat Board, based on frustration at the lack of promotion of beef and lamb on the local market. That led to formation of the bureau with Rod on the board.

In the 1990s they decided to go their own ways and Rod found himself temporarily retired after an unsuccessful foray into selling second hand vehicles imported from Japan. So he was happy to take up then Beef + Lamb New Zealand bureau chairman, Denis Denton’s offer of a job, thinking this would be a very temporary move.

“But consumers didn’t think it was over,” he said.

Meat Board director, Bruce Jans, was a convert, spearheading a campaign for meat companies to match the board’s contribution to the bureau, dollar for dollar.

So in 1994 the bureau was up and running again after nine months of “going round the traps” by Rod. The immediate focus was the Quality Mark guarantee but the one other bureau employee, marketer, Debbie Armitage, came up with the Ambassador Chef Programme, still running today. One of Rod’s first moves was to pick up the phone and talk to the bureau’s Australian counterpart, now the Meat and Livestock Association (MLA) who suggested he pay them a call.

“I didn’t need a second invite,” he said.

“And they showed me their iron campaign.”

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Marketing the meat The bureau was able to buy television advertising and point of sale material at a fraction of the cost it would have cost to develop it from scratch, and that led to a highly successful 10-year relationship.

“Farmers, butchers and processors are all marketing experts,” Rod said.

“But they loved it. Health questioning was growing and it was an opportunity to highlight the importance of iron in the diet, particularly with women. We were presenting a solution to a problem and B+LNZ almost owns that territory now. And the more you can present with humour the better cut through you get.”

That was very much part of a later TV ad featuring Hare Krishna butchers dancing down the street, singing the praises of their red meat wares.

Peter Leitch was again involved in the Iron Maidens campaign conception.

The bureau had been giving free meat to athletes such as cyclist Sarah Ulmer, but just before the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens he phoned Rod very excited about rowers Caroline and Georgina Evers-Swindell, who were not being sponsored.

“They all won gold medals,” Rod said.

“No one had identified Olympic athletes’ marketing potential at that stage. We were the first.”

So a deal was done with their management, giving huge cut through to young women concerned about healthy eating. This followed on to TV campaigns such as Iron Works, where Rod played the role of a heavy metal band member and events such as The Steak Of Origin and Glammies.

However, beef and lamb consumption has been declining over the last 25 years, firstly with chicken losing its status as a luxury item to be eaten only at Christmas, then with the more recent rise of plant-based products.

“There’s room for everyone,” Rod reasons.

“But there is an agenda globally where people would like to see no animals farmed in the future. They’re vocal and they’re well organised. We have to fight back with the facts.”

A recent impediment to that has been the rise of social media and fake news.

“Most consumers only read the headlines,” he said.

“So a farmer misbehaving in the United States Midwest is our problem. It’s global now and that’s a real challenge. We have to

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May 2021

Hanging up the apron: Rod Slater will step down from his role as chief executive of Beef + Lamb New Zealand later this year. Rod has been the face of beef and lamb promotion for the last 27 years.

be so much more agile.”

Social norms are changing as well. It used to be accepted that some 13-year-old girls might stop eating meat for a few years, but would start again when they had children and were responsible for someone else’s health. But a recent survey on Auckland North Shore showed half of teenage girls didn’t eat meat, possibly as the result of peer pressure.

“We have to understand the audience and that it’s not a case of one size fits all,” he said.

That means targeted messages, respecting that different people have different views.

“But one thing that isn’t changing is taste. That’s the most pleasurable part of eating beef and lamb along with the sense of occasion.”

He’s buoyed by the fact that when dining out recently he’s been told by three chefs that beef is the most popular dish on their menu.

“We’ve got to keep those good messages out there,” he said.

“They’re all bullets in our gun.”

The unforeseen can always intervene and B+LNZ was literally hours away from launching a new advertising campaign before the first Covid-19 lockdown. It was based on a series of true or false questions

about beef and lamb but was pulled at the last minute. “It’s still in the bank,” he said.

Butchers had a hard time during lockdown, but he hears anecdotally that for many their trade is what it was previously and margins are reasonable. Covid-19 has reaffirmed to consumers what’s really important, he believes.

His style has always been to get out of the office and mix widely with industry participants, be they farmers or meatworkers. He recalls with satisfaction the surprised expression on a worker’s face at Affco’s Wanganui plant when, dressed in a suit for a tour of operations, he asked if he could have a go at linking the sausages they were making.

So, will he miss his involvement in the industry?

“One hundred percent I’ll miss the people and that scares me,” he said.

With 15 staff in the bureau’s North Shore office, three of them nutritionists, and most young women, he said they challenge him every day.

He’ll stay on until a new chief executive is found and continue with his positions as a board member of Diabetes New Zealand and chairman of the NZL Sailing Foundation.

“But my wife won’t find me easy to live with.”

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INDUSTRY

Fake meat

THE PROS AND CONS

OF FAKE MEAT Nicola Dennis examines the different categories of fake meat, including meat grown in a lab and plant based products that look like meat.

I

find the fake meat “revolution” fascinating. Not because I am scared that it is going to wipe out the animal agriculture industry and leave me living in a cardboard box. In the unlikely event that the very vocal vegan minority overthrows the other 97-99% of the population, I plan to land on my feet. You were open-minded enough to read one paragraph deep into an article that might say nice things about fake meat, so I think you will also do okay in the vegetable uprising.

No, this immense mash of science and marketing is interesting all on its own, regardless of the supposed threat to my occupation. Plus it’s not all bad news.

Let’s look at the three main categories of meat fakery and what they bring to the table.

The pros of lab-grown meat Let’s start with the most impressive and least achievable type first; lab-grown or cultured meat. This involves taking cells from animals and growing them in a laboratory to create a meat substitute that is made of the same building blocks as the real stuff. There are two subcategories to the lab-grown meat. There are the companies that are producing animal cells in bioreactors and then adding them to plant based ingredients to create a meat-plant end product. Food company Eat Just already has a chicken bites product that has been approved for sale in Singapore while Supermeat.com in Israel is handing out free samples of their crispy cultured chicken produced by similar means.

Then there are companies such as Memphis Meats that are aiming for the loftier goal of producing pure cellular constructions of steaks and fillets. This would involve coaxing the cells into a structure that resembles meat, possibly via 3D printing.

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There are a lot of production challenges that need to be overcome before lab-grown meat hits the shelves in any meaningful way. For one, a kilogram of Memphis Meat’s cultured beef was costing US$40,000/kg to produce back in 2017 and they haven’t publicly celebrated a breakthrough moment yet.

There is also the issue of cultured cells requiring fetal serum to replicate. This is almost always harvested from calf fetuses removed during meat processing. Longterm, this is not a great strategy for cultured meat. It’s difficult to take the moral high ground when you are relying on the slaughter of pregnant cows to produce “no kill” meat. So, these companies are researching plant based alternatives to fetal serum. I am all for this.

Culturing cells is a key step for all kinds of basic scientific studies such as cancer research. If scientists are able to be more precise with the cell culture experiments (i.e. not rely on variable batches of fetal calf blood products) then there will be less background noise to the experiments that they run.

The other potential breakthrough will come from how these cultured cells are coerced into forming complex structures. Think of the implications for wider research if cells can be used to form functional tissues. This is particularly exciting for the future of organ transplants which currently require a matching donor to be taken off life support.

Also if you can print me a steak, you can also print me up a takahe drumstick or a slab of whale. I could munch on endangered animals with impunity. There is a small, but creepy, seam of wannabe cannibals on the internet who are also excited about this avenue.

Continues

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“...if you can print me a steak, you can also print me up a takahe drumstick or a slab of whale. I could munch on endangered animals with impunity. There is a small, but creepy, seam of wannabe cannibals on the internet who are also excited about this avenue.”

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safety. At least some of that heavy lifting will be in the form of antibiotics. However, infections aren’t the only invisible enemy that can lurk in a cell. Eating mutant misfolded proteins (prions) can cause diseases such as mad cow disease and Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

There is also the issue of what you feed these cells, because they aren’t munching on grass. It will take a lot of medical grade glucose (sugar), metabolic precursors and growth hormones to keep these cells happy.

Cons of lab-grown meat In contrast to a whole animal, it is difficult to tell if a cell is infected. The cultured cell is alive and prone to picking up infections or mutations, just the same as its ancestors did when they were in a live animal.

However, unlike its ancestors, the cultured cell doesn’t have the protection of the immune system and wider body to keep things in check.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, lab-grown meat is going to require some very careful oversight to maintain food

Precision fermented proteins If we take a step down from growing whole cells, we can produce individual proteins instead. This can be done in the same way we produce medical proteins such as insulin and human growth hormone (HGH). Scientists call these recombinant proteins, but the food producers have understandably gone in a different direction with the term “fermented proteins”.

This involves splicing the gene for your protein of interest into a DNA vector that contains the necessary genetic switches (called operons) to control it and then

introducing this DNA vector into host yeast or E.coli cells. The host cells are brewed in a broth until they get to a nice dense mix and then something, usually lactose, is added to the broth to trigger the genetic switch causing the cell to start producing the protein using the foreign gene. Often the protein gene will be altered to contain a biological tag and this tag can be ‘grabbed’ via a chemical reaction to simplify protein purification.

To recap, in case I just lost you with my nostalgic trip down “protein production” lane, the process is: • Genetically modify bacteria/yeast.

• Grow them and trigger them.

• Pulverise them and purify the protein.

All that is do-able. The challenge is then to take a bunch of recombinant meat proteins and make something edible out of them.

The pros of precision fermented proteins Unlike growing whole mammalian cells, growing yeast or bacteria is fairly straightforward. Since these bugs can take care of themselves, you don’t have to undertake a series of questionable

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compromises around hormones and antibiotics to get them to grow. They can get by with sugar and some basic nutrients.

Recombinant protein is mainstream and, in the right hands, it is considered safe provided that you are not weirded out by genetic modification. Perhaps, if this helps New Zealand get over its persistent bias against genetic engineering, then it’s a step in the right direction.

Cheap protein fermented wherever you can grow yeast or bacteria could be game changer for countries where traditional protein production is unreliable. There may also be some indirect benefits for medicine production if larger players get into the recombinant protein industry.

The cons of fermented protein Fermented protein sounds all well and good until you realise the scale that would be required to create meaningful amounts of meat. Like cultured cells we are talking huge amounts of refined sugar and metabolic precursors.

The material costs for producing the recombinant insulin needed by diabetics sits around US$110,000/kg, which isn’t too

big a hurdle because diabetics use miniscule amounts of insulin. However, if you are wanting to dial up a 200g steak, then it’s getting a bit pricey. The taste and texture of isolated muscle proteins might also be a let down, but I will reserve judgement.

Processed plant products This brings us to the here and now of processed plant material that is manufactured to mimic meat. These usually start out as peas or soybeans, but rice and wheat and a few grains are also giving it a go. The starting crop, say, peas is milled into a flour and then reconstituted in water.

There are a few filtration and centrifugation steps to remove the cellulose and starches etc. The pH of the mixture is changed a few times and then it goes through a spray drier to yield a powered protein isolate. The most common one is the pea protein isolate which is said to be the most digestible protein that the plant kingdom has to offer.

Even the most ardent vegan will admit that it tastes like chalk on its own.

However, when mixed in with refined coconut oil and combined with a decent amount of flavourings, these can get pretty close to tasting like ground meat.

The Impossible burger takes things a little further by incorporating recombinant soy leghemoglobin (produced in yeast as per ‘precision fermented proteins’ above) so that their burgers contain higher concentrations of iron and do a convincing job of bleeding. This genetically modified ingredient has recently been approved for use in NZ after passing all the necessary genotoxicity tests, so you can now find this at a Burger Fuel restaurant near you.

The pros of processed plant products In contrast to the other two types of meat analogues mentioned above, processed plant products are already a commercial reality. This is perfect for catering to vegetarian visitors and teenagers who are flexing their independence. There is also a small subset of people out there who have to avoid meat for genuine health reasons such as allergies or iron disorders.

In much the same way that the insufferable self-diagnosed gluten intolerances are the rising tide for coeliacs, the “hey should we go vegan this year?” navel gazing probably lifts the boats for people who can’t eat meat.

Continues

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Research wise, I couldn’t find anything to be particularly excited about. But not being native to the enthralling world of extruded food and expeller oil extraction, I can’t say for sure that there haven’t been some major breakthroughs. Since these products are mostly confined to mimicking ground meat at the moment, there must be a few breakthroughs on the horizon if they are to break into steaks and roasts.

Compared to the other two fake meat options, the operational scale of processed plant products isn’t wildly off the charts either. Straight off the vine, peas contain about 7% protein. So looking at NZ’s pea production credentials (62,000t of peas from 8200 hectares planted) we would expect somewhere about 530kg of pea protein per hectare. Assuming perfect efficiency, this would be enough to make about 3t of Impossible Burger patties provided we can get our hands on a further half a hectare or so of coconuts to turn this into something palatable. Three tonnes of retail product from 1.5ish hectares of land isn’t shabby at all. Of course, there is a lot of land that won’t be suitable for this type of cropping. Take a look around the mountainous islands of NZ, this isn’t exactly the land of peas and coconuts.

The cons of processed plant products Eating concentrated pea protein in the only form that a human being with functional taste buds would consume it (i.e. with refined oils and additives) is nothing like eating a healthy serving of inoffensive peas.

Burgers and sausages have never rated highly as health foods, so it is little surprise that highly processed plant mush is doing nothing to shift the dial on this. However, consumers want to believe that processed plant products will boost their health and marketers are happy to keep the dream alive as much as the Food Standards Code will let them.

Nutritionists shudder at the use of refined coconut oil in these formulations.

While refined coconut oil might sound like something that is lovingly pressed out of the flesh of a coconut, it is actually extracted from the coconut husk (copra) with the help of a solvent called hexane. If you think that sounds like something that belongs in crude oil, you are not wrong.

Solvent aside, refined coconut oil is 90% saturated fat. There has been quite a bit of back and forth in the science community lately about whether saturated fat is as bad as previously thought. Butter has spent

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NZ isn’t exactly the land of peas and coconuts.

decades in nutritional purgatory because it contains somewhere around 50% saturated fat. But refined coconut oil is right up there by anyone’s estimate - it’s twice as potent as animal fat (tallow) which sits at 42% saturated fat.

We’re still standing You’ve made it this far, so let’s address the elephant in the room. The anti-farmer sentiment that the fake meat producers foster. It’s not enough to launch a plant product that tastes acceptable, but it almost always comes with an unfriendly catchcry about killing animal agriculture. Can you imagine NZ meat producers launching their next product as the definitive end to broccoli?

It is easy to ignore the far-fetched plant processors claims as publicity stunts. They have, after all, been claiming to put an end to animal farming within the next five

years for, ahem, more than five years. But, the “meat vs veggies” stance is depressingly divisive considering that plants and animals are two pieces of the same food system. Anyone in food production could tell you that ruminants play an important role in the NZ cropping cycle. However, the microphone very rarely gets passed to anyone who knows.

I could have written an article that highlighted the irrigation needs of pea vines and coconut palms. Or, questioned the welfare of the pig-tailed macaque monkeys used to pick coconuts in Thailand.

Or, dug into the seedy underbelly of sugar production. But, isn’t pitting farmers against farmers in abstract moral arguments a bit ugly? Besides which, I’d better keep my career options open in case of emergency.

• Nicola Dennis is an agricultural analyst and scientist.

65

MANAGEMENT

Giving cattle room to breathe Like all animals, grazing livestock need space to feed and hang out with their mates.

Kerry Dwyer takes a look at how you can keep your livelihood happy and well-fed.

Grazing cattle need 3-5m of personal space around them.

I

was recently asked how much space should be allocated to grazing cattle, for both feed and social reasons.

While there is no magic formula, the question did give me cause to think about it as there are some consequences for the animals we tend.

Cattle are a social animal, whether in feral groups or domesticated. They have a personal space around them, invasion of that space will lead to fight or flight if the animal feels threatened. Humans and other species have exactly the same responses inside their personal space.

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Undomesticated cattle live in groups of cows and calves, with bulls in separate herds. They have a social hierarchy within these groups, with interaction between the animals determining their position in that hierarchy. Note that the highest-ranking animals are seldom the most aggressive, they don’t have to be because they have already established their position.

Putting new animals into an established social group of cattle can result in some behaviour changes as a new hierarchy is sorted out. Cows and heifers will establish new relationships mostly

without any aggression, while bulls may be more physical.

Studies have shown that calves reared without contact with adults will exhibit dominant relationships later than those reared on cows, that can be as late as approaching a year of age. Studies have also shown that groups reared together will form bonds that can last for years, and they will favour that group over others they are mixed with. The dominance-subordination relationships formed between calves and cattle are very stable and can persist for years, seldom being reversed.

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Excellent vision Vision is the dominant sense in cattle, with hearing and smell being less important in their lives. Cattle have a 330 degrees vision with binocular vision for only a small scope in front. To maximise that binocular vision, to judge depth and distance, they will lower their heads and face the point of interest.

Their wide vision is adept at detecting predators, since they are the prey. While vision is dominant, cattle do identify others with hearing and smell if blindfolded, so a blind animal can move with the herd if given time and space.

As a natural prey species, cattle are fearful of new experiences. They have a good memory of their world, and can identify up to about 80 other individual cattle and maybe 15 humans. They like the familiar and a routine.

Considering all of this, how much space do we allocate our cattle for grazing and handling? Feedlots will allow between 20 and 80m2 per animal depending on age and size, which is far less than what a grazing animal experiences. There will be some consequences for the animals as a result. Social pressure will cause reduced feed intake and more stress in individual cattle, which will be exaggerated if groups are mixed together.

Liveweight and personal space

“They have a good memory of their world, and can identify up to about 80 other individual cattle and maybe 15 humans.”

A farmer once told me that the maximum number in a mob of bulls, for best management, was ten tons of liveweight. That might be 100 bull calves at 100kg, or 25 bulls at 400kg liveweight.

The point he was making is that as they grow they become more aggressive and less tolerant of larger groups. That is probably a natural tendency, but may be exaggerated because the dairy sourced bulls we see the most of have been reared off their mothers and are trying to establish hierarchy for much of their lives, especially if mixed.

Steers and heifers are less aggressive than bulls but I constantly have feedback from stockmen that smaller mobs (e.g. 40 steers) grow far better than larger mobs of twice that size or more.

Studies have shown the personal space of cattle is between 3-5m around them.

When other cattle or humans get inside that distance some response will be invoked,

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will it be flight or flight? When you move a mob of cattle the dominant ones will tend to move to the middle of the herd, because that is the safest place to be away from predators. The subordinate cattle will be pushed to the front or back of the mob.

How much space for growing bulls? While there is no magic formula, think about the following: • Have they been together for a long period?

• Do they have some hobbies? Cattle can spend over 12 hours not grazing, • So what do they do then? Standing by the water trough waiting for the next bull to come along might be the hobby. Playing with a tree stump or a tyre may be a better hobby; • Can they hide from each other? Because they are such visual animals, the sight of another bull is enough to cause stress; • Are all the animals a similar size and age?

The most dominant animals are seldom the most aggressive but if they are evenly matched then establishing the hierarchy may be time consuming.

Bulls in techno systems have small watering points, which they learn not to stay around once they have had a drink. Because the troughs tend to be at a fence, that means social isolation for the individual, so they move back to the middle of the mob if possible. Bulls with larger troughs in the middle of paddocks have a far different outlook, being closer to the middle of the mob and the ability to have a number of animals there at the same time.

As mentioned earlier, cattle have a personal space of 3-5 metres around them.

Put them into yards and they lose that personal space, so stress levels rise and fight or flight becomes more an option for them.

Mixing mobs prior to yarding increases that stress. Recently, I saw a farmer yard separate mobs of bulls, first running the mobs most distant from the yards past the other mobs.

They all got upset before even getting to the yards.

Feed allocation The other aspect of the farmer’s question was about feed allocation.

The dairy industry has a reasonably well-established formula for calculating the

Man, I need space.

area per cow per day of grazing allocation, especially for their first grazing rotation after calving. If you over-allocate the pasture in that first round then the cows can be under-fed in their second round. Spacing of 50-60m2/cow/day is not uncommon for that first grazing round. Few dairy farms will be able to allocate 90m2/cow/day and have enough pasture for their second round.

If the dairy farm has a pasture cover of 3500kg DM/ha available on those paddocks, that means there is about 10kg DM/cow/day available on that allocation of 50m2, the maths being 3500kg DM/ha available less 1500kg DM/ha residual, equals 2000kgDM/ ha divided by 10,000m2/ha times 50m2/ cow/day allocated. The cows will therefore need some supplement with silage etc.

Using the same pasture cover and formula for 400kg bulls, to put 20kgDM/hd/day in front of them means a grazing area of 100m2/hd/day. A mob of 50 bulls will therefore get a daily break of half a hectare.

The feed supply may be adequate but with 100m2/bull there is going to be significant social interactions going on. Cutting the mob in half and giving a two-day break will reduce those interactions by more than half.

You might lose some pasture control but the animals will be far less stressed. Water troughs in the middle of the paddocks are great for water supply but a magnet for bulls to hang around.

In summary, I am not a cow-whisperer, but I have constantly been learning that the animals we deal with have their own view on life, which we can adapt to. And I did read that “most tests of will between the handler and the cows are won by the cow”.

• Kerry Dwyer is a North Otago farm consultant and farmer.

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MANAGEMENT

Beef finishing

Ways to avoid bloat when finishing Farm consultant Graham Butcher has crunched the data on a three-year project and come up with some solutions to prevent bloat in beef.

T

he Beef + Lamb NZ Innovation Farm project at Matthew and Shona Tayler’s Lorne Peak Station, is now finished and the final report is due. This project was about finishing beef on “high octane pastures in challenging conditions”.

Lucerne was the key feed component and the “challenging condition” was free draining glacial moraine in a low rainfall area, Garston in Southland. Even lucerne can struggle when dry.

I’m not going into detail of what happened over the three-year project, you can get a copy of the final report off the B+LNZ website. I just want to talk about some of the insights gained, particularly for bloat control.

The existing beef system at Lorne Peak was based around breeding cows and taking their calves through a second winter on fodder beet to get high carcase weights and as high Beef EQ ratings as possible.

What we wanted to try and do was avoid the cost of the second winter with minimal loss of carcase weight and Beef EQ rating.

We were doing this on our “high octane” feed.

Managing bloat

As part of the B+LNZ research a series of lucerne samples and measurements were taken over two grazing events to quantify when the lucerne might be safe for cattle grazing.

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Bloat was always going to be a concern, we needed to be aware of animal welfare and economic losses as well.

We decided we could manage the bloat issue with the application of known management techniques, a summary of these are attached at the end. A visit to Bonavaree Farm south of Blenheim gave us some confidence about capsules, mowing and co-grazing with sheep. Visits to high performing beef finishing units around the town of Luggate showed us what was possible, not necessarily on lucerne though.

We had an issue with capsules as they

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Figure 1: Quality changes during the grazing period.

ADF, Protein and ME from Table 1.

50 40 30

Acid detergent fiber 20

ME Protein

10 0 Day 0

Day 1

Day 2

Day 3

Day 4

are antibiotics. While we were prepared to use capsules we wanted a system that didn’t need them. Also, mowing is not really an option at Lorne Peak because it is too stony and requires manpower. We even considered hiring a self-propelled vibrating roller, which can be hired quite cheaply in winter when road repairs decline. We imagined we could roll strips, GPS the strips, then do a mow later without destroying the mower. However, this didn’t happen.

Despite the application of known techniques that we could use, we still lost animals to bloat. Simple things like broken ball cocks (diluting bloat oil concentration), broken gate latches, coughed up capsules and cold/wet snaps can trigger problems.

On a station the size of Lorne Peak, with only so many staff, these sorts of issues are magnified. What we needed were systems that worked at scale properties with minimal intervention and little risk.

after grazing with sheep for a period. Over a period of four days grazing a two break, we did feed quality tests each day with the first being pre graze. We set up 4ha breaks, grazed with 1800 lambs then 120 R2 steers added on day two. What happened is shown in Figure 1.

Perhaps predictably, fiber increased and metabolisable energy (ME) and protein decreased. Now, at 26% acid detergent fiber (ADF) pre graze, this lucerne should be safe for cattle – if they consumed the whole plant. However, cattle and lambs just strip the leaf. Even after the lambs grazing, bloat was an issue. Note: there were no other interventions when this was done. We could have waited longer before introducing the cattle, but growth rates would have been minimal.

This is why mowing works – you take away the ability for livestock to selectively graze.

Some points on bloat oil dispensers: • They are designed for deep cattle troughs, not the sheep/cattle troughs.

• In the less deep troughs, the dispensing part can sink into the mud at the bottom and stop working.

• Holders can be made to lift the dispenser.

These seem to be regarded as toys by cattle.

Another technique we tried was the use of flaxseed oil. Vegetable oil is an old recipe for treating bloated cattle. One of the committee had used flaxseed oil, manually tipped into troughs as a preventative in risky paddocks and conditions. This seemed to work at Lorne Peak but it is labour intensive if you want a constant supply in the trough. This oil is very palatable, unlike other bloat oils, and the first few to drink tend to get the lot. We developed a venturi pump that would deliver a constant flow of oil to a trough. This was tried out on one of the Luggate farms visited. This particular farm produced beef at a significant premium provided, amongst other things, antibiotics and bloat oils were not used. So the flax oil

On smaller farms, the coughed up capsule might be managed by writing the tag numbers on the capsule with a permanent marker. If you find the capsule, you’ll know which beast is at risk.

We decided it would be useful to try and determine when lucerne could be safe

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Flaxseed oil trialled

Dairy bull beef is a major income stream of the cattle system.

treatment had promise. The venturi pump we had made up just was not robust enough to do the job. Leakages and dirty water were issues. The venturi developed needs someone to develop it further.

An option to manage bloat, with no intervention, took shape in the form of high tannin companion species. Tannins bind to soluble proteins in the rumen, preventing bloat. We looked into using conventional plant breeding techniques to develop high tannin lucerne here in New Zealand. While not impossible, changing the law to allow high tannin GE lucerne into the country would be the best outcome.

The best option we came up with was Lotus Corniculatus or Birdsfoot Trefoil.

Lotus has a similar growth habit to lucerne, dies down in winter and can be weed sprayed. But, it is slower to establish.

Seed and inoculant is difficult to get now because demand is low. Don’t get confused with Lotus peduculatus or Lotus major.

Pedunculatus has higher concentrations of tannins and is only marginally acceptable to sheep and cattle.

We sowed our Trefoil three ways with lucerne in the last year of the program – as a pure stand, mixed with lucerne and five

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Five drills Lucerne, then two drills lotus at a B+LNZ project into preventing bloat in beef.

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drill rows of lucerne then two of Lotus.

Photos of the result are shown (left), in full flower so you can see what’s what.

There’s a bit of a story here. The lucerne inoculation failed for unknown reasons.

Lotus inoculation was successful. What this did was hold back the establishment of lucerne and probably allowed better lotus establishment, particularly in the lucerne/lotus mixed together treatment.

This paddock on Lorne Peak is one of the harder paddocks; it’s not irrigated, so we are quite pleased with what it looks like now. To overcome the failed inoculation, Matthew sprayed on a heavy dose of inoculant with 200L water/ha, at night and with rain forecast. It worked, and three months later appeared to be a healthy stand as seen above. Whether this is a valid agronomic technique is a moot point.

We have no data as to how cattle performed on this paddock yet. The Innovation farm project came to an end after a short extension because of Covid-19.

So, what happened to the cattle policy

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“Despite the application of known techniques that we could use, we still lost animals to bloat. Simple things like broken ball cocks (diluting bloat oil concentration), broken gate latches, coughed up capsules and cold/wet snaps can trigger problems.” at Lorne Peak? The own bred beef calves are still doing a second winter and bull beef is now a significant policy. The bulls are intended as an enterprise that is flexible to cope with the often rapid and large variations in feed availability. The lucerne focus is sheep as this is where the best overall returns are. Notably, better hgt lambing performance, higher weaning and mating weights for ewes and faster lamb growth, both pre and post wean. With up to 700ha of lucerne and now two pivots commissioned, the beef cattle have a bigger role to play on the better hill country. These changes in policy direction came from extensive Farmax modelling.

For those folk where cattle finishing

could fit well into a lucerne programme, seriously consider companion plants as a low intervention management tool for bloat.

Summary: Bloat control options • Capsules (Monensin): Approx $20 excl.

100 days, regurgitation an issue and highly toxic to dogs. Can write ear tag number on body of capsule- tag pen. Can’t use under 250kgLW. Is an antibiotic, processor resistance. About 20c/day for protection.

• Rumenox (granular form of Monensin): Designed to be delivered via Dosatron.

Cost about 8c/day for adult cattle. Not including the cost of Dosatron.

Shone and Matt Taylor on Lorne Peak Station, Garston Southland in 2016.

Continues

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Dog toxicity, greater risk as have easy access to water.

• Bloatenz (via Peta Dispensers) (Alcohol ethoxylate): Approx. $200 to $300 for dispenser depending 24hr or 48hr type. Adult cattle consume about 9cc/ day, calves about 4.5cc/day. Costs $6.50/L purchased as 200L. Adult cattle about 6c/day and calves about 3c/day for protection. Not including cost of dispensers. Highly toxic to horses but safe with sheep and dogs. Note: not safe for pre-ruminant calves and lambs. May have palatability issues, at least initially.

• Dispensers designed to float in deep dairy troughs, but can be used in shallow troughs with a holder attached to the side of the trough which keeps the dispenser an inch or two out on the muck at the bottom of the trough. No commercially made holders available.

• Vegetable oil: A well known cure for clinical bloat but may be useful for prevention in low doses daily. Flaxseed oil is being used at Lorne Peak, it is

very palatable. No automatic dispenser available so rely on manual dosing. A better venturi pump is needed. Costs $3/L (Midlands Oils) and at 30cc/ day is 9c/ day. Plausible solution but unproven.

• Bloat blocks: Fairly sure these are not made any more, even so, these would be unreliable.

• Salt: Anecdotal evidence salt supplementation may alleviate bloat by buffering rumen pH. When relying on salt blocks, calves consumed about 2grams/animal/day. When offered loose salt, intake increased to 30 grams. Trough treatments are possibly the best solution.

Management options: • Companion species with lucerne to provide roughage and, preferably, tannin (Lotus corniculatus and plantain.

• High tannin lucerne – would require change in New Zealand law.

• Transition takes time.

• Never shift hungry cattle, use a follow up mob to clean up.

• Shift mid day – no dew and higher carbohydrate.

• Avoid big changes in feed quality, i.e., leaving animals to clean up then shift, will also be hungry at shift.

• Small breaks are better, less opportunity to preferentially graze.

• Graze lucerne close to maturity normally recommended, but more opportunity to strip leaves.

• Co graze with leader/follower systems with sheep may reduce risk.

• Spring growth is more dangerous. But rapid growth from rain after dry is equally dangerous.

• Mowing strips works with R2 cattle but experience at Lorne Peak shows calves avoid mown areas.

• Provide roughage, need to consider practicality.

• Clostridial deaths may appear to be bloat.

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MANAGEMENT

Utilisation

Feeding less to hit the target BY: TREVOR COOK

E

fficiency is very often applied just to the use of feed by the grazing animal. Feed conversion efficiency is a term used to describe that. In our grazing animals there have been only very modest gains in that, yet we have been promised much more. The biggest application of efficiency on our farms is in how we use feed. A phrase that I often quote is “use as little feed as possible to achieve the targeted production”. However, just utilising more of the pasture grown is being efficient.

Given the close link between the level of pasture utilisation and profit it is probably the most important application of efficiency.

So much of these aspects of efficiency are management based, so it should be easy in many farming systems to benefit from being more efficient. This is not even getting into the application of efficiency in managing greenhouse gas emissions. This efficiency

focus is all captured by the practice of feed planning which seems to have lost some of its mana (prestige).

Techno grazing Techno grazing must be the most efficient use of pasture. Pasture utilisation is absolutely maximised, grazing space is maximised, animal performance per unit of grazing area is maximised and profit per unit of grazing area is very maximised.

This grazing system captures every aspect of grazing efficiency. For me it sets the benchmark of how any pasture grazing system needs to aspire to. Without going to the formality of a techno system, just applying the concept brings efficiency.

The old term of controlled grazing systems was initially about controlling how much stock could consume. Or maybe just rationing the allocation of pasture. But the outcome is efficient use of pastures.

Matching feed demand to feed supply is

behind the concept and subdivision is the most effective tool for achieving it. Which is why our hill country farms struggle to get very efficient. It is being achieved a lot better on some farms than others. That difference can be because the hill country is subdivided more intensively than most. It is being achieved on other farms by running larger mobs. If making paddocks smaller is not possible, running bigger mobs gives the same outcome. Very often a compromise is being made to create the larger mob, such as running two tooth ewes with the mixed age. The two tooth ewes on their own would be of benefit to them, but allowing a more effective rotation usually delivers a bigger benefit.

Don’t feed the beast Breeding animals are very inefficient because they consume so much feed just to maintain. This is a stock class that I mostly often apply my saying at the start – feed as

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little as possible to achieve the production objectives. This means clearly identifying the varying feed demands necessary to support good breeding performance and allocating just what is needed. Easy to say but can be difficult to apply in hill country.

Nevertheless, just knowing the window when a degree of underfeeding can be tolerated and when it cannot, can go a long way to making these animals more feed efficient. We often forget that we are dealing with ruminants which are designed to accumulate fat and utilise that fat to fill the feed supply holes. They can do this very efficiently, but more than that they need to do that. The concept of keeping breeding females in the same body condition throughout the year is a flawed one and ignores the ruminant needs.

The practice of flexing body condition in the breeding cycle does need to be carefully managed. That’s because our breeding females not carrying enough body condition at critical times in their breeding cycle is still a very common cause of lower performance.

The age of calves or lambs at weaning

Trevor Cook says utilising more of the pasture grown is being efficient.

is an area in which efficiency gains can be made. Weaning early so that breeding females can be fed less does make those animals more feed efficient. There are a whole lot of other issues that can interfere with this idea so bringing weaning earlier does have to be a considered and planned

action. Of course, the much publicised suggested change to beef breeding by sourcing beef breeding cattle from the dairy industry has come from a need to be more feed efficient. What could surprise many beef farmers is just how well such dairy sourced cows perform.

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MANAGEMENT

Breeding cows

Beef cow role ever expanding Peter Andrew champions the role of the beef cow as an enabler for sheep and finishing cattle in Gisborne and Wairoa.

T

he Gisborne and Wairoa districts are really the home of the breeding cow. We have just over 50% of the farms stocked by cattle with a large percentage being the trusted old breeding cow.

I think it is timely to have a good yarn about this matriarch of the hinterland.

The cow certainly has a tough row to hoe. She is a jack of all trades.

What are the roles of our beef cows on the farm?

Their employment agreement job description or advertisement might read: • We do not really want you to eat in a drought.

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• During winter when grass is a little scarce, we want you to grow a foetus whilst losing weight.

• In spring we want you to get in calf whilst being fed what is left over from all other stock classes.

• We would then like you to produce a huge weaner so that we can brag to our farmer mates.

On many farms her main job is to tidy up the rubbish so that other stock can get on and do their stuff.

There is no doubt on most breeding farms that the sheep policy and finishing cattle owe a huge debt to the work that the cows do. This is especially the case now

that we have moved to a higher pasture residual style of farming with our highperformance sheep systems.

Basically, on many of our farms successful sheep meat sales are a big driver of farm income. However, it is only really achieved through the huge amount of work that is put in in the back room by the breeding cows.

They are often the first tool off the rack that is used to hold the feed quality in the sweet spot (Phase 2). Subtly, the cows are sped up or down with the weekly variation of pasture growth. This is also what they should do as at present they do not earn as much as the high-profit bull beef and

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breeding ewe policies. These are the policies that often win all the Farmax best at show competitions which are compared on returns per kg of DM. However, what would be the results if we corrected livestock to the relative metabolisable energy?

Table 1 provides an insight of the relative returns.

The cows tend to be chewing on some tag in the distant hills whilst the bulls are cruising around the best stuff, way down in the valley below. Yes, you can work your Friesian bulls but it generally requires lots of paddocks, electric string or compromised liveweight gain to make it happen.

This is especially given the light green wave of Kikuyu grass that is crawling down New Zealand. The poor old girls’ teeth will start to grind as they contemplate that thought.

Every time you shift the cows on our farms the ewes should really clap them through the gate and provide a standing

“During winter when grass is a little scarce, we want you to grow a foetus whilst losing weight.” ovation as a team of tag busters head off to tidy up another paddock of old rank pastures and weeds. She is really the perfect recycler, turning rubbish into some good stuff.

Bright future for breeding cows The cow is really the perfect machine for a sustainable future. She is healthy and low input, critical in these times of labour shortage and the drive for healthy food.

In these challenging times ahead, you need flexibility and that is what the cow brings to the table. The beef cow is the perfect machine for managing that changing world that is ahead of us.

However, we need to love them more in spring. We need to be careful that we do not under feed these girls at the critical

Table 1 AgFirst Database $/su

Metabolisable Energy (MJ ME)

Corrected Returns $/su

Sheep income

$140

10.8

$140

Bull income

$150

10.8

$150

Cow income

$85

9.5

$97

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times. Too often we are pushing them too hard and missing out on valuable production.

We seem to have drifted into lower incalf results on our farms which is not good for anyone. Ideally, we should be getting close to 95% in calf which then provides great selection.

Quite often the problem is poor cow condition as they go to the bull. We need to improve our spring feeding especially to some of our younger or low condition cows. Often at this time of the year the farmer's focus is all about trying to get as many ewes and lambs as possible off the farm prior to Christmas.

The cow is left on her own except for a brief visit to put the breeding bulls through the gate and then it is racing back to the woolshed or yards to make sure the sheep have not died in the meantime. We need to improve the feed of especially our atrisk cows, or even delay mating until the cow condition improves. Maybe lighter condition cows or second calvers should be pulled out prior to calving.

We need to think much more about cow condition in the spring than we do. Once the cow is in calf then it can return to it’s

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Ideally, farmers should be getting close to 95% in calf which then provides great selection.

Most sheep farmers have a terminal breed ram so why aren’t there more terminal bulls?

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pasture renovator role again. The measure of success of the calf and cow over spring, and summer should in the first instance be in-calf rate rather than the calf weaning weight.

There is always an opportunity to add weight to the calf post-weaning with a slick feeding system.

In this district, we are loading up spring with huge demand. Our lambing percentages continue to increase along with our desire to have big lambs at weaning. This has been made worse by the move to the lactation feeding of ewe hoggets and heifers stock classes.

In addition, we need to remember that climbing hills to eat your lunch burns more energy than cruising around the flats. One study in 2007 by Alistair Nicol, Lincoln University showed the cows needed 13% more requirement for maintenance when grazing hard hill compared to easy hill. This is another factor that we need to remember when rolling out the ‘best at show’ comparison.

Use of hybrid vigour There is still lots of opportunity out there on the hills, especially the potential use of hybrid vigour. Just about every sheep farmer in our district has a terminal breed ram. Why haven’t we got more terminal bulls? Later calving should also be considered on many farms to take some pressure off the spring.

We still live in a world where gross income is still king, queen and jack in the world of farm profitability, but we need to keep an eye on all the background factors that contribute to ensure the farm operates at a high level.

Breeding cows provide a whole lot more sustainable solution for our hills than planting them in carbon dumps for our city folk. At least the breeding cow, the perennial recycler will have a chance to feed our children well into the future.

• Peter Andrew is an AgFirst farm consultant based in Gisborne.

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Well established history: Willie, Laura and Henry Akers. Broadlands Station has been in the Akers family since 1884.

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ON FA R M

BEEFING UP THE DAIRY INDUSTRY Generations of Hereford bull calves have emerged from Broadlands Station in Te Apiti to service the dairy cow industry.

The station has also had success producing Perendale rams.

Russell Priest paid a visit. Photos by Brad Hanson.

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rom the steep, hill country of Broadlands Station beneath one of the world’s most productive wind farms (Te Apiti) have been born countless generations of Hereford bull calves that have gone on to service thousands of dairy cows.

The station has been supplying this specialised product to the dairy industry for 30 years resulting in thousands of distinct and sought-after Hereford dairy cross progeny.

Divided east-west by the Pohangina River and north-south by the busy Saddle Road and just 17km north-east of Palmerston North, 1650ha (1400ha effective) Broadlands Station has been in the Akers family since 1884 with the Hereford breed being an integral part of its long family history.

“Herefords have been farmed on Broadlands for as long as I can remember and our association with the dairy industry goes back 30 years,” Willie Akers said.

The station is dissected into three blocks.

The largest block of 1460ha consists mainly of moderate-to-steep hill country however does have some river terraces and is the hub of the station where the

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main buildings and yards are found. This is home to the 6000 Perendale ewes and where they are all lambed.

The 100ha home block on the western side of the Pohangina River is river terrace and of flat contour. It’s where manager Willie Akers (35) and his wife Laura (34) and three-year-old son Henry live and is where much of the cropping is done, where most of the lambs are finished and where the weaners are wintered.

Willie, who has a diploma in farm management from Lincoln, represents the fifth generation of Akers to farm Broadlands and is married to Laura an ex-agronomist with Agriseeds. Laura is responsible for the choice of crops grown and pasture seed mixes sown and their management. She also has considerable input into the fertiliser programme.

The third block of 90ha is a hill block on the southern side of the Saddle Road and is where the MA cows are calved and the 15-month heifers are grown out.

Broadlands winters a herd of 200 Hereford cows, 100 R3 Hereford heifers, 130 empty R2 Hereford heifers, 130-160 R1 Hereford weaner heifers, 60-70 R1 Hereford weaner bulls and 50-60 R1 Hereford

weaner steers and 12 Hereford herd sires.

Besides being a source of yearling bulls for the dairy industry the cow herd performs a vital role in maintaining pasture quality for young stock and the ewe flock. This means cows with calves at foot spend most of the spring and summer grooming pastures for ewes and lambs while their role in the winter is to clean up roughage on the hills.

Being a specialised breeder of bulls for the dairy industry means Willie must carefully select herd sires for direct calving ease to minimise calving problems among the dairy cows and heifers their progeny will mate. Any significant calving trauma will inevitably reduce milk production with the likelihood of a delayed return to oestrus. Both of these can significantly affect a dairy cow’s profitability.

Before the bull-selling season Willie determines what studs he’s going to target when buying his herd sires. The Dairy Maternal Indexes of the bulls on offer in the sale catalogues of these studs are closely scrutinised. Bulls with indexes over 100 are ranked using a 1-3 scoring system with a particular emphasis on direct calving ease and growth.

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FARM FACTS • Broadlands Station owned by the Akers family.

• 17km north-east of Palmerston North.

POHANGINA • Dissected by the Pohangina River and the Saddle Road.

• 1650ha (1400ha effective).

• 250ha fenced-off native bush and steep Manuka sidlings.

• Sheep and cattle breeding and finishing.

• Specialises in breeding yearling Hereford bulls for dairy farmers.

“I’m not interested in bulls with extremely low birthweight estimated breeding values (EBVs) ‘cos they tend to leave calves with poor growth. I like to see a birth weight EBV around 4 but no greater than 5.”

He prefers bulls with moderate EBVs avoiding any with extremes. Generally 8-10 bulls will be selected from each catalogue based entirely on their genetic information.

“Now that I’ve done my genetic selection I can head off to the sales feeling a lot more relaxed knowing that I only have to inspect a few bulls rather than the whole lot.”

On sale day the bulls genetically pre-selected are inspected for structural soundness, conformation, eye pigmentation and colour markings. Bulls are ranked on their overall assessment leaving Willie in a better frame of mind to make rational decisions when bidding. The only decision he has to make now is what will be his final bid for a particular bull. And he’s not afraid to open his wallet for a good bull paying up to $10,000 for the right animal while

averaging about $7500.

Willie tries to buy bulls with different genetic bloodlines so as to minimise the effects of inbreeding.

Ex-PGG Wrightson stud stock agent Ray Moss from Feilding has assisted in buying many of Broadlands’ herd sires and was often seen at the Hereford National Bull Sale conversing with Willie’s father Hugh.

Although he has largely retired from this role, Ray continues to be Willie’s mentor and is generally only a phone call away if he needs some wise council for which he is extremely grateful.

Heifers are vaccinated against bovine viral diarrhea (BVD) before mating. Bullout date for the two-year-old heifers is November 1 (calving starts on August 13) and mixed age (MA) cows December 1 (calving September 13). Mating of the MA cows takes place on the hills where cows are in three mobs, each mob serviced by three bulls. After each cycle the bulls are moved to a different mob. The 100 twoyear heifers are run with three bulls on the home block. A close eye is kept on the bulls to ensure they are working and to identify any injuries early. These are not

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Top: Breeding the next generation: R3 in-calf Hereford heifers. Above left: Some of the Perendale sires with Te Apiti wind farm in the background. Above right: One of the Hereford herd sires.

uncommon. Bulls are out for 2.5 cycles.

A vet check of all bulls is performed well before mating. This includes a semen test.

On average 96% of cows/heifers are scanned as being in calf achieving an average 92% weaning.

“We always lose a percentage of calves through misadventure on the steep hills.”

Selling tidied up Calving takes place for the heifers on the flats where they are break fed on oats behind a hot wire and supplemented with balege. After calving they are shed into a laneway for a couple of days before being moved into paddocks of saved grass.

The MA cows after having wintered on the hills are brought down to the flats in

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August and fed hay for a month before being moved across the Saddle Road to a 90ha block that has been shut up since the late autumn. There they are set-stocked for calving in seven paddocks. When the calves are due to be marked at the end of October, the return trip across the Saddle Road to the main block is made in 3-4 mobs. Each mob is moved in turn off the hills down to the cattle yards to complete calf marking.

The date of calf weaning varies according to the feed situation but generally occurs in the March – April period. All calves are weaned onto grass before the heifers are break fed on rape on the main part of the station. Bull and steer calves are weaned as one group and heifer calves another. In

June all weaners are trucked to the home block where the steers and heifers are set stocked on pasture until the spring arrives then they enter a rotation.

Break fed on annual grasses supplemented with balage, the weaner bulls are sold in June-July at about 10 months at 320kg-330kg for $1200-$1400 to one buyer. These were once sold to individual dairy farmers however this proved to be too “messy”.

“We now sell them all at once to one buyer before the spring when the pressure for paddock space comes on. It’s a nice tidy arrangement which avoids all the hassles of maturing bulls and dealing privately with clients.”

Willie admits it’s a trade-off between

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convenience and price and they’ve opted for the former.

Fed well throughout the winter, spring and summer on grass the steer calves are killed by the end of April at about 18mths at 520kg-540kg LW. The 15 month heifers replace the MA cows and calves on their calving block when they leave this in late October. The heifers return to the home block in May so the area can be shut up for calving in September. Cull R2 heifers are either killed or sold in the Feilding yards in June.

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Killed cows have their livers analysed to monitor the herd’s trace element status.

Herd copper levels fluctuate between years but generally cows are injected and heifers receive a bolus.

Magnesium is dusted onto the heifers’ daily oats break during calving and Nutrimol Classic which contains copper, cobalt, selenium and iodine is dispensed into their trough water using a dosatron.

Cows receive a drench before calving while calves get one at weaning and one other.

Steep country suits sheep breed Broadlands’ steep hill country with deep gullies is made for Perendales. Terence Romley, the station’s farm manager before Willie’s father Hugh took over the reins, used to run a Romney stud and as a consequence all the commercial ewes were Romneys. When Hugh assumed the manager’s role he decided the breed lacked mobility on the steep terrain so crossed them with Cheviots from his brother Clive’s stud at Opiki.

“Not only are Perendales more mobile

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but they are excellent foragers cleaning up a lot of roughage and weeds.”

Rams are sourced from John Hendrickson (Pongaroa) and Tim Anderson (Kaikoura).

In selecting his 20 rams Willie pays particular attention to structural soundness, absence of black spots, sound 31 micron wool, a good dual purpose maternal index with a particular focus on early growth.

With rams going out on April 1, lambing starts on August 25. The 1800 2ths are mated to the new team of rams while the

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MA ewes go to the older sires.

Barber’s pole worms can be problematic in the autumn so 2ths are drenched before mating with those carrying multiple pregnancies receiving a drench capsule before lambing. They are also vaccinated against toxoplasmosis, campylobacter and salmonella.

In an average year the scanning percentage is 140-145 however last year after the drought it was 125 resulting in 1000 fewer lambs than is normal. The average lambing is 135% and Willie would

like to improve this to no more than 145%.

“My objective is to finish all the lambs we produce and I prefer not to sell any as stores. If our lambing percentage gets too high we would struggle to get good enough weaning weights to finish them all by April.”

Three mating mobs of about 3000 MA ewes, 1000 lighter conditioned ewes and 1800 2th ewes are rotated around the hills and this continues throughout the winter with rotation lengths varying from 40-60 days.

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“Last year during the drought we continued to rotate the ewes even though there appeared to be little feed. Just a change of scenery seems to have a positive effect.”

If winter and early spring covers are satisfactory the ewes are rotated right up to lambing to reduce the incidence of bearings. If feed is short, ewes are set stocked earlier.

Ewes bearing singles are set stocked at 6.5/ha on the steeper country and those bearing multiples on the easier country at 4.8/ha.

During November, all ewes and lambs are brought into the yards to be cleaned up for shearing. If lambs are not thriving they are drenched followed by another at weaning and monthly after that.

After weaning and throughout the summer whenever ewes are in the yards any lighter ones are drafted off and given extra feed to lift their condition score.

Weaning is scheduled for the first week in December after which all ewes and lambs are shorn.

Willie, Henry and Laura Akers: The Akers have been breeding Hereford bull calves for the dairy industry for 30 years.

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“Not only are Perendales more mobile but they are excellent foragers, cleaning up a lot of roughage and weeds.”

Perendale male lambs dine on chicory and clover.

Killing floor Cast-for-age (six-year-old) ewes are killed at weaning.

The top 800-1000 lambs are trucked to the home block where they spend a week on grass before going onto a crop of Agriseeds 501 chicory and Laser annual clover for finishing.

“Laser is a Persian clover and is a late flowerer hence it maintains its quality for longer than many clovers,” Laura said.

The smaller lambs remain on the main block on grass and when this runs out they are moved onto crops. This season, the crop is pasja. A regular flow of lambs occurs from the main to the home block as lambs are

killed and space becomes available.

The first draft of lambs occurs three to four weeks after weaning. Broadlands has a three-week lamb supply contract with ANZCO Foods over the summer. Some lambs are sold as local trade to Land Meats.

They aim to kill their lambs at about 18kg. “However, being a better growing season this year and with fewer lambs we may push this out to 19-20kg.”

The first of the cull ewe lambs are killed in late summer/early autumn with further culls at hogget shearing in October bringing their number back to 2000-2200 and in February leaving 1800-1900 to go to the ram as two tooths. Last year, the February

culls made $170. Normally 3500 lambs are killed however this year it will be closer to 3000.

High octane feed crops Cropping plays an important role, used primarily to grow high octane feed for finishing lambs. This is carried out on the light, summer-dry silt-loam river terraces which suits chicory with its tap root rather than plantain. Agriseeds 501 short-term chicory and Laser annual clover (30-40ha) is grown each year on the home block while pasja is grown on the main block where a summer crop is only required to cover the months of February and March. This is

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The steep hill country with deep gullies suits the Perendales.

generally followed in the rotation by a crop of oats for the calving heifers.

The 18ha of old pasture is replaced annually with an annual ryegrass in the autumn to feed young cattle over the winter and to later produce balage. After this is taken off in October the area is sown in chicory and clover for lamb finishing and returned to permanent pasture in the autumn.

An area of Clean-crop rape (4.5ha) has been grown this year instead of kale (because of weed problems in the latter) to break feed the R1 heifers.

Broadland’s contour is split between 15% flats, 15% rolling hills and 70% hard, steep hills. The hill soils are all sedimentary while the river flats are alluvial (silt) over metal beds.

The soils are characterised by good pHs, Olsen Ps in the range 9-40 with not many

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paddocks over 20 and low sulphur levels.

The station receives an annual dressing in the autumn of selenium fortified sulphur super 15 at 250kg/ha on the flats and 200kg/ha on the hills.

The prevailing wind is a nor-wester bringing with it most of the station’s annual rainfall of 1162mm. Any wind from the east only brings a skiff of rain to the hills but can severely damage trees.

The station has had a tree planting programme for many years. Willie’s father Hugh has spent many hours on river protection work which has been extremely successful.

“Most of the damage caused by the 2004 floods was caused by water coming off the hills not by the river. The flats were all covered in silt and we were left with only six stock proof paddocks.”

Some poplar poles have been planted

for soil stabilisation and this has been successful however Willie is reluctant to plant them in gorse-prone areas because of regeneration. Gorse is an on-going problem.

Broadlands has a reputation for being a good employer. Stock manager Wayne Romley has been at the station for 35 years while the Romley family has been a feature of its workforce ever since the Akers have owned it. Aidan Morley was employed last November as a general hand. No specialised shepherds are employed as both Willie and his mother Judy have a team of dogs. Willie’s father Hugh looks after the machinery and water system.

The station employs modern stockhandling, labour-saving devices including a conveyor and drafting/weighing system to make life easier.

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LIVESTOCK

Onfarm

BALLS NEEDED FOR BULL BUSINESS

A 1900 bull operation in North Waikato which provides sires for beef and dairy mating is one of the largest in the country.

However, getting to that size hasn’t come easy for owners Dave and Fiona Mackenzie.

Mike Bland reports.

D

ave and Fiona Mackenzie’s North Waikato service bull operation is one of the largest in the country. But getting almost 1800 bulls ready for the dairy mating season takes a lot of balls.

The Mackenzies run 1400-1500 beef bulls on their 330ha effective farm at Waikokowai, west of Huntly, and 200ha of lease land at nearby Pukemiro and Te Kauwhata. Another 350-400 Jersey bulls are grazed on other farms in the region.

The Mackenzies have farmed service bulls since the early 2000’s.

In 2005 they teamed up with New Zealand Farmers Livestock and friends, Greg and Vicki Straker, to start one of NZ’s largest service bull sales. About 300 bulls were offered in the first ‘Bullseye’ sale, held in spring, with numbers climbing to 750 at the peak.

Three years ago the Mackenzies held their first autumn sale to service the growing number of autumn-calving dairy units in the region.

Dave and Fiona have also moved into leasing, and lease about 1000-1100 dairy and beef sires annually.

With the farm situated so close to dairying heartland and dairy cow numbers rising, the Mackenzies saw an opportunity to provide beef and dairy bulls for cow and heifer mating.

Dave felt dairy sires would also be a better fit for the farm because its contour was not ideal for beef finishing.

They have about 410ha of land, but close to 100ha can’t be grazed because it’s in bush, waterways or limestone bluffs. About 200ha of the grazeable land is easy-rolling and the rest is in steeper faces.

“So it’s very hard to split up with electric fencing.”

Numerous limestone outcrops give the country character but can be a hazard for stock.

“If we pushed the system too hard we’d end up grazing stock close to the cliff tops and that’s not going to end well.”

Instead he and Fiona have opted to farm service bulls at a lower

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stocking rate than finishing. Run in mobs of 30-40 and shifted once or twice a week, the bulls have plenty of space to move and that reduces behavioural problems.

Most are Hereford, Angus or Jersey. But the Mackenzies also supply Murray Grey and Red Devon sires if demand is there.

Some of their clients are looking for easy-calving bulls to put over heifers, others want beef bulls to maximise the value of progeny from tail-end cows. The Hereford-Friesian (whiteface) is a popular cross, especially in the Waikato and South Auckland regions.

Dave says deciding how many bulls of each breed to run is based on client feedback and the previous season’s bull numbers.

Bred for calm temperament Many of the Hereford and Angus bulls are sourced from the East Coast as yearlings.

They arrive in mid to late November.

Dave tries to buy direct from farmers where possible and he has a number of regular suppliers.

They have built up a good relationship with them. Trust is very important.

“They know we have to make money but

FARM FACTS • Waikokowai, west of Huntly • Farming about 530ha • Running 1400-1500 beef bulls on home farm and lease land • Grazing Jersey bulls off-farm • Supplying lease and sale bulls for dairy mating • Finishing ex-lease bulls we want them to make money too. It’s got to be win-win for it to work.”

Yearling prices vary from year to year, depending on the schedule.

He says they have to be prepared to meet the market and pay the same price as a store steer, otherwise the suppliers have no incentive to run bulls.

Dave says temperament is the “number one priority” when selecting potential sires.

Dairy farmers want quiet bulls that focus on the job and don’t cause damage onfarm.

Some of the yearling bulls are coming off hard hill country and may have had limited human contact. So it’s crucial they are bred for temperament.

They are handled carefully when they

arrive on Vue Farm, especially when being shifted or in the yards.

They take it nice and gently.

“If we are in the rush all the time, the bulls will be in a rush too.”

In most cases they can just stand at the gate and call them and they will come.

Bulls are generally mobbed according to breed. Sometimes they add Jersey bulls to a beef mob to help them settle in.

“The Jerseys are quiet and soon start leading the other bulls.”

Dave says while they are much smaller than their beef counterparts, Jerseys like to think they are the boss and don’t back down.

The Mackenzies aim to get beef bulls to a weight of 550-600kg by the time they are leased or sold. Most yearlings are bought at 350-400kg, but Dave says they don’t get too hung up on weight.

“As long as they have plenty of frame, we can grow them out.”

Last year he broke his own rule of not buying weaners.

“The weaner market was holding at about $600-$800, which was $200 less than the previous year. So we bought 100 Herefords in May because we had space on the farm.”

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LONG TERM VIEW

Dave and Fiona Mackenzie run a large scale service bull operation in Waikato.

It’s a strategy the Mackenzies might consider again if they have room, because it reduces their exposure to the yearling market.

From March onwards, bulls are supplemented with balage made on the farm. Dave says this helps reduce the facial eczema risk in autumn because bulls aren’t grazing pastures too low.

Stock numbers plummet in late spring as sale and lease bulls leave the farm, just as pasture growth is taking off. The Mackenzies make balage on the tractor country but a significant proportion of the farm’s pastures go rank.

This doesn’t worry Dave, though.

“That long pasture protects us from the summer-dry and promotes natural reseeding. It takes a few grazings to get on top of long grass but by late March we’ve got pasture quality back.”

Typically, the beef bulls will gain 200250kg during the 10 months they are on the

farm. Dave says a daily liveweight gain of 0.85kg/bull is sufficient for them to achieve sale or lease weights.

He says the aim for sale bulls is to achieve a minimum margin of $300/head over what they would make as finishing bulls. This margin helps to cover the extra workload that comes with sourcing and testing bulls and preparing them for sale. A considerable amount of time is also spent liaising with stock agents, clients and graziers.

Dave says it’s a people business as much as a stock business.

He and Fiona employ two staff – Charlie Sanson, who works on Vue Farm and the Pukemiro lease block, and Curly Woolley, who oversees the Te Kauwhata lease block.

Bullseye sales are held on the Mackenzie’s Vue Farm, which has been in Dave’s family for more than 100 years. After working as a livestock clerk and stock buyer, he moved back to the farm in 1989, originally running it in partnership with his great aunt, Flora Mackinnon. Flora was a former school teacher who returned to the farm to help her mother after Flora’s father died of a heart attack.

Some of the original farm had been sold off, but by buying other blocks and subdividing and selling them, Flora and Dave were able to buy back much of that land.

“Flora was very proactive in many ways,” says Dave, “but she was also a real traditionalist”.

In the early years of their partnership, Dave and Flora ran about 200 Hereford cows and 1600 Corriedale ewes.

By the late 1990’s Dave had had enough of running sheep and wanted to grow the service bull business. He married Fiona, a radiographer, in 1997, and in the early 2000s they sold the sheep and the breeding herd and started developing the farm through regrassing and extra subdivision.

Leasing adds flexibility Bull leasing added a new dimension to the Mackenzie’s service bull business.

About 10 years ago they were approached by independent livestock agent Kevin

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BULL SALE WEDNESDAY JUNE 9th 12 NOON - ON FARM SALE 902 ADMIRAL ROAD RD3, GLADSTONE, MASTERTON 5883

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10/03/2021 10:28:57 am

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Fathers, who suggested they try leasing. For the client, leasing means not having to carry the capital cost of buying bulls, and they aren’t exposed to the market risk associated with selling bulls after mating.

“Last year, farmers who bought bulls probably would have been better off financially because the schedule stayed up. But in previous years it hasn’t always worked out that way,” says Dave.

About half the lease bulls are Jerseys, for heifer and herd mating, with the balance beef bulls.

Kevin Fathers acts as lease coordinator and lease numbers have doubled since the business started.

Dave says some farmers will lease one bull a year and some will lease up to 40. But the average client takes 8-10 bulls.

Lease bulls go out for mating between September and November and return during December/January. The farmer pays the cost of freight to the farm and the Mackenzies pay for the return journey. Most of the two-year Jerseys will be kept for another year of mating, the two-year beef bulls will either be sold at the autumn sale or finished at about 30-months.

This season, about 600 beef bulls were

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processed directly from lease clients, averaging 320-340kg carcase weight (CW).

R3 Jerseys are finished at 230-280kg CW. Dave says the biggest advantage of the leasing operation is that it gives more flexibility.

“We have to get our sale bulls into top shape by September 20, even though a lot aren’t going out until November. But with the lease bulls we’ve got more time to get them ready.”

Payout and schedule impact While sales of bull numbers have reduced in recent years, the Bullseye annual sale is still the highlight of the Mackenzie’s calendar.

Dave and Fiona say preparing for the sale is a big job but expert help from friends and family ensures it runs smoothly. It always draws a crowd and usually achieves a full clearance.

“We always do our best to meet the market.”

The dairy payout and the bull beef schedule play a big part in the prices achieved on sale day.

Last year the spring sale, which offered about 450 bulls from the Mckenzies and

“Dairy farmers face a big loss if they don’t get cows in calf, so they still need good service bulls.”

Greg and Vicki Straker, achieved an average of $2384 for Hereford bulls, $2250 for Angus and $2300 for Murray Grey. Average price for the 180-head yarding at the Mackenzie-only autumn sale was about $2200 across all breeds.

Bulls at both sales are tested for BVD and TB, and double inoculated for BVD. As an extra precaution a proportion of bulls are also blood tested for M bovis. Vendors at the spring sale can take delivery of their bulls up until early November as they require them.

One of the largest auctions of its type, Bullseye has helped the Mackenzies develop a loyal client base.

Dave says much credit for the success of Bullseye belongs to Bill Sweeney of NZ Farmers Livestock, who has been behind the concept since the very first sale.

“I knew Bill from my days in the livestock industry. His company has very strong connections in the Waikato dairy industry

and we trust him completely.”

At this year’s spring sale, NZ Farmers Livestock showcased a new selling platform that enabled buyers to bid on line. This meant potential buyers who weren’t able to attend the sale didn’t miss out.

Fiona Mackenzie says bulls were sold as far away as Invercargill.

This year’s Bullseye sales will be held on Monday, May 10, and Monday September 20.

Dave Mackenzie says the service bull industry is highly competitive. Many dairy farmers have reduced their stocking rate by 10% in recent years, meaning fewer bulls are required.

Changes in artificial insemination technology also pose a challenge.

Despite this, the Mackenzies are optimistic the demand for service bulls will remain strong. “Dairy farmers face a big loss if they don’t get cows in calf, so they still need good service bulls.”

Tuesday 8th June 2021 at 2pm Twelfth on-farm bull sale at Morland – 34 Bulls Matauri Smokin Joe K286

HE’S STACKED WITH QUALITY AND PACKED WITH NUMBERS Enquiries always welcome

KEITH & GAE HIGGINS Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

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LIVESTOCK

Onfarm

Dairy ideas lead to beef results Barry Gledhill has made the transition from dairy to breeding Simmental weaner bulls. Russell Priest visited Barry to learn more about his dedication to good genetics and feeding.

Photos by Brad Hanson.

E

x dairy farmer 71-year-old Barry Gledhill from Linton, Manawatu has successfully transitioned from producing top Friesian genetics to selling market-topping beef weaners.

Weighing in at an impressive 367kg average Barry’s top pen of Simmental and Simmental cross weaner bulls made $1225 ($3.34/kg) at Feilding’s first weaner fair of 2021 while his second pen averaging 326kg sold at $1090 ($3.34/kg also). While his top pen was not quite the heaviest pen at the sale, being pipped by a pen of five mixed-breed bulls at 374kg they were the standouts on price.

Barry went on to complete an extremely successful sale selling 44 weaner bulls at an average of a little over $1068/head.

These results are not one-offs as Barry has been selling top weaners at Feilding for a number of years having moved from dairy to beef farming some 17 years ago. In doing so he transferred many of his skills honed during a long career milking cows and breeding Friesian bulls for LIC and Ambreed

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to producing beef weaners.

It’s no coincidence therefore that Barry’s outstanding weaners are the result of combining top genetics with good feeding, both essential ingredients in producing fastgrowing cattle.

At an average age of 214 days and an average birthweight of 40kg Barry’s top pen of bulls averaged an impressive 1.53kg of growth a day from birth to sale.

Farming in the blood Leaving school at the age of 15, Barry always knew he wanted to be a farmer.

“I just knew I was going to be a farmer

but had to wait until I got into the fifth form,” Barry said.

Getting into the first 15 rugby team at Manawatu College slightly delayed his departure. However, as soon as the cows started calving on his father’s Oroua Downs dairy farm he moved onto the next phase of his life, leaving school and working for his father for the next 12 years.

When he turned 21, Barry’s father bought a dairy runoff in Barry’s name which represented the start of his farming career on his own account. This was the first of a number of farms Barry bought and sold during his dairying career which included

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May 2021

Opposite page: Tokomaru based farmer Barry Gledhill with Simmental weaner bulls. Top: Mixed country: A drone shot showing flat land on the left and rolling hills on the right. Above left: Some of the herd enjoying the chicory pasture. Above right: Simmental herd sires.

helping his three sons on to farms.

In 2003 oldest son Mark bought one of Barry’s last dairy farms at Tokomaru, not far from where he now farms, along with his successful pedigree Friesian herd. This year Mark followed in his father’s footsteps by producing a top CRV Ambreed bull (Hillbrae Gaunt Chucky) from the same maternal line as Barry bred his top bull (Hillbrae HS Cinnamon) eight generations earlier.

His second son Daniel farms 100 breeding cows (mostly Simmentals) on a block at Kimbolton in the Northern Manawatu while his youngest son Leyton farms an adjoining block bought two years ago on Barry’s southern boundary running

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May 2021

a pedigree Speckle Park stud, trading cattle and contract rearing calves for Pamu.

From the age of 17 for a period of 10 years Barry worked as an artificial insemination (AI) technician for LIC and continued this for another 15 years when he was sharemilking with his son Mark at Tokomaru.

It was in 1971 when Simmental semen first became available in NZ that Barry decided to inseminate some of his cull Friesian cows with semen from this new breed. His intention was to produce a herd of milking Simmentals however this venture was not successful but it was the growth rate of the progeny that left a lasting impression.

Continues

FARM FACTS • Farm 140ha at the foothills of the Tararua Ranges.

• 17km south-west of Palmerston North.

• Simmental cattle breeding.

• Sells outstanding weaner bulls at Feilding weaner fair.

• An ex pedigree Friesian dairy farmer.

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Chicory and clover pasture.

When Barry retired from dairy farming, he began buying small numbers of various grades of Simmental from half-breds to purebreds to stock his 140ha farm. The more he worked with the breed the more impressed he became.

Today, most of his 100 cows, 55 R2 in-calf heifers and 50 R1 heifers are purebreds and he is presently in the process of registering some of them with the Simmental Cattle Breeders Society of NZ. While he has been herd building there has been little scope for culling however now that surplus females are being generated he is able to pass them onto his son at Kimbolton.

Coming from a dairy background and having bred a genetically high BI (breeding index) pedigree Friesian herd with high production suggests Barry is not only an avid fan of genetics but also knows how to get the best out of his animals using rotational grazing.

“I have about 100 paddocks, the biggest of which is 5.8ha. This enables me to rotationally graze almost all year round and shift most of my stock every day.”

Barry’s rotation length during the spring/

summer period is 3-4 weeks extending to 7-8 weeks in the winter.

The secrets to success During his dairying career Barry produced a number of AI Friesian bulls. In 1990 he bred the top Friesian bull in the country (Hillbrae HS Cinnamon) as well as having one of the genetically top herds. He was also one of the first Friesian breeders in the country to transplant Friesian embryos into recipient cows using the expertise of John and Guy Sargent at Opiki.

Maintaining young and vigorous pasture is another of Barry’s secrets to success. As soon as pasture starts losing its vigour a tractor moves in with a spray boom in the autumn and the paddock is direct drilled with an annual ryegrass such as Winter Star.

This is sprayed out and replaced by chicory and red and white clover the following spring. These stands persist for several years with the oldest being about six. When run out they are lightly sprayed in the autumn and replaced with a predominantly perennial ryegrass-based pasture. Chicory persists well in these pastures even though

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His intention was to produce a herd of milking Simmentals, however this venture was not successful. It was the growth rate of the progeny that left a lasting impression. it is not sown in the pasture mix.

Being rotationally grazed by cattle means the chicory has little opportunity to go to seed thus maintaining its high nutritive value.

Barry also has an area of fescue which has performed well all year round but particularly in dry summers. It requires a shorter rotation length than ryegrass and white clover pasture.

Barry does all his cultivating/planting with a Duncan direct drill which is kept busy between the four farms.

“I sold my plough several years ago then used to disc and power harrow but have also given that away. Our heavy soil is easily damaged using traditional cultivation methods and direct drilling is kinder on the soil.”

The mix of pasture species along with regular cultivation and abundant pasture conservation may be some of the reasons Barry doesn’t need to drench.

Cows and R2 in-calf heifers are rotated in separate mobs during the winter after the cows have cleaned up the gullies post weaning. About a month before calving begins R2 in-calf heifers and cows are sorted into mobs based on which bulls they will be mated to. Rationed on grass behind an electric wire they are fed plenty of hay which may be one of the reasons why Barry has few calving problems.

Starting calving on August 1 means Barry’s weaner bulls are not the oldest weaner calves around. However once they hit the ground they waste little time in putting on the weight with their mothers in great condition producing plenty of protein-rich milk (a characteristic of Simmental milk).

“Most of the calves are born in August with a few in September and early October,” Barry said.

Calves are tagged and given a 5-in-1 jab soon after birth. Once mobile the calf and mum are shed into an adjacent paddock where they are ad lib fed on grass.

Bulls go out to both cows and 15-month heifers in mid-October at a ratio of 1:40 for three cycles. Last year the MA cows

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May 2021

Top: A closeup of the fescue pasture. Above: Three Simmental heifer calves in profile. Most of Barry’s herd is purebred.

produced only one dry (she had twins) with four heifers being dry out of 55.

“I had bull problems with the heifers which may explain the high dry rate with the biggest heifers being the empty ones.”

Once the bulls finish their job the heifers and cows are split into two mobs according to the sex of the calf being reared and rotated throughout the summer in these mobs.

In true dairying tradition, Barry may feed out some balage in the autumn if there is a shortage of feed. This shortage may be the result of him having a significant area under cultivation (pasture renewal).

Weaning of the bull calves occurs immediately before the first Feilding weaner

fair around the middle of March. Heifers are yard weaned a couple of weeks later and fed balage for several days before being let out onto chicory and clover pasture. The cows replace the R2 in-calf heifers in the gullies and immediately set about cleaning up the roughage while the heifers come out onto the high octane feed on the flats.

Half the area of Barry’s farm is represented by deep unstable gullies running down from the Tararua Ranges. These are of low fertility and generally produce low quality feed which is ideal for wintering in-calf cows.

Being strongly focused on genetics, bull selection is an important task for Barry.

He places a lot of emphasis on structural soundness, temperament, polledness and

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May 2021

use of the Simmental Maternal index with a particular focus on direct calving ease.

In recent years he has bought 32 excellent registered females from Rissington, Kerrah, Oripak and Riversend using bulls out of some of these as herd sires. More recently Kerrah bulls from the Knaufs’ large Simmental stud in Wairoa have been used with considerable success.

Farming in the southern Manawatu under the shadow of the Tararua Ranges has a number of challenges, not the least of which are the heavy clay, poorly drained yellow grey earth soils. Many clay tiles have been laid in these soils over the years in conjunction with mole ploughing and Barry admits many have probably broken down.

Since buying the farm, an ex dairy runoff, Barry has concentrated on raising the soil fertility on the flats having applied no fertiliser to the gullies. Olsen phosphate levels on the flats are in the mid-20s while sulphur levels are marginal and extremely difficult to maintain. Regular applications of lime are required to maintain the pH at optimum levels (5.8-6) and potash levels are satisfactory.

In spite of the pastures containing an

Barry used to be a dairy farmer before deciding there was money to be made with Simmentals.

abundance of red and white clover Barry has no bloat problems. He attributes this to a Massey University recommendation of applying salt (sodium) in the fertiliser and to not applying any potash.

Winter and early spring growth is given a boost by applying selenised Crop Masters

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20 or 15 at 250kg/ha in the autumn or spring. Strategic use of Donaghy’s N-Boost on silage paddocks and other situations where a nitrogen boost is required applies 40kg liquid urea reducing nitrogen leaching by about 15%. Barry is a strong advocate of foliar application of fertiliser.

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Bull selection

Carcase trait emphasis pays off BY: TONY LEGGETT

G

reater emphasis on carcase traits at bull selection time is paying dividends for a large scale central North Island beef finishing

enterprise.

Atihau Incorporation has been supplying steers to the Angus Pure programme since its inception seven years ago, and recently began supplying the Alliance Group’s Hand-Picked Beef programme.

Chief executive Andrew Beijeman says Atihau slaughters about 2500 steers annually through the two programmes and its own beef brand, Awhi Ruapehu, which is mostly sold on the domestic market in New Zealand.

“All our finished cattle go into branded programmes and we’re now getting 80-90%

into the specification where it achieves the premiums on offer,” he says.

For the past two years, of the 60 bulls bought by Atihau annually, only highranking Angus Pure Index bulls with estimated breeding values for marbling above the breed average have been bought for use within the Atihau herd.

Beijeman says it was fortunate that Atihau had been buying sire bulls for many years from a Canterbury stud that was increasingly focusing on carcase traits, particularly marbling.

“I believe that we are still benefitting in terms of carcase performance from all those years of buying bulls from Te Mania Angus stud. Although we were more focused on other traits back then, Te Mania was already lifting its own emphasis on marbling score,” he says.

“It doesn’t mean we focus just on

marbling now either. We still need genetics that perform well on our stations, so it has to be a balance of traits.”

Supplying two branded beef programmes with high numbers of animals each week requires superb feed and stock management. He credits Atihau’s Ohotu farm manager Dean Francois and other managers for their skills in preparing the stock for each consignment and PGG Wrightson stock agent Simon Luoni for assisting with stock selection and logistics.

“With any tightly specified programme, it’s not just a case of selecting on weight.

The animals have to be finished to the right level and that’s what requires Dean and Simon’s expertise,” he says.

Atihau bought bulls from several studs which have a strong focus on eating quality. They include Te Mania, Storth Oaks, Waitangi and Kakahu studs.

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Atihau Incorporation has improved its strike rate when supplying two branded beef programmes through lifting the emphasis on carcase traits, particularly marbling, when buying bulls.

Simmental-cross cattle excel Silver Fern Farms Lower South Island Supplier of the year 2020, Jeff Cleveland says his preferred Simmental-cross cattle can give traditional breeds a run for their money when it comes to eating quality.

He is the third generation on the family’s 864ha Braelynn Farm outside Oamaru where he finishes 300 cattle each year under the Silver Fern Farms programme and achieves very high strike rates for Beef EQ – their quality beef programme.

“Though there may be other breeds more commonly recognised for high marbling and superior eating quality, we are managing to deliver on that front and still produce high growth rate cattle,” he says.

“With the Simmental influence we finish virtually all progeny after one winter at around the 18-20 month mark, and this is what drives our profitability.

Jeff can remember back in the early days of the farm when progeny used to take two winters to grow out before sending to slaughter.

“These days our progeny are going out

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May 2021

“All our finished cattle go into branded programmes and we’re now getting 80-90% into the specification where it achieves the premiums on offer.” heavier after one winter than they were after two back then, as well as making their mark in eating quality stakes. The Simmental Angus-cross works brilliantly for us.”

Cleveland is a firm believer that the temperament of the Simmental breed has made huge gains over the years, which has had a big influence in his gains in terms of growth rates and eating quality.

“We all know quiet cattle grow faster, and with lower pH levels the overall eating experience is superior.”

Hereford Prime index success Hawke’s Bay Hereford stud owner Phil Barnett says farmers targeting branded beef programmes like Hereford Prime are increasingly emphasising carcase traits when buying bulls.

“I’ve certainly noticed that farmers aiming at the Hereford Prime brand with their cattle are much more aware of the carcase traits and actively seek out bulls that offer higher marbling as well as the other usual traits like growth and calving ease,” he says.

“They are also looking for animals that have soft coats because they seem better at withstanding a challenge and will still keep producing.”

He urges farmers to talk to stud masters about their requirements so they can help with bull selection.

He says index-assisted buying is also becoming more mainstream and Hereford NZ recently refined its Hereford Prime Index to help bull buyers with their bull selections for targeting the Hereford Prime beef programme.

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LIVESTOCK

Condition scoring

Powerful tool gauges feeding BY: REBECCA GREAVES

B

ody condition scoring (BCS) your commercial beef cow herd doesn’t have to be difficult, and it’s a powerful tool to help farmers to lift beef cow performance, Massey University professor Steve Morris says.

“The biggest ‘why’ is it gives an indication of how your feeding is going. The benefit is you can adjust feeding accordingly, maybe you draft out your tail end or low BCS animals and feed them better.”

Morris is a professor in animal science, teaching and research in beef cattle and sheep, and has spoken on a range of topics, including cow BCS, at a series of recent Beef + Lamb New Zealand field days.

Much like sheep, taking out the tail end and looking after them leads to better overall performance, Morris says, notably improved reproductive performance and bigger calves at weaning.

“When cows are in good condition you can also take condition off at certain times, specifically post-weaning, when you want to give priority feed to your ewe flock for mating.”

Beef cows are usually in their best condition at weaning, about a BCS 7 is ideal (using the B+LNZ system from 1-10, 1 being skinny, 10 being fat) and farmers can take off up to two BCS from then until about eight weeks pre-calving. Morris likens it to having hay in a stack.

Key times of the year The key time to start BCS is at weaning, when cows should be in their best condition, aiming for a BCS of 7. At that time young cows, first or second calvers, might be in poorer condition and it’s a good time to draft them off and look after them.

Two month later, use BCS again to see how the condition has gone, relative to

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feeding. Six to eight weeks before calving is your last opportunity to get things right.

“Draft off anything that hasn’t hacked winter so well and feed accordingly.

Likewise, do the same at calving.”

Aim to increase cow condition heading towards mating to 6+, so they are on a rising plane from lactation, mating and through to weaning. The beauty of this is it generally fits the hill country pasture growth curve.

BCS is a “powerful tool” to help farmers to lift beef cow performance says Massey University professor Steve Morris.

How to do it When it comes to ‘how’ to BCS, Morris says eye is fine, maybe in a race or pen initially, and consistency is key.

“It’s farmer specific, someone’s seven (condition) might be someone else’s 6.5. As long as they have developed a pattern of scoring you can then do it in the paddock or through a gateway.”

If looking down on a beast, for example in the race, Morris has five sites to consider: spine, short ribs, hips, tail head, and pin bones.

If assessing the animal from the side and

back in the pen, consider the rump, hips and spine from the side, and look at the tail head and pin bones from behind.

Morris says the B+LNZ BCS booklet, which was authored in conjunction with the team from Massey, is an excellent starting resource for farmers.

For farmers who are weighing cattle, one condition score change is equivalent to about 30kg of live weight. It is good practice to weigh beef cows occasionally, and for farmers to have a handle on how big their cows are.

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May 2021

“The advantage of BCS is you don’t have to weigh - it can be done through a gate.

But it’s good for farmers to understand how big their cows are in relation to the size of the calves they are producing. A bigger cow must produce a bigger calf, otherwise you’re wasting a lot of feed maintaining her.”

Uptake of BCS in sheep has been good, but there are not many farmers who BCS their cows. Morris says there is much to be gained, using the same principles as those for ewes, by drafting off lighter animals and managing them accordingly.

“It can be a simple and powerful tool to help you get more out of your cows.”

He says hardly anyone talks about beef cow body condition score, calf weaning percentage, or calf weaning weights. The opportunity is there to capture more from beef cows, while still using them to do the job of cleaning up pasture.

Find a friend If you’re going to try the BCS system on your beef cattle for the first time, consider bringing in outside expertise.

Tararua Vets production animal veterinarian Rachael Fouhy explains that a trained eye can help the first time round.

“It’s about how you equilibrate what you are doing. In a perfect world, if you are doing your pregnancy testing and the vet is there, the cattle are in the yards, that’s the perfect place to start. That would be my gold standard scenario.”

Fouhy says it can be helpful to focus on two to three key areas in cows, looking at the same areas in each cow.

Body condition score targets Weaning: BCS 7 Mid-winter: BCS 5 Calving: BCS 5 Mating: At least BCS 6

10 9 8

Weaning BCS 7

Weaning BCS 7

Mating BCS ≥6

7 6 5 4 3

Mid-winter BCS 5

Calving BCS 5

2 1

Source: B+LNZ

Firstly, over the short ribs, secondly around the tailbone (or pin bones) and finally, over the hips.

“Information is key. If you have enough quality information you can make good decisions.”

Using a standardised system to evaluate each cow individually, rather than as a mob, brings the opportunity to be proactive in managing cows that need help before they become noticeably skinny. Identifying and picking up cows that are lagging behind has many benefits.

These include better calving, better calves at weaning because cows have more fat on their backs and energy to put into their calves with milk, and reduced metabolic and other animal health issues. A wellconditioned cow has a greater ability to

buffer any animal health challenges the season throws up.

Heifers in good condition will be more likely to get back in calf, and that’s where the money is to be made.

“When they calve as two-year-olds they usually then go in with the mixed age cows at three-years-old, and can fall behind.

“That’s where BCS can be helpful and, if they’re looked after, they will have better longevity and productivity outcomes over their lifetime.”

Once cows are set stocked for calving there is little opportunity for farmers to influence their BCS before the bull goes out. “If they are in good nick when they go out and calve, then the grass grows, they are more likely to be in good nick when weaning. Good condition means they will

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Photo: BBQ RANCH NOBLE CAUSE 3 year old bull and as a newborn calf

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also recover from calving quicker.”

She also uses the B+LNZ system and works off BCS of 5 as a minimum goal. Aim to put weight on before winter and don’t let cows fall below BCS 4.

“Once you get to BCS 7 that’s money in the bank. They are able to carry their hay barn on their back and that’s when you can work them to make quality ewe feed.”

You don’t necessarily need to lay a hand on every beast, eye is fine, but if the cattle are in the yards and up the race at certain times like TB testing, drenching or pregnancy testing, then it can be a good chance to feel the difference.

“Feeling the animal can give you a stronger connection with what’s happening.

If cows go up the race they are standing still and it means you assess each animal individually to get your eye in and be clear.”

Make a habit of scanning for BCS each time animals are in the yards. The more you practice, the better your eye will become, and the quicker the process will be.

“If you run 1000 beef cows I’m not suggesting you need to put every animal up the race. For larger herds perhaps put a proportion up the race to get your eye in and use as a reference point.”

Fouhy says asking the advice of outside people can be valuable too. “Have a talk to the people who come on your farm about how they think your animals are looking.

It could be the vet, scanner or TB tester – that’s free advice.”

If you are undertaking BCS with your beef cattle it can be useful to keep some kind of records, to refer back to and identify trends over time. An example would be keeping a tally of how many cows were at each BCS number at weaning.

Gladstone farmer Willie Falloon has used body condition scoring (BCS) to improve his Pinebank Wai Group Angus stud herd.

“It’s about identifying your replacements – what are the cows I want to breed from?

We do it for sheep, why not for cattle?” around what he was seeing, to enable a gain in percentage of bodyweight (BW) weaned for his cows. He put his calves through a calculation, adjusting every calf to 200 days and recording the percentage of the cow’s BW when weaned.

“I was looking at efficiency. Why is a big, fat cow weaning a rubbish calf? She’s fat because she’s putting nothing into the calf.”

When he started records the average was 42% of bodyweight weaned, per cow. Now, his average is over 56%. He also started using BCS and percentage of bodyweight weaned as a selection pressure on what he kept in the herd. He killed the bottom ranking 10-15 cows each year, based on these numbers, and continues to do so.

Putting a BCS on them and culling this way has resulted in slightly smaller, but much more efficient, cows that leave better calves, he says. When choosing replacements, they must be weaned over a certain percentage in BW and be out of a 2 or 3 BCS cow.

“I weigh cows at weaning and pre-winter.

The reality is, those 2s and 3s, we can take weight off over winter. They can be mobbed up to do a job, and still retain a good BW. “Your cow is your only animal, in winter, that you can take a large % of BW off when feed isn’t growing, and it still performs very well.”

Falloon’s method for BCS is to look down on top of each cow when it is in the yards.

He has four key areas he looks at – hips, pins, backbone and ribs. The fifth point assessed is the actual weight showing on the scales.

“I find when you look down on an animal from the top you can see so much. It doesn’t really matter how you do it, as long as you’re consistent in what you’re doing.”

Although Falloon only uses BCS in his stud herd, he says there are benefits for commercial farmers too. “Say you have 150 cows and the heifers coming into the herd, you want them coming in as a productive animal. It’s about identifying your replacements – what are the cows I want to breed from? We do it for sheep, why not for cattle?

“I strongly believe we are farmers of grass, not livestock. The aim is to have the animal that converts the highest amount of kilograms of drymatter to kilograms of product weaned or weighed. The way to do that is to weigh the animal.”

A farmer’s perspective BCS aids Gladstone farmer Willie Falloon in sire and replacement selection at his Pinebank Wai Group Angus stud.

Honing his eye over 17 years of undertaking BCS in his herd of 400 stud cattle (including heifers), Falloon prefers to look down on the animal and gives a score from 1 (whale) to 5 (skeleton). His aim is for cattle to be in BCS 2-3.

The catalyst for starting BCS was to lift the percentage of bodyweight weaned for each cow.

“As a stockman, a cow might not be really fat but it could have a wicked calf. I don’t want big fat whales with rubbish calves.

I started weighing cows and calves and condition scoring.”

Falloon was keen to put some maths

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Bull health

Give bulls a helping hand Sometimes empty cows are caused by bulls having performance issues or health problems. Joanna Grigg talked with two large animal vets to find out how to avoid this and get 90% in-calf cows.

A

Marlborough study of 10,000 cows by Vet Marlborough, using client data, showed poor scanning rates were linked to confirmed bull problems.

Nine farms in 2020 had fewer than 50% of cows in the herd scanned in calf from cows put to the bull. Two cases were obvious bull failure, five had no bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) vaccination history for bulls or cows and the last two had suspect low-libido bulls.

“Any exceptionally bad scanning results tend to be due to confirmed bull problems, not the cows,” said Trish Lipyeat, veterinarian with Vet Marlborough.

“I’ve seen up to 30 dry cows in a mob of less than one hundred and it’s

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heartbreaking, as it’s avoidable.”

Farms with 50% to 58% conception had issues relating to cows; light cow condition, suspected BVD or trace element issues, Trish said.

The two large animal vets at Vet Marlborough, Trish and Mary Bowron, pregnancy test about 10,000 beef cows annually between them. The 2020 average, for a three-cycle mating, was 92%. This is still higher than the New Zealand average but, in 2020, was pulled down by bull break downs, mainly in the East Coast of the South Island.

“It’s hard (for bulls) trying to stay safe whilst riding cows in that Ward wind,” Trish said.

Measure conception The most telling way to measure conception is ‘cows in calf in the first cycle’ - which is 21 days. This standardised conception rate takes out any effect from an extended mating period. The NZ average range is 0.49 to 0.62 while the top 25% of herds have a 0.62 conception rate. Marlborough subregion results in 2020 ranged from 0.53 for East Coast South, up to 0.62 for Seddon/ Awatere.

Professor Steve Morris, Massey University, speaking in a Beef + Lamb NZ podcast on The NZ Beef Cow, said that a good target for mixed age cows is 0.50 conceived in the first 21 days and a mating period of no longer than 60 days.

“This is upwards of 50% of cows

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May 2021

Table A: Trish and Mary’s top tips for bull fertility, Vet Marlborough.

WHEN

WHAT

HOW

Give BVD booster

Vaccinate

Libido test 30 to 60 days prior

Best practice method is artificial vaginal and cycling heifers, supervised by a vet.

Soundness test

Standing and walking square and evenly.

Fit and fed, not fat

If there are no greens, give quality hay or balage/ silage. Push them around a large paddock before feeding to give exercise.

Mineral Supplements

Dose, inject or a bloc.

Deliver with low-stress

Slow walk out, not raced.

Take bull right to cows

Bring cows to the bull at the gateway if the bull is tired.

Bull ratio higher if rough country and larger blocks

Large blocks: 1 bull/40 cows.

Smaller blocks: 1 bull/50 cows

Inspect every few days

Watch that bulls do ‘the wee jump’ and get back legs off the ground. If they don’t, they may not inseminate.

Before joining

At joining

What the vet sees: The leg and hoof of the calf foetus is a clear sign this cow is in-calf.

During joining

Check for corkscrew or broken penis (no penetration).

If the bull is on its own and looking sore, walk it around to see if it is lame.

conceived in the first cycle of 21 days, and a concentrated calving.”

He describes this as the only way to lift the NZ average calving percentage from a “static” 82% towards 90%.

“If 100 cows go to the bull, then 95% should be pregnant and, of those 95 cows, then 95% should wean a calf – giving us a 90% weaning.”

Check your boys out The good news is that bull failure is avoidable. Checking bulls properly before and during mating can spot problems early and allow a follow-up bull to be used.

Conception may be delayed but at least they are in calf.

“Rough country isn’t an excuse for poor pregnancy rates – many have great results,” Trish said.

Mary suggests farmers visit the herd every five to seven days, if practical, and look for bull lameness, corkscrew penis issues or bulls standing alone, which may be a sign of a sore back.

“If the bulls mount but don’t do the wee jump at the end, getting their back feet off

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May 2021

the ground, then they may not be firing.”

About one third of Vet Marlborough clients test bull performance using on-heat heifers and an artificial vagina.

“This is the best standard for animal welfare.”

Although bull studs should libido test bulls pre-sale, some don’t, she said.

“Rough country isn’t an excuse for poor pregnancy rates – many have great results...”

BVD is linked to suppressed bull and cow fertility. Mary suggests bulls get a yearly BVD booster. About 70% of her clients vaccinate heifers each year and some farms also vaccinate MA cows.

“BVD can show up as an early-death embryo, often meaning the cow doesn’t have a chance to get pregnant again.”

Trish said farmers with extended calving dates, into the third cycle and even fourth,

Eye on the prize: Mary Bowron, Vet Marlborough, busy pregnancy scanning mixed- age cows. The clinic tracks district in-calf rates and they have been lower than average in the past two years – influenced by some bull problems and lighter cow condition.

need to consider to shorten the mating term.

“We definitely see more issues the following year if the farmer left the bull out for three or four cycles.”

“There will be more dries and a delayed conception again.”

“To remedy it, restrict the mating period and take the hit with potentially more dries but get a better conception the following year, and more even age of calves.”

Trish said the 2021 pregnancy scanning season (as of early April) is shaping up to be just another average year, with similar results to the previous season.

This is a good result given that spring

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feed allocations were tight in many places during mating, with a feed flush in December and then four months of diminishing quality and quantity. Despite the worsening conditions, cows have got back in calf, even at lighter condition scores, and carried on growing a calf at foot.

This shows the value of a cow’s utility.

Vet Marlborough has provided regional and individual heifer and cow conception figures to clients since 1999.

Pregnancy scanning tips

Mary Bowron from Vet Marlborough, said the rail height above the catwalk at the Kaituna Ridges yard is ideal for probe scanning. She’s had a few cases where a high rail means the farmer had to hold her legs to stop her falling into the race.

Red, White & Roans of our world

Good planning can help speed up and smooth the cow pregnancy testing process.

Veterinarian Mary Bowron, Vet Marlborough, said having enough staff to load the backyard, push up cows and mark dries, is key to a smooth operation.

“I’d suggest a minimum of three.”

In danger of stating the obvious, separating calves off before the vet arrives is a good idea, she said.

“And have a side yard for cows scanned dry, that should be rechecked manually.”

Timing of scanning is important. Beyond six months of pregnancy the probe has to be inserted 900cm (full length) which

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is harder on the cow and takes longer.

Between 42 and 120 days is ideal.

Having a good record of all joining dates with the bull helps the vet know what size foetus (and therefore the position) to be looking for.

“We also appreciate being forewarned if foetal aging is required.”

Bowron’s Marlborough clients are increasingly asking for this aging service, mainly to identify third cycle cows which are pulled out for potential sale. Cows have to be between six and 15 weeks in calf. Vet Marlborough has a head fixed monocular scanning system – this kit alone worth about $4500.

One thing the farmers have less control over is the state of the rectal matter.

“Dry feed makes for hard dry poo and compaction when using the probe – it’s just a bit slower.”

She says 2018 was a bad year as dry feed was combined with lighter cows, and 2021 is shaping up to be similar.

Heifers calve autumn, rest in spring p113

››

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Heifers calve autumn, rest in spring SPLITTING MATING DATES AND autumn calving heifers, works well for Paul and Muff Newton on their summer-moist Havelockfarm, Marlborough.

The heifers are mated in June at 22 months, scanned in November and they calve the following autumn. The 100 mixedage cows calve on August 1. Paul likes the system as it means heifers are well-grown, reducing the chance of dystocia (difficult or obstructed labour).

“Calving in autumn also gives the heifers more time to get back in calf, as rising threeyear-olds, from a November mating. “ The Newton’s Angus cows are largerframed animals. Because the heifers are not put to the bull until they are almost risingtwo, Paul doesn’t use a low-birth-weight EBV bull for heifers.

“They are all big enough.”

He pregnancy tests once a year (March for mixed age cows), accepting that any

dry heifers will just grow on and be sold as prime beef.

This season his 103 mixed age cow herd scanned with 93.2% in calf, with one dry cow having an obvious hernia.

“I leave the bull out for at least 63 days and don’t worry about late calves.”

“Late calves are kept and fattened and if they are really late, they can go with autumn calving heifers.”

About 85% calves are weaned to cows mated. The cows stay on the very steep hills over winter and calve there too.

“Their job is prepping pastures for lambing.”

To keep conception rates up, Paul pays close attention to bull soundness during mating.

“I’ve had to cull two bulls over the past four years but was able to put in a replacement bull at an early stage.”

He admits he doesn’t BVD booster the

bulls and probably should.

“We have vaccinated heifers and mixedage cows in the past but not recently.”

Trace element supplementation includes annual copper bullets and selenium.

For his 120 cows he uses three bulls, with a spare back-up bull on hand at a ratio of 1:40 cows. Bulls have been sourced recently from Matariki (Hereford), Woodbank and Brackenfield (Angus).

The mixed-age cows’ job is to clean up rank feed off the hills for the higherreturning sheep. Last season Paul took on 50 extra cows from his brother’s farm in Nelson, to help control the November surplus.

All progeny are fattened and sold via the Aleph Contract with ANZCO. Prime cattle are sold from August onwards at 23 months with most going in November.

Heifer carcass weights are 280kg+ and steers 310kg+.

Paul Newton of Kaituna Ridges, splits the calving to provide feed flexibility and get heifers well grown before joining.

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LIVESTOCK

Breeding

who indicated the collaborations and developments are productive and positive for the NZ beef industry.

Demonstration and adoption of aids to genetic improvement being facilitated by Rissington and their partners were outlined

by Rissington’s Daniel Absolom. They have installed some automated liveweight and feed intake equipment from Canadian company Grow Safe Systems. Provision of the automated electronic weighing allows innovative measurement of feed intake and animal growth. This author is familiar with the technology after setting up jointly with GrowSafe a demonstration and research system in 2009 at the University of New England’s Tullimba feedlot in Australia.

There is great potential for NZ use in evaluation of feed conversion efficiency (FCE) as Australian research has shown a good correlation between animal feedlot FCE with that at pasture. Rissington has the only GrowSafe demonstration units in NZ.

RFID ear tags

Progressive beef breeding opportunities BY: DR KEN GEENTY

A

new wave of collaboration and innovation sweeping across our beef industry will progressively inform and empower bull breeders and commercial producers. Included will be customised New Zealand based estimated breeding values (EBVs) and indexes, multibreed evaluations, and delivery of genomics EBVs based on DNA information validated against production measurements.

Additional availability of electronic data capture tools and reproductive technologies will help accelerate genetic improvement.

Farmer uptake of these emerging new and improved technologies will translate to greater cumulative and permanent production and profit from beef cattle.

Some of the players driving these progressive developments are Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics, NZ beef breed societies and the Hawkes Bay-based Rissington Cattle Company. Partners of the latter include Leachman Cattle of Colorado,

114

Zoetis, Animal Breeding Services, Grow Safe Systems, and other Angus breeders. More information is on their respective websites.

Informing NZ Beef A new homegrown NZ beef breeding scheme entitled ‘Informing NZ Beef’ is being developed by B+LNZ Genetics and partners. The programme, based on NZ evaluations, will develop new traits and indexes using valuable experience from the long established sheep genetics system nProve. The new beef cattle system will take account of NZ pasture-based challenges and opportunities and will embrace various partnerships and collaborations.

The collaborative grouping around the Rissington Cattle Company and partners has synergies with the new B+LNZ programme via some common objectives.

The Rissington cluster gives an international flavour with access to a global beef database containing some 1.4 million beef animals in NZ, Australia, US, UK, and France.

Associated with both above groupings is AbacusBio’s beef specialist Dr Jason Archer

Capabilities with each animal having radio frequency identification (RFID) Allflex ear tags include live measurement of individual animal feed and water intakes and recording of animal live weights with automated voluntary walk-over-weighing in the yards. This information, accessed live and retrospectively on a stand-alone computer system, enables recording of vast quantities of feed intake and live weight performance data. As well as detailed feed intake and liveweight trends over time the data can also be used for management in commercial feedlots with identification of slow growing animals with health or other problems.

Estimates of bull or progeny FCE from residual feed intake (RFI) over a 50-70 day recording period can be derived from the data. RFI is the difference between measured feed intake and expected intake from published requirements for maintenance and growth with lower or negative values being best. Since feed represents about 70% of production costs selection for low RFI is very beneficial as it has a moderate heritability of 35-40%. Availability of multiple liveweights allows accurate estimates of feed intake to liveweight gain ratios or FCE. Use of the GrowSafe technology is more prevalent in Australia where use of feedlots for cattle and sheep is much more widespread than in NZ. However there are opportunities here to set up more sire and/ or progeny group tests for RFI on farms with feedlot facilities or on already established feedlots.

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The Rissington partnership with Zoetis allows use of genomics for commercial heifer replacement selection using the likes of ‘Inherit Select’ traits and indexes estimated on some 3200 heifers in NZ over the last 8 months. A DNA sample from heifer ear punch tissue is calibrated against genetic parameters from the global database. The beauty of genomics is the ability to make selection decisions at an early age thus speeding up the rate of genetic gain and better profitability.

There is also potential for wider use with expensive or hard to measure traits, such as meat-eating quality, as physical production measurements only need to be made in smaller reference populations with wide pedigree linkages. This gives greater reach for the genomic tools, especially in groups of well-connected animal relatives.

This innovative use of genomics has seen extension of genetic improvement via heifer replacement selection in commercial herds which augments the more common use of EBVs and indexes for breeding of bulls in seedstock herds.

Another means of accelerating genetic

Feedlot cattle using the GrowSafe feed intake measurement system.

Source: Grow Safe Systems.

gain in beef cattle is through multiplication of superior genetics through Rissington’s partner Animal Breeding Services.

Reproductive technologies available include multiple-ovulation and in vitro fertilisation for embryo transplants to recipient cows. Use of sexed semen for in vitro fertilisation or artificial insemination allows proportionately greater production of sires with high genetic merit.

The developments discussed here provide exciting opportunities for both commercial beef producers and seedstock bull breeders alike. Watch this space in anticipation of ongoing aids to improved genetics for beef production progressively rolling off the production line.

• Ken Geenty is a primary industries consultant.

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Feed planning

Time to re-think feed planning BY: DR KEN GEENTY

N

ow the winter months are with us it’s a good time to re-visit feed planning and budgeting for your sheep and cattle over the coming year.

The idea is simply to best match pasture supply and animal feed demands as shown in the generalized Fig. 1 example. Some of you may be daunted by the structured approach but success in meeting livestock target weights needs these workings.

Fundamental are your ability to estimate available pasture drymatter (DM), effective monitoring of animal liveweights and knowledge of animal feed requirements.

There are feed planning software packages and apps available but even if these are used, a working knowledge of

KAIMOA

the underlying principles is invaluable.

The concepts are well within your grasp by simply developing the required skills and having access to up-to-date sheep and cattle feeding tables. Bringing it all together may require participation in training exercises with a proficient colleague or your farm management consultant.

The essentials you will need for effective feed planning are: • Accurate knowledge of paddock and farm areas • The ability to measure or visually assess the amount of pasture in a paddock • A knowledge of seasonal pasture growth on your farm • Access to up-to-date sheep and cattle feeding tables The basis of feed planning is estimation of grazing days in a paddock. The worked

example in Table 1 is simplified for ease of grasping the fundamentals.

The same method can be used for other classes of stock using stock units and values from up-to-date feeding tables. If pasture growth is significant at say 80kg DM/ha/day = 400kg DM it should be included. In the above example this would still only have a small impact by increasing grazing days by 400/1500 = 0.26 of a day. However in larger paddocks the influence of pasture growth will be more significant, particularly during more rapid spring growth.

Once this paddock basis of feed planning is mastered the final three steps of a whole farm feed budget include: • Setting up a rotation or set-stocking system • Compiling a feed budget • Reconciliation of stock carried

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Right: Depending on animal liveweight, production level and class of land, a standard breeding ewe is one stock unit, a beef cow is six to seven.

Stock units (NZ Society of Animal Production) A stock unit is based on a ‘standard breeding ewe’ rearing on average 1.5 lambs and consuming about 6000 mega joules of metabolizable energy (MJME) a year.

On this basis generalized equivalent su of different classes of stock are: Class of stock SU Standard breeding ewe 1.0 Dry-ewe/hogget 0.6-0.8 Beef breeding cows 6-7 18-month steers 5-6 (Note: estimation of su depends on animal liveweight, production level and class of land).

Figure 1: A generalized feed supply and demand profile for a 70:30 sheep:cattle ratio.

Source: A guide to feed planning (Sheep Council)

Estimation of the number of sheep grazing days in a paddock Paddock size

5 hȩectares

Average pasture length

Before grazing: 4cm – 1400kg DM/ha After grazing: 1cm – 800kg DM/ha

Feed consumed:

600kg DM/ha or 3000kg DM for 5ha

Number of ewes:

1500

Feed required:

1500 x 1 = 1500kg DM/day

Number of grazing days:

3000 / 1500 = 2 grazing days

Pasture supply (growth) and demand (kg DM/ha/day)

Table 1 Assumptions: early winter (May 1) when pasture growth is 10kg DM/day and maintenance feed required for pregnant ewes is 1kg DM/head/day.

Rotational grazing or set-stocking

50 Hay made

40 30

Hay fed Feed demand

Hay fed

20

Feed supply

10 0

Jul

Sep

Nov

Month

Jan

Mar

May

Research has not shown any clear efficiency or production advantage for either grazing management system.

Generally the time of year or personal preferences will help decide the best option for you and combinations may well be chosen. Rotational grazing is most effective for rationing pasture. Set-stocking is less labour intensive and depends on pasture growth being adequate to meet animal feed requirements. What may work well for your neighbour may not be the answer for you. In making the above decisions you must have in mind seasonal pasture growth and animal feed requirements for your farm. Key considerations are: • getting through the winter period • handling the spring pasture surplus • coping with summer-autumn challenges The grazing management system chosen should be best to manage the pasture deficits/surpluses likely for your farm as shown in the Fig. 1 example. In this example pasture deficits in summer, autumn and winter exceed conserved spring feed surpluses. This indicates feed may need to be bought or stock carrying capacity reduced to better equate your farm feed supply and demand.

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Feed budget

Figure 2: An example of the influence of different sheep:cattle ratios on pasture demand.

Daily pasture demand (kg DM/ha/day)

“...maintain overall average pasture cover on your farm between 1000 and 2500kg DM/ha. If you go outside these limits for extended periods both animal and pasture performance will probably suffer.”

A feed budget will allow you to relate pasture supply with animal feeding needs during the year. Importantly it will identify expected pasture deficits and allow them to be countered by options such as nitrogen application, cropping and hay conservation or buying.

The broad aim with feed planning and budgeting is to maintain overall average pasture cover on your farm between 1000 and 2500kg DM/ha. If you go outside these limits for extended periods both animal and pasture performance will probably suffer.

The feed budget can be compiled manually or using a computer spreadsheet or specialist packages available online or through your consultant. You will need

50

Sheep:Cattle

45 40

100:0 70:30

35

50:50 30:70

30

0:100

25 20 15 10 Jul

Sep

Nov

Jan

Mar

May

Month

Source: A guide to feed planning (Sheep Council)

15.8 15.4

Stocking rate (Stock Units/ha)

Figure 3: An example of different stocking rates to retain adequate pasture cover for various sheep:cattle ratios.

14.9 14.0 13.9 13.4 12.9

to continually review the feed budget according to seasonal changes, especially the unexpected. In summary the steps involved in constructing your feed budget are: • reconciliation of stock carried • regular assessment of pasture cover • calculation of feed supply and demand

Reconciliation of stock carried The numbers of stock carried on your farm will be dependent on your policy decisions regarding: • what am I good at and like doing? – eg. specialising in lambs or wool or weaner cattle • is this a store or finishing farm – or a bit of each?

• is my stock policy too complicated?

• where is my profit from?  ewes  lambs  ewe hoggets  breeding and/or finishing cattle

Stock ratios A very important part of your chosen livestock mix is sheep-cattle ratios. There are known production benefits from integrating sheep and cattle as they complement each other. Cattle cope better with longer rank feed while sheep are good at maintaining pasture quality by grazing lower and helping plant density.

Sustainable ratios of sheep to cattle stock units vary considerably from say 70:30 on hill country to 30:70 on easier country or up to 100% sheep or cattle on intensive finishing land.

There are important influences of different sheep:cattle ratios on stock carrying capacity and the pasture feed demand profile. Fifteen sheep SUs/ha do not equate with 15 cattle SUs/ha. As illustrated in Figs. 2 and 3 increasing proportions of cattle mean greater pasture demands and an overall reduction in stock carrying capacity.

Other aspects to consider are that as cattle numbers increase labour requirements overall are less but capital investment is much greater than for sheep.

However higher performing farms generally have a greater proportion of cattle.

12.4 11.8

0:100

30:70

50:50

Sheep:Cattle

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May 2021

70:30

100:0

• Ken Geenty is a primary industries consultant.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

A deep dive into drenching Beef finishers should ease up on the drenching to avoid the likelihood of drench resistant parasites, writes Ben Allott.

B

eef finishing or dairy heifer grazing systems present a number of challenges around parasite control. The high stocking rate of a single stock class under rotational grazing leads to a rapid rise in parasite challenge if drench intervals are not kept tight and regular.

Meeting high liveweight gain targets is usually necessary to meet dairy heifer target weights or to maintain a profitable finishing model. Because of these factors it has become common practice to drench young cattle monthly through large parts of the year.

My blunt, honest assessment of an intensive cattle system that finds itself needing to drench all young cattle

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once monthly is that your system is unsustainable. This high level of chemical input is creating drench resistant parasites in a big way. If you want to be able to continue finishing young cattle or rearing dairy heifers, you need to find a way to reduce the amount of drench you use.

You need to develop a plan to incorporate refugia into your parasite management plan. Refugia involves keeping a population of susceptible worms on the farm which can slow the build-up of parasites resistant to drenches.

In the same breath, you need to do this while maintaining a high level of performance. Simply drenching less frequently will usually not help you achieve this and the production cost can be large.

One idea you should explore with a trusted animal health advisor is developing a targeted selective treatment (TST) programme. An example TST programme could run like the outline below. However, it is important to get good farm specific advice prior to implementing a programme on your farm: • The decision on whether to drench an animal or not is made based on the individual average daily gain (ADG) since the last weigh event. Animals that have achieved a high ADG are left undrenched. Animals with a low ADG are drenched.

• You continue to bring all young cattle into the yards at set, regular intervals for a weigh event. At each weigh event some

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May 2021

solid compared to the pre-set target ADG, then only drench the lower growth group (those with ADG <80% of mob average) b) If mob ADG is disappointing compared to target ADG, then drench the lower growth and the average growth groups. The higher growth group should be left undrenched. c) If mob ADG is very poor i.e. even the higher growth threshold is disappointing compared to target ADG, then drench all cattle but consider animal disease, trace element deficiency, or unrealistic expectations and collect samples to improve the model e.g. feed test to check pasture quality, or bloods for trace element levels.

For example: Late Spring – yearling Hereford steers on good native pasture, allocations not limited. The scenario I run through Q-graze puts pasture quality at 10.5-10.8MJME and sets a mob ADG expectation of 1.2kg/day. I run 20 head through first to measure my mob ADG and the average is 0.9kg/day = disappointed compared to expectation. My three groups are: • Low growth = 0.9kg/day x 0.8 (80%) = cattle with ADG less than 0.72kg/day • Average growth = cattle with ADG of 0.72 – 1.08kg/day • High growth = 0.9 x 1.2 = cattle with ADG greater than 1.08kg/day.

“My blunt, honest assessment of an intensive cattle system that finds itself needing to drench all young cattle once monthly is that your system is unsustainable.”

In this example, drench any cattle coming through the crush with ADG of less than 1.1kg/day – the lower growth and the average growth groups.

New Zealand research to date has shown that with a well-run TST programme you can expect to reduce the amount of drench you use by 50-70% while experiencing reductions in ADG of less than 5%. With dairy calves, some advisors will book a whole mob in to be drenched after several rounds of TST. The fantastic part of the TST is that with a well-run approach backed by good advice there is no cost to the system and minimal disruption to your current farm practice.

No new cultivation to introduce new forage types, you yard cattle every four weeks just like you did before, there is no new product cost, and there should be very little impact on production. It takes some thought to set the programme up but once up and running it becomes simple to manage.

Food for thought.

• Ben Allott is a North Canterbury veterinarian.

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animals will receive a parasite drench. For very young cattle in a highly intensive system these weigh events are set at 4-weekly intervals. For older finishing cattle or in less intensive systems I have set longer intervals.

• Prior to each yarding you set an average daily gain target for the mob. Setting robust ADG targets is an important part of the program and these should factor in cattle breed, cattle age, season, feed quality, and pasture allocations. If you set your target too high you will drench more animals and reduce the provision of refugia. If you set your target too low you will under-drench the mob. This could lead to high parasite burdens, lower growth rates, higher faecal egg counts, and the contamination of pasture with parasite larvae.

• My approach is to run 20 head through the scales back into the mob. The average daily gain of these 20 gives me a mob ADG which I use to set three ADG thresholds which will drive my drench decisions for the day: a) Low growth group = ADG is <80% of mob average (multiply mob ADG by 0.8) b) Average growth group = ADG is 80%-120% of mob average c) High growth group = ADG is >120% of mob average (multiply mob ADG by 1.2) • How do you know who to drench? a) If the mob ADG (average of 20) is

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Protected or infected?

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If an unborn calf is infected with BVD prior to 120 days gestation, it could be born persistently infected (Pl). That means it will spread the virus to other cattle for the rest of its life. So fetal protection is vital to breaking the cycle of BVD transmission.

Vaccines in New Zealand provide varying durations of fetal protection, meaning unborn calves could become PIs if BVD exposure happens at the wrong time.

Bovilis BVD is the only vaccine that has demonstrated 12 months fetal protection after the 3rd dose – the longest coverage available. Booster cows and heifers with Bovilis BVD and this season’s pregnancies will be protected no matter when they are conceived.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Animal welfare

Less pain, more gain with hornless cows BY: SARA SUTHERLAND

W

hy do some cows have horns? Most beef breeds in developed countries have bred the horns out.

Dairy breeds in general have not, because of a genetic link between horns and milk production. This means a small number of sheep and beef farms have crossbred cows who still throw calves with horns. Recent animal welfare regulation changes have affected this small number of farmers.

The regulations now say that cattle of any age cannot be disbudded or dehorned without pain relief. Effective pain relief means that the animal will not feel it. Think of the difference between having a tooth pulled with a nerve block or without. By injecting local anaesthetic directly onto the nerve, the cow can’t feel its horns at all and the job becomes more pleasant for everyone. Farmers can do the disbudding themselves if they are trained and accredited by a vet to place the anaesthetic exactly in the right place on the nerve. Otherwise, this is a job for the vet.

At a young age the horn buds ‘float’ over the skull bone. At this age the germinal cells that the horn grows from can be destroyed by burning and the horns will never grow back. In an adult animal, those

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May 2021

germinal cells are deep in the skull and no matter how deep you cut the base of the horn, horns will still grow back. That is the difference between disbudding and dehorning.

So, what are your options for the unpolled members of your herd?

1. Do nothing. There is a risk with this option of cattle injuring others with their horns. They may also be unable to be transported. The regulations used to say that horned cattle could not be transported if the horns were longer than the ears, now they say for transport the horns must not be able to injure themselves or another animal.There is also a risk of a horn curling around and growing into the face, these need to be removed before the tip of the horn goes through the skin.

2. Get them disbudded as calves. Those tiny horn buds that you can barely feel and haven’t yet broken the skin can be burnt off under local and general anaesthetic and then they don’t grow back. Dairy farmers get their calves done at four to six weeks old. On a sheep and beef farm this means getting them done at calf marking, not at weaning.

3. Get them dehorned just prior to transport. Legally, you can’t transport

them within seven days of dehorning and best practice is to wait three weeks.

Removing the horns at this age is a slower and harder job, and your vet will thank you for good yards and a safe head bail. The horns are likely to grow back (which may or may not be an issue).

4. Sell all your horned cattle and buy polled ones. With the change in societal expectation, and the extra cost of pain relief, this genetic change will probably happen in the dairy breeds too. The sooner, the better.

• Sara Sutherland is a veterinarian for Veterinary Services Wairarapa.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Leptospirosis

Poor calving? Lepto may be the cause BY: ANDREW ROE

B

eef cattle pregnancy testing is underway around the country and while we are out and about on the farm, it’s a good chance to have a catch up about the previous season’s calving results. Every now and then we hear about some particularly poor calving/weaning percentages, especially in first calvers. Whether it be due to abortions, stillborn calves or calves dying early in life, the end result is that, come calf marking time, a proportion of the mob fail to turn up with a calf at foot, despite being scanned pregnant earlier in the year.

When investigating these cases the potential causes we have tended to consider first are bovine viral diarrhoea (BVD) and trace element deficiencies, especially selenium and iodine, as well dystocia and,

of course, bad weather at calving time.

However, based on several recent cases, including one confirmed just a couple of months ago, we are now including leptospirosis (lepto) near the top of the list.

Leptospirosis is a bacterial disease, with the causative organism widespread in New Zealand farmed livestock and wildlife.

The bacteria live in animals’ kidneys and are shed in their urine, contaminating waterways, pasture and feed.

There are six serovars (strains) of the bacteria in this country and each of them has one or more species of animal in which they largely reside. This species is referred to as the maintenance host and they act as a reservoir of the bacteria. The maintenance host species does not often suffer any significant ill effects from harbouring the lepto bacteria. Disease is seen, however, when the bug is transferred from the

maintenance host to another species of animal.

A common example in NZ is Leptospira interrogans, Pomona serovar. Pigs are the maintenance host for this serovar and so they rarely get sick when carrying it.

However if cattle, sheep or deer become infected with Pomona it can cause a range of problems including illness and death in young stock, and abortions in pregnant animals.

Rural workers at risk Lepto bacteria can also infect humans.

Leptospirosis is regarded as our most important infectious occupational disease, with farmers, shearers, meat workers, hunters and vets being at most risk, due to their contact with animals. Nearly all NZ dairy farmers vaccinate their stock against lepto, largely to protect themselves

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“As with BVD, a simple blood test of a few of your younger cattle can help identify if lepto is a potential problem in your herd.” and their staff. And, similarly, in the pork industry, a vaccination programme is a requirement for supplying animals to the main processing companies.

So, what about the red meat sector?

A large NZ survey conducted by Massey University’s EpiCentre in 2009, found that 95% of our beef herds, 97% of our sheep flocks and 77% of our deer herds had evidence of exposure to lepto. As far as the beef herds go, 72% of them had evidence of infection with the Pomona serovar, so it is not surprising that we are seeing the impact, in terms of poor beef cow reproductive performance. Wild pigs seem to be becoming more prevalent in Otago and venturing on to farmland more and more; especially in the type of terrain where beef cows commonly spend the winter.

From what I have heard, other parts of the country are experiencing similar problems.

Research has demonstrated a clear benefit to vaccinating deer against lepto; in terms of both improved growth rate of young stock and better reproductive performance of first calvers. In our beef herds the benefits of lepto control have not been so clearly defined. In 2014 Emile Vallée, of the EpiCentre, reported on a study conducted across nine sheep and beef farms, looking at the benefits of vaccinating against lepto.

While the researchers observed trends for improved performance in stock that were vaccinated, these improvements were not statistically significant. Given the small sample size and the fact that not all farms in the project had evidence of infection with the Pomona serovar, this was maybe not surprising, but the results were encouraging enough to justify the need for a larger study to be undertaken.

Simple blood test At a vet practice level, we believe that we have seen benefits of lepto control in some of our clients’ beef herds. Blood samples taken from heifers that have failed to rear a calf have revealed very high lepto titres on a number of farms, and those farmers who have then gone on to implement a vaccination programme have reported

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Left: Maintenance host species such as pigs don’t often suffer any significant ill effects from harbouring lepto bacteria, but when transferred to another species of animal it can cause a range of problems.

A NZ survey found 72% of beef herds had evidence of infection with the Pomona serovar.

improved reproductive performance in subsequent seasons. While this is clearly anecdotal evidence, rather than a scientific trial, it gives us confidence to at least include lepto in the conversation when investigating cases of unsatisfactory calving percentages in young beef cattle.

As with BVD, a simple blood test of a few of your younger cattle can help identify if lepto is a potential problem in your herd.

Each year in this country about 100 people are diagnosed with clinical leptospirosis.

As many of these cases are related to the sheep beef and deer sectors as to the dairy sector. So some people would argue that, because the bacteria has been shown to be present in the majority of the country’s beef herds, the risk is high enough to warrant vaccination as a matter of course. To protect your family, staff and yourself, as well as your stock.

• Andrew Roe is a veterinarian at Clutha Vets, Balclutha.

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Virus

Impacts of BVD ignored BY: REBECCA SMITH

B

VD virus is an infectious disease that costs New Zealand cattle farmers more than $150 million every year in direct production losses. The prevalence of actively infected dairy herds is sitting at about 15% to 25%, with about two-thirds of herds getting annual screening done in their bulk milk test and as a consequence we have seen a reduction in the number of actively infected dairy herds.

In contrast, a shocking 45% to 55% of beef herds are actively infected with BVD; less than 15% of beef farmers are screening annually and we still have the same percentage of herds with active BVD infections as we did 10 years ago.

Also concerning are the results from a recent survey conducted by Carolyn Gates* and others in the BVD Steering Committee where it was found that: Approximately 30% of beef farmers surveyed who thought their herd was BVD negative actually had strong evidence of BVD exposure.

Farmers were generally unwilling to implement preventative measures until they experienced the negative impacts of an outbreak.

Many beef farmers were unaware that impacts of BVD extend beyond poor reproductive performance to include poor growth rates and higher incidence of other diseases due to impaired immune function.

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Up to 55% of beef herds are actively infected with BVD compared with 15-25% of dairy herds.

Impacts on beef breeding herds • Reduced bull fertility Transiently infected bulls can have poor semen quality due to the combined effects of virus and the presence of BVD in the semen leading to fewer cows getting pregnant. They may also be more susceptible to other diseases.

• Poor conception rates Infections during the mating period can cause damage to the eggs and create a poor uterine environment, which results in a failure to conceive.

• Early embryonic death Even if fertilisation occurs, the resulting embryo may not be viable leading to early embryonic death and prolonged period before the next cycle (25 to 35 days).

• Abortions, mummies, and stillbirths If the virus does too much damage to the calf up to 180 days into pregnancy, it can be fatal and result in an abortion.

The immunosuppression caused by BVD may also trigger abortions from Neospora or fungal agents. Mummified fetuses and stillbirths can also occur if the fetus is not expelled from the uterus after death.

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• Persistently infected calves If the foetus is exposed to BVD from 40 to 120 days into pregnancy, the calf may be born with a persistent infection (PI).

These calves shed virus for life. They are often stunted and grow poorly with many dying or being culled from the herd before reaching 12 months of age.

If the strain which infected a PI animal evolves into a more severe form of BVD then this can develop into fatal mucosal disease in these PI animals.

• Developmental defects If the pregnant cow is infected from days 90 to 150 days into pregnancy, the calf may be born with severe developmental defects that result in early death or that require humane euthanasia.

A shocking 45% to 55% of beef herds are actively infected with BVD. • Weak or stunted calves If the pregnant cow is infected greater than 180 days into pregnancy, there is a chance that the calf may be born small or weak. These calves have poor growth rates and reduced fertility due to the damage that BVD can cause by replicating in the calves' ovarian tissue.

• Decreased milk production When lactating cows become infected, they may have reduced feed and water intake for up to 3 weeks, which can cause a significant drop in milk production levels. This can have a dramatic impact on the growth rates of suckling beef calves.

• Increased disease in calves When calves under 12 months old become acutely infected with BVD, it suppresses their immune system and makes them more susceptible to other health problems like scouring, poor growth, coughing, ulcers in the mouth, and lameness. These calves may require additional veterinary treatment and additional time to reach appropriate weaning weights.

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Impacts on beef finishing Obviously a finishing unit avoids the reproductive impacts of BVD, however, they are at high risk for transient infections, especially if cattle are bought from multiple source properties and then mixed.

You also risk buying persistently infected animals which can be a waste of money.

• Transient infections in mob When naive cattle are exposed to the virus they will develop a transient infection which lasts about two weeks.

During these two weeks these individuals will experience scouring, fever and an impaired immunity to other diseases while their immune system is busy mounting a response to the BVD virus.

This leads to decreased growth rates, which can have a significant impact depending on the number of animals the disease needs to progress through.

• Persistently infected individuals As described above these animals are often stunted and grow poorly with many dying or being culled from the herd before reaching 12 months of age. They can, however, appear normal through the sale yards and it is not until the strain of BVD they are infected with evolves to a more severe form that they rapidly develop a fatal mucosal disease.

Persistently infected animals also pose a constant immune challenge to their peergroup which is an energy cost which they are diverting from growth.

Co-grazing with sheep a risk Just to throw another spanner in the works, there is evidence from overseas research that BVD can infect sheep and that BVD-infected sheep can experience the same negative reproductive impacts seen in cattle, along with the production of persistently-infected lambs. The level of this impact is difficult to establish in sheep and beef co-grazing scenarios in New Zealand due to the presence of another disease called Hairy Shaker which is from the same family and is difficult to differentiate in the laboratory tests. However, the risk is there, providing just another reason to be aware of the BVD status of your cattle on farm and take measures to control BVD on farm.

A simple pooled BVD antibody ELISA test on 15 young stock aged between 10 and 18 months of age can easily determine

Left: Ulcers between the claws in calf with mucosal disease, most severe form of BVD Below: Ulcers on the roof of the mouth

whether the herd has recently been exposed to the virus. This can easily be done when vets are out on a farm doing another job. It has then been modelled that the most cost-effective way to control BVD was to vaccinate replacement heifers and mixed-age cows annually to prevent foetal infections. This method of control delivered a benefit:cost ratio of two for the average beef herd.

For more information on BVD speak with your local vet or head over to www.bvdfree. org.nz *Gates MC, Evans CA, JH Han, Heuer C, Weston J (2019) Practices and opinions of New Zealand beef cattle farmers towards bovine viral diarrhoea control in relation to real and perceived herd serological status.

New Zealand Veterinary Journal 68(2): 92100. *CA Evans, J-H Han, JF Weston, C Heuer & MC Gates (2020) Serological evidence for exposure to bovine viral diarrhoea virus in sheep co-grazed with beef cattle in New Zealand, New Zealand Veterinary Journal, 68:4, 238-241 • Rebecca Smith is a VetEnt vet based in Ranfurly.

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get your herd performance

ready

Enhance immunity and improve fertility.

ASK YOUR VET Image courtesy of Angus New Zealand. Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No. A9374. Copyright © 2021 Virbac New Zealand Limited. All rights reserved. Virbac New Zealand Limited, 26-30 Maui Street, Pukete, Hamilton 3200.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Profitability

Finding the sweet spot BY: ANDREW COCHRANE

A

n efficient, profitable beef herd is the goal for all beef farmers, regardless of underlying objectives and management policies. Achieving this can be as simple or complex as you make it, but there are basic management and health considerations that should apply to all.

My role as a rural vet means that I am involved with a wide range of beef production systems from intensive stud breeding operations and bull beef finishing farms right through to extensive high country stations where cows are only seen twice a year. The inputs on these farms can vary markedly and whilst the higher input farms tend to be more productive, this doesn’t necessarily equate to more profit. Finding the sweet spot between productivity and profit isn’t straightforward, and what is profitable for one farm, will not necessarily be profitable for another property.

Regardless of the operation you are running there are some non-negotiables when it comes to running a profitable beef herd. This includes getting cows in calf (if you have breeding cows), keeping cattle alive and growing youngstock the best you can. The number one management tool to achieve all of these goals is adequate provision of feed. This requires particular attention to both quality and quantity of grass, sufficient supply of supplementary feed and consideration of body condition score – particularly for breeding cows prior to mating and calving. Young stock should take priority for quality feed and early weaning can be a great tool when feed is tight to allocate better quality feed to those that need it most. Cows do a great job at converting low quality feed into revenue but there are times that they will

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Northern Southland Vets veterinarian Andrew Cochrane has witnessed beef properties that perform well with minimal inputs and others that are poor performers despite high inputs.

benefit from better quality feed and overall production/profit can improve as a result.

This is particularly true for cows in lighter body condition at weaning time and in the lead up to mating.

Animal health variables When it comes to animal health there are many variables that dictate whether products will be profitable in a particular farming system. Many products work like an insurance policy, they protect your stock from a worst-case scenario but just like with insurance, hopefully you won’t be making a claim every year. Bovine viral diarrhea and clostridial vaccination are two classic examples of this. When disease strikes unvaccinated herds this can have disastrous impacts on productivity and profitability, but this may not happen every year. Determining the risk of disease on your farm, the potential costs of disease and establishing what level of risk you are comfortable with are important when deciding on whether to vaccinate or not.

This is where your vet can help you and ensure that you are spending money on animal health wisely. Some non-negotiables for animal health are parasite management and trace elements. Once again, the treatment protocols will vary between

farms and districts, but selenium and copper are often deficient and young stock are most prone to parasites, particularly in their first autumn. There are a range of different options and products available to manage parasites and mineral deficiencies in your herd. Beware that not all products are equal and it is easy to spend money on products that you think are the cheap/easy option, only to find that they are not correcting the issue. A classic example of this is salt blocks, while these have their place they are often not sufficient to fix true mineral deficiencies. Talk to your vet about what options may be better suited.

As vets we see it all, beef properties that perform well with minimal inputs and others that are poor performers despite high inputs. Much of this comes down to management but a discussion with your vet and a robust animal health plan is a great way to iron out the inconsistencies.

Having a profitable and efficient herd is about doing the small things well, paying attention to the details and ensuring that the herd is protected from the negative outcomes of disease, parasites and mineral deficiencies.

“As vets we see it all, beef properties that perform well with minimal inputs and others that are poor performers despite high inputs.”

• Andrew Cochrane is a veterinarian with Northern Southland Vets.

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ANIMAL HEALTH

Management

Drenching of young stock is important as animals will often have worms at weaning time.

Growing great young stock BY: RACHAEL FOUHY

G

rowing great young stock should be a key priority for all farmers in order to ensure highly productive adult animals. However, they often get sidelined for certain periods of time, where other stock take priority. So what are the key considerations that need to be undertaken?

Genetics Bull selection is often based around birth weights, calving ease and growth rates.

Make sure you are also paying adequate attention to maternal traits such as milk which will impact on the cow’s ability to get calves off to a great start.

Watch for drench resistance Timely and well planned animal health decisions are key to ensure that growth is maximised.

Timely drenching is very important – young animals will often have a worm burden at weaning time, especially if the farm is short of feed. While milk does offer some protection, by the time weaning comes around the majority of a calves diet

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May 2021

is grass and with grass intake is parasite intake.

“Which drench should I use?” is a question that is commonly asked, and given that there are many options on the market this is a fair question. The answer is one that works on your farm. We know that drench resistance is widespread in cattle, especially in regards to Cooperia and the mectin family of drenches. It is really important that the first few drenches that a calf gets contain Levamisole. We tend to do a lot more drench testing in sheep as that is easier and there is lots of awareness about it, however that doesn’t mean that there are not significant drench resistance issues in cattle. Potentially, these are more likely to be prevalent on farms that carry a lot of young stock year on year, however all farms that have young stock are at risk and it is highly likely that drench resistance is more widespread than we think.

Checking the drench efficacy in weaned calves can be done the same way it is in lambs – collecting 10 x faecal egg count samples 10 days after drenching. Once cattle get to around one-year-old these counts are not as accurate due to the large volume of faeces. A well designed parasite management programme is essential to

ensure that animals do not suffer gut damage that occurs when they get a significant parasite challenge. This gut damage can affect their growth rates for life.

Trace elements are another important area where planning and monitoring is important. The trace element needs of animals will differ between different areas of the country making your own vet the best person to consult. The main ones that need to be considered include: • Selenium – Selenium plays multiple roles in the body including, muscle growth, fertility and influencing animal immunity. There are various ways to apply this such as injection, drench or fertiliser. The amount of Se in drenches is fairly token and overall won’t do much to lift Se levels. In my opinion, the most effective way to supplement with selenium is via fertiliser – assuming fertiliser is being applied. The other effective option is a long acting Se injection.

• Copper – Copper is also important for fertility and growth, with animals lacking in copper looking dull and sometimes scouring. The two main options for supplementing with copper include injection and bullets – each having their pros and cons.

• B12 – B12 is synthesized in the rumen from Cobalt and plays an important part in the energy cycle and converting nutrients into energy. The requirement for this will vary around the country.

Value of fibre in diet High quality feed is important to ensure excellent growth in our animals, however often we underestimate the value of fibre in the diet. This is especially true in the spring period when the grass is cranking. Fibre is really important as it maintains healthy rumen function. Fibre stimulates chewing and saliva production, the salvia buffers the rumen ensuring the right mix of microbes are present. When there is not enough fibre in the diet, animals are at risk of suffering from a form of sub-clinical acidosis where they appear to be feeding well but are not.

This is due to the population of microbes in the rumen. Adding some form of fibre into the diet will help during growth in spring. It will also minimise the risk of bloat of which we are seeing increased cases each year due to the ever increasing improvement of pastures.

• Dr Rachael Fouhy is head vet at Tararua Veterinary Services, Pahiatua.

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SYSTEMS

The marginal difference Opting to finish dairy beef bulls came down to price for Central Otago-based couple Ben and Rebecca Trotter. Story and photos by Lynda Gray.

B

en and Rebecca cop a bit of flak at times for finishing dairy beef bulls rather than traditional beef breed cattle.

But for Ben the reason why they’ve chosen black and white bulls over beef breed cattle is simple and straightforward: the marginal price difference.

“We buy in 100kg dairy bull calves at $430 a head whereas an autumn-bought beef bred weaner is anywhere from $700 to $800. The price reflects the breeding, but I think that good feeding (of bulls) cancels out most of that breeding advantage.”

Ben and Rebeca have finished their third season of finishing bulls in a cell grazing

system on irrigated land at the foot of the hill leading up to Wanaka Airport. It’s a grass-based system designed and managed to finish bulls to a target weight of 500kg LW, and above 260kg/CWT before their second winter.

The system is straightforward and simple, its management fitted around the Trotter’s busy lives. Ben is Agricom’s South Island sales lead while Rebecca is full-time mum to two children aged under two, Florence and Edward. Although less hands-on than previously with the demands of a young family, Rebecca has been and remains fully involved in decision making and planning.

The Trotters employ Scott Cooper to help them out throughout the week, and Ben’s

father John is also on call when needed.

John, and Ben’s mother Pauline are a huge help in keeping the wheels of the farming business turning.

The finishing process starts with delivery of 100kg bull calves reared by dairy farmer friends in Canterbury and contracted for delivery before November 20 this year.

The earlier they arrive the better because it means they’re ahead growth rate wise. This takes the pressure off the grazing system in the autumn when the emphasis is on finishing and offloading the R2 cattle.

The calves are kept in arrival mobs and graze irrigated pasture to match growth. The pasture is mostly a mix of ONE50 perennial diploid ryegrass, white clover (Tribute and

Ben Trotter has developed an extraordinary all-grass dairy bull feeding system in Central Otago.

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May 2021

Nomad), and Relish red clover.

“A diploid ryegrass is not as high in quality as a tetraploid but it’s a dense growing grass, and it stands up to trampling and the test of time.”

The calves are kept on pasture as long as possible, usually until the last week of April.

However, that grazing time is balanced with the need to leave behind adequate winter residuals and time for transitioning onto fodder beet. Transitioning takes 21 days, Ben prefers to take extra time to avoid subclinical acidosis which will stunt growth rate.

By the time the bulls start winter rations they’re in the 250-280kg LW range. The lightest 100 are drafted off for wintering on pasture and silage; the rest get medium drymatter varieties of fodder beet Feldherr and Bangor with supplements of silage for about 135 days. The almost 200 tonnes of pit silage are an important component of the winter feeding system, Ben says.

“It’s fed out daily under the wire so it’s fresh and doesn’t spoil and feeding it that way avoids the aggressive behaviour that tends to happen with balage fed from a bale feeder.”

The Trotter’s system and cell bull beef grazing system 12 cells per system allow for a 24-day rotation on 2-day shifting frequency Pivot centre

“What I liked was that bull beef farming was science backed, a largely cell grazing system and the output easily measured.”

Over the winter the bulls average daily growth of about 700 grams.

The bulls come off crop about August 20 and are drafted into smaller mobs of 30 to 35. Ideally, they’re grouped according to weight but that doesn’t always happen due to time constraints.

From here, the bulls start the ‘systems’ and ‘cell’ grazing developed by Ben and Rebecca with input from AgFirst Waikato consultant Bob Thomson, Google and YouTube. There are 12 systems within the perimeter of a spider web shaped fenced area (see diagram). Permanent fences create six wedges and within each wedge are two grazing systems. Each is about a 5ha rectangle broken into 12 to 14 cells. The bulls graze each cell for two days before

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The Friesian bulls are settled and content.

135

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Ben and Rebecca with their children Florence (left) and Edward.

being moved to the next. A central water trough in the middle of each system feeds a micro trough which is moved with the mob, every second day, around the system.

The ideal size A lot of thought went into the ideal size of the systems, mobs, and shifting frequency; Ben says they’re still unsure if they’ve got it right.

“The smaller mobs mean we don’t have to shift them as often so we’re saving on labour, but pasture utilisation and carcase weight per hectare is lower than with bigger mobs that are shifted more regularly. The plus side is that the grass is always in a state of recovery, and we know that they eat more when they move onto new grass every two days. The bulls also behave better in smaller mobs.”

The irrigated area is the business end of the bull beef finishing but the 350ha of leased dryland is an important support area used for post-winter grazing and at other times if feed becomes tight. The dryland is across busy State Highway 84 and accessed by a stock underpass. It includes the hill

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terrace area of what used to be Lake McKay Station, and another area on the outskirts of Luggate. Most of the dryland is planted in lucerne, although this year 40ha has been grown for the wintering of 400 dairy heifers and trading cattle. Future development will focus on the dryland rather than irrigated area, with plans underway for a lucernebased dairy bull finishing system. Ben has calculated that one hectare of irrigation development would fund 8ha of lucerne, and it would produce twice the drymatter of undeveloped dryland pasture.

“Lucerne is an efficient user of water, it’s a good protein source and grows young stock well.”

Ben and Rebecca are happy with how the bull beef is tracking given the two year carcass weight average of 960kg/ha. The couple hope to hold performance around this level and will keep refining what they do.

“We want to maximise productive potential but in an environmentally responsible manner with a grass and legume based system, and minimising the use of artificial nitrogen in the form of urea.”

Future development will focus on the dryland lucerne area. Lucerne will produce about twice as much drymatter as undeveloped pasture.

Continues

›› 137

In the beginning

Rebecca Trotter is developing a 1ha pick-your-own strawberry patch.

Ben’s interest in bull beef started while working in Waikato for Agricom and meeting FarmIQ steering group members Neil Aitken and Bob Thomson. Neil, who farms bull beef at Pukawa, taught Ben a lot about the practical side of managing bulls, while Bob Thomson filled him in on the likely production and returns.

“What I liked was that bull beef farming was science backed, a largely cell grazing system and the output easily measured,” Ben says.

The potential growth rates – up to 1.5kg a day also caught his attention.

Deciding to go bull beef farming was the easy part but finding suitable land on which to do it was difficult. The dilemma and choice that Ben and Rebecca had to make was whether to buy more expensive land closer to town so they could stay in higher paying full-time jobs, or pay less for more remote land, forgo their salaried jobs and rely solely on farm income.

“We looked all over the country for a long time; it was like a marathon…in the end we bought in one of the most

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expensive areas, but we were able to keep our jobs which has helped us build equity on which to borrow.”

Influencing their decision to move south to Luggate was the loss of Ben’s brother in a car accident in 2016 and a desire to be closer to his parents John and Pauline, who live in Wanaka. The couple moved there in 2016 and rented a house in town.

Ben continued working for Agricom and Rebecca worked for energy supplier Genesis. They got married in 2018, bought the land six months later and in 2019 built a house and became parents to their first child Florence.

The downside of the Trotter’s location is the distance from their meat processor and key inputs such as fertiliser which adds about another 15 percent to farm running costs.

All cattle are processed at ANZCO Foods in Blenheim. There are handier processors, but the Trotters value the good working relationship with the company.

“Partnering with the right meat company has been a big learning experience for us,” Ben says.

The bulls are supplied to the antibioticfree (AB-Free) programme which has restrictions around animal health treatments, promotants and the feeding of certain supplements. A supply contract is signed in October, locking in the number of bulls to be delivered weekly from the start of January until the end of March.

There’s not a lot of flexibility once the contract is signed and there’s always a

STRAWBERRY FARE Living just off the main highway leading into Wanaka is the perfect positioning for possible land-based diversifications with appeal to tourists. Rebecca, a keen gardener, has been toying with a few green fingered ideas and is developing a 1ha pick-your-own strawberry patch.

“There’s nothing like it in the area and we think it will be a great activity and attraction for families.”

She had a trial run with 100 plants, proving that the crop will thrive in the Central Otago climate.

In June 30,000 plants will go in the ground for fruiting from October till about April.

degree of anxiety when the first mobs are run across the scales for load out. However, the Trotters have become more confident at the forecasting exercise with the benefit of growth rate information collected over the last couple of years.

Measured approach A flume measuring water flow helps Ben keep tabs on irrigation water use. The Trotters also have moisture probes to help fine-tune irrigation. A plate meter is used over spring to keep tabs on drymatter levels. If pre-graze drymatter levels fall below 2400kg/DM/ha the bulls are taken off the cell system and put on a reserve grass area until grass growth catches up.

That pre-emptive action avoids what Ben calls the ‘death spiral’.

“If pre graze levels aren’t maintained everything starts to crash and spiral downwards.”

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SYSTEMS

Profitability

Rangitaiki farm business manager James Van Bohemen with once-bred-heifer manager Peter Newman.

Once-bred-heifer renaissance Bob Thomson extols the benefits of once-bred-heifers and reasons why it could be a good fit for farmers especially those who don’t like running bulls, as they are more predictable, less risky, and highly profitable.

A

dvice on the best way to increase beef profitability often leads to recommendations to farm bulls but many farmers reject that idea. Some farmers hate bulls with a passion.

If you are sick of hearing about farming bulls; but love prime-beef finishing, like beef breeding and making money then the once-bred heifers (OBH) may be a good option for you.

Back in the 1990’s Massey University researchers carried out some great work on OBH. In essence, this is a process of weaning a calf from a two-year-old heifer in the process of finishing for prime

140

beef. That research clearly showed that while a pregnant heifer would be lighter at slaughter, beef quality would not be compromised, and profitability would be much higher.

Following the promotion of the Massey work many farmers tried OBH, but most rejected the opportunity usually because of calving difficulty issues leading to calf loss and sometimes loss of the heifer too.

Many commented that it was another management complexity that they could do without. On that basis it would be easy to dismiss the opportunity however it should be noted that a select few mastered their OBH management and have done well.

With the benefit of hindsight we can look back over the past 25 years and examine the reasons for the poor uptake of the OBH policy and explore how we might overcome the challenges and take advantage of the opportunity to make more money.

Factors lead to better results There are three big things that can help us get much better results from OBH than we got back in the 1990’s and these are linked.

The first is with the results from the Beef + Lamb New Zealand genetics dairy-beef progeny test where over the past seven years more than 120 beef bulls have been assessed for a wide range of traits including

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Table 1: Selected Results from BLG DB Progeny Test Name

Breed

n born

BWT (kg)

GL (d)

Weaning age (d)

n 200d

LW200 (kg)

LW400 (kg)

LW600 (kg)

Dairy-Beef Index

Growth Index

Overall Index

Focus 110002

Angus

12

37.3

278.6

82.2

12

179.9

307.1

449.3

$28

$57

$85

Glenside Crumpy C4

Simmental

36

36.4

279.1

82.3

35

186.3

308.5

450.2

$25

$59

$84

Shalom Waigroup 319/07

Angus

12

37.3

281.2

81.8

11

181.1

303.6

445.2

$13

$44

$57

Monymusk Henry 120012

Hereford

22

38.1

280.6

84.6

18

171.9

300.6

437.5

$12

$21

$33

Rissington C200

Angus

35

32.8

278.4

84.8

35

177.7

301.9

433.1

$24

$8

$33

Otapawa Spark 3060

Hereford

24

39.8

281.1

83.6

23

172.6

294.2

437.7

$10

$22

$32

Stabilizer 165303

Stabilizer

49

33.7

278.4

85.2

46

178.1

301.5

432.6

$24

$7

$30

Totaranui 13007

Angus

16

38.2

279.4

84.2

15

173.0

292.6

431.4

$20

$3

$23

Te Mania 15380

Angus

41

36.3

281.3

86.9

40

171.0

299.2

436.8

$3

$19

$22

Storth Oaks K122

Angus

34

35.0

278.9

87.4

33

171.1

293.2

431.9

$17

$5

$21

Beechwood Turk

Hereford

19

38.1

281.4

82.3

19

173.3

294.3

433.1

$11

$8

$19

Rennylea Edmund E11

Angus

18

39.2

280.0

87.0

17

174.0

293.9

431.0

$11

$2

$13

Ardo Vostock 5341

Hereford

26

34.9

280.8

84.3

24

178.1

$11

NA

NA

Storth Oaks M33

Angus

32

35.4

279.9

83.3

30

180.9

$18

NA

NA

Focus 171293

Angus

23

37.6

280.6

85.0

21

176.0

$11

NA

NA

37.6

281.6

87.7

NA

NA

NA

Mean of all bulls tested

173.8

293.7

430.4

Footnotes • NA = Not Available as yet (data pending) • Dairy-Beef Index = Gestation Length advantage expressed in extra days cows milking plus days to reach 95kg weaning weight (expressed in milk saved) valued at $6.00/kg MS • Growth Index = 600-day weight difference from average valued at $3.00 per kilogram liveweight.

calving ease, growth, and beef quality. The second big thing is that results from fixedtime-artificial insemination (AI) are much more reliable and predictable meaning we can use the best beef bulls via AI and reap the benefits of easy calving, great postbirth growth and better beef quality. With fixed-time-AI, heifers are synchronised to cycle and be mated on one day. On average over 50% of heifers will be pregnant to a one-shot AI programme. Following the one-shot AI you can be content, or repeat the AI process, or follow-up with naturally mated bulls. The third big thing is beef systemisation which is usually applied to bull farming.

This is out of the necessity to farm in smaller mobs with more discipline around rotation length and shift frequency. This enables higher average pasture cover and therefore higher pasture growth rate. That same discipline from bull beef systemisation can be applied to heifer management which in turn helps with better feeding during gestation, lactation and through to finishing.

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At the time of writing, the latest report from the Dairy-Beef Progeny Test was unpublished. I have included selected results from the April 2020 report below. For the latest results, check the B+LNZ Genetics website.* Each year, a new batch of bulls are added to the list. Please note that as new bulls are added rankings will change as new information on their progeny emerges.

Table 1 shows the top 15 bulls for the criteria outlined. These bulls offer the opportunity for use in dairy herds to generate good finishing stock for beef finishers while at the same time affording the dairy farmer a great value proposition.

These same bulls provide good value for OBH through a fixed-time-AI programme.

That is, dairy-beef heifers can be generated from dairy herds which in turn can be mated to beef bulls for OBH production.

A good case study A good example of a commercial farming company taking advantage of the OBH programme is Pamu (Landcorp’s brand name) with its Rangitaiki Station Rangitaiki

Station, about 50 kilometres west of Taupo.

The 8700ha sheep, beef and deer farm had established a profitable 2500ha bull finishing unit five years ago. They wanted to look at how farm profitability could be further increased without having to farm more bulls. The bull finishing unit provided a good template, from a beef systemisation perspective, from which they could establish a OBH programme. In essence, the cell grazing set-up from the bull unit was upsized for the heifers. For example when 50-R1 bulls or 25 R2 bulls are managed in a 10ha system this was increased to 40ha for the OBH unit and stocked with 200 R1 heifers or 100 R2 heifers. At the start of winter the bull unit stocking rate was 900kg liveweight/ha. The OBH Unit has been reduced to 800kg LW/ha on a ‘like for like’ basis because heifers are less efficient than bulls and required to gain more bodyweight across winter than bulls.

Rangitaiki is a tough environment demanding a 160-day winter rotation extending from May until September.

Winters are as cold and harsh as the South

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Rangitaiki’s once-bred heifer herd.

Island but nevertheless a low-cost all pasture system is applied for the bull and OBH units. High autumn pasture covers are required with a target of 2700kg DM by May 1. By then pasture growth rates plummet to average 9.25kg DM/ha for the next four months and up until September. While the high autumn covers are essential, a bit like ‘hay in the barn’, the winter feed demand must be ‘bent’ downward resulting in low winter liveweight gain. We know from another good piece of research from Massey University that first calving two-year-old heifers need to gain bodyweight during pregnancy to help with calving ease and so with two day shifts and the discipline of the systems this can be planned and implemented.

The key to systemisation at Rangitaiki is to implement grazing management with good structure and process whereby cattle have an allocated area with sufficient cells to enable two daily shifts and a 160day winter rotation. The rotation length coupled with stocking rate has been modelled to deliver high average pasture cover. In practice we have found that a good system delivers at least 20% more pasture simply by exploiting the ‘solar panel’ effect whereby every leaf of pasture is another source of energy. While Rangitaiki requires

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Deferred pasture can look ugly but recovers well and is useful to help build target covers for winter.

160-day winter rotations, by comparison, a winter-friendly Northland needs just 60days to achieve the same effect.

Pasture covers are well in excess of the optimum across some months and especially in the autumn. This comes about for two main reasons. The first reason is that with an all-pasture system ‘monster’ covers are required to get through winter. The second reason is that pasture is deferred on between 15-20% of the area in late spring meaning that pasture quality and optimum pasture cover is maintained across 80-85% of the system area. The deferred pasture has

proven to be valuable as a means of slowing down rotation lengths in early autumn and therefore building average cover to at least 2700kg DM/ha by May 1.

Replacements, a simple and low-cost way A lot of planning and detail has been implemented on Rangitaiki. There’s another four to five months to go until calving in September followed by early weaning in mid-January. Heifers will be drafted to kill immediately following weaning with at least half sold then and the rest by the end

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Figure 4: An example of Fescue based pasture in March 2021 with a cover 2022 when the first cycle of OBH “If you are sick of hearing about farming bulls; but love ofwillMarch of over 4,000kgDM be completed.

prime-beef finishing...then OBH may be a good option for you.”

Results to date are as follows: • 891 yearling heifers mated in total:  639 dairy-beef heifers (bought-in)  252 beef heifers (home-bred).

• 53% of OBH heifers scanned in-calf to a one-shot fixed time AI. • 85% or 761 heifers in-calf following oneshot AI followed by one and a half cycles of natural bull mating:  91% of dairy-beef heifers in-calf

(earlier born and first-cross)  71% of beef heifers in-calf (mated one

month earlier than normal for OBH).

Another important twist with the Rangitaiki OBH programme is that the most efficient calf producing dairy-beef heifers will be retained as replacements for the beef herd. To achieve that outcome, the heifers in-calf to fixed-time-AI have been identified thus reducing the need to record birth date.

A total of 200 replacements are required and so the heaviest 250 calves will be rematched with their mothers postweaning. Once rematched, those heifers without calves will be drafted-off for

Table 2: Stocking Rate (LWT/ha/mo.) OBH Rangitaiki Table 2: Stocking Rate (LWT/ha/mo.) OBH Rangitaiki

The tables and graphs from the OBH at Rangitaiki demonstrate the planning and detail that has been implemented. For

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for less work; on the contrary OBH requires some management discipline and attention to detail but the rewards are worthwhile - see table below.

Table 3: Physical Comparison finishing. The 250 heifers with calves will again be weaned and the heaviest 50 drafted-off these for finishing leaving the best and most efficient heifers as replacements. This is a simple and low-cost way of selecting the best replacements.

Table 3: How the gross margins compare

The bottom line The bottom line is that OBH is not for ‘cowboys’ or those looking for less work; on the contrary OBH requires some management discipline and attention to detail but the rewards are worthwhile see Table 3.

Table 3 has been modelled and generated from Farmax. Each policy has 100 hectares with the same potential pasture growth rate of 8500kg DM per annum. In terms of gross margin bulls are just 10% ahead of OBH but are 45% more profitable than finishing heifers. OBH Feed Conversion Efficiency (kg DM/kg Product) is similar to bulls and something which we will need to pay attention to in relation to our carbon footprint.

In summary the OBH policy can be dusted-off and rejuvenated on the basis

Table 3 has been modelled and generated from Farmax. Each that with new information and the latest techniques on fixed-time-AI and the policy has 100 hectares with same ofpotential pasture growth benefit of experience results will be more the adoption beef systemisation. less risky, and highly profitable. ratepredictable, of 8,500kg DM per annum. In*https://www.blnzgenetics.com/progenyterms of gross margin bulls are The key to success is attention to detail and tests/beef-progeny-tests. the latest information justadoption 10% ofahead of OBHfrombut are 45% more profitable than the likes of the dairy-beef progeny test • Bob Thomson is an Agribusiness consultant, finishing heifers.

OBH Feed Conversion Efficiency programme, talking with your vet to get the specialising in sheep and beef. (kg DM/ kg Product) is similar to bulls and something which we will need to pay attention to in relation to our carbon footprint.

In summary the OBH policy can be dusted-off and rejuvenated on the basis that with new information and the benefit of HEMINGFORD CHAROLAIS • ROMTEX • SUFTEX • TEXEL experience results will be more predictable, less risky, and highly profitable. The key to success is attention to detail and adoption of the latest information from the likes of the BLG Dairy-Beef programme, talking with your vet to get the latest ThursdayProgeny 17thTest June techniques on fixed-time-AI and the adoption of beef at 2pm systemisation.

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A

re we willing to realise the opportunities to produce more efficient and profitable cattle?

Good farmers are able to manage their farming systems to simultaneously balance the conflicting issues. These are growing and utilising as much high-quality feed as possible. Also converting as much of the energy the animals derive from that feed into a saleable product. The outcomes of such a system can be quantified in terms of efficiency. This is a measure of the total outputs relative to the inputs required to produce them (or to profit) which reflects the difference between income and costs.

A major management challenge is to modify the system from year-to-year, in an attempt to make it more efficient, and more profitable.

Many of the changes that can be made to the system are of a long-term nature.

These include the choice of pasture species, the choice of livestock (sheep, beef or dairy cattle), breed, and saleable product.

Others represent finer tuning options such as the choice of stocking rate, sheep to cattle ratio, choice of lambing/calving date, finishing weights, and use of supplements.

New Zealand farmers have generally been good at managing these long-term and short-term options in a manner that made them profitable farmers in the past. Our big challenge is to modify our management so that our farming systems will be efficient and profitable for the circumstances required in the future. Not just next year, but over future decades spanning even the next century.

Selection of parents to produce the next generation of replacements represents one of many long term investment opportunities for farmers. Global supply and demand, exchange rates, political issues, consumer preferences, along with technological options all have a role to play in selection decisions. Put simply, information is key to making informed, and profitable, decisions. Different information solutions to meet farmer demand for genetic improvement exist for the different pastoral livestock systems in NZ, namely dairy and beef cattle, and sheep.

In dairy cattle, a national database known as DIGAD is maintained by DairyNZ and supported by levy funds. It provides the core data used for across-breed evaluation on over 30 million animals. A durable key is used to uniquely identify every animal

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Information is the key to making informed, and profitable, decisions.

regardless of breed or cross. The animals are ranked for a national breeding objective, developed by NZ Animal Evaluation Ltd (NZAEL), reflecting NZ dairy farming systems. The resultant index is known as breeding worth (BW). The two major AI companies, LIC and CRV, run their own breeding programmes to generate high BW sires for widespread use. Other companies import material from foreign AI companies.

No national database for beef In beef cattle, there is no national database.

Each breed association has its own database, primarily recording only registered purebred animals. Each breed has its own identification system. The three major breeds (Angus, Hereford and Simmental) store their data on an Australian system known as ILR2 with that system being managed by Performance Beef Breeders (PBB) in Feilding. TransTasman evaluations are undertaken for some breeds. There is no national index, but some breed associations have developed their own index or indexes.

There is no levy fund support. Most breeders are family farmers and run their

own breeding programmes, but foreign sires are frequent in many of these pedigrees, particularly for Angus, which represents the largest purebred population.

In sheep, there is a national database (SIL) administered by Sheep Improvement Limited. That organisation runs a national genetic evaluation that compares sheep of all breeds and crosses from all environments. The system is supported by Beef + Lamb NZ levy funds. Animals are identified by flock code, year of birth and tag number, regardless of breed or cross, and most animals in the pedigree are not registered with breed societies. There are a variety of national indexes available, for example maternal worth for dual-purpose sheep, and terminal worth for sires whose offspring are not retained as replacements.

Most ram breeding operations are on family farms.

Genetic improvement is the result of selection. A successful programme means each successive generation of animals are better suited to our farming systems than their ancestors. The additional value captured by the annual improvement of

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“It is ironic that we might look to Ireland to improve our breeding programmes when in the recent past it was the Irish that looked at New Zealand for best practice.” those successive crops of animals has been calculated by AbacusBio from a national perspective. The estimates are $300 million/ year for dairy cattle, $7 million for beef cattle, $125 million for sheep, and $0 for dairy beef.

Further, AbacusBio was commissioned to identify, in each of these industries, the additional benefits that are “on the table” in the form of commercially available technologies proven to accelerate the rates of genetic improvement. These results were recently presented at an industry stakeholder forum in Hamilton, and showed the “size of the prize” for a high impact, medium impact, or low impact adoption of technologies and practices.

The medium impact scenario was reported to offer additional annual benefits of $84 million for dairy cattle, $6 million for beef

crucial to enabling genetic improvement, and information enables better decisions.

The key to better information, from mostly existing data, is the confederation of data sources that for various reasons are siloed and not shared.

cattle, $11 million for sheep, and $8 million for dairy beef. The high impact scenario had about twice that level of annual additional benefits. Many industry stakeholders at that meeting believe the size of the prize, even for the medium impact scenarios, was sufficient for the dairy industry to make a real effort to ensure this prize is realised in the cattle bred on NZ dairy farms.

The additional benefits in the “prize” arise from two complementary sources.

First, an increased rate of genetic gain. This means that the national calf crop born each year will on average be more profitable as a reflection of higher genetic merit, from a whole farm system perspective, than would have been the calf crops born using the status quo systems that have operated over recent years. Second, there is an “information” part of the prize. Data is

Combine NAIT, slaughterhouse data Data that is held in the National Animal Identification and Tracing system (NAIT) tracks individuals from birth through any transfers to other owners until they die onfarm or are slaughtered. Data that is collected during slaughter processing includes carcaseweight and quality, and other information such as presence of disease. Jointly processing the data from NAIT and meat processing plants will generate new data not used for cattle evaluation. That new data can improve the accuracy of components of the evaluation system, and add new avenues for genetic evaluation.

The BW index reflects the ability of the national dairy herd to convert feed into

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profit. Profit is assessed using traits that reflect income, and traits that reflect costs.

Liveweight contributes to farm income in terms of carcaseweights of finished surplus heifers, bulls, steers and cull cows.

Liveweight contributes to farm costs as it is a determinant of maintenance feed requirements. Liveweight during first lactation has for the past three decades been recorded in registered dairy cattle, and as part of the progeny testing process, but data from carcaseweights collected at meat works are not stored in DIGAD or used in evaluation. Combining the data from meat processors with data from NAIT would allow cohorts of animals to be tracked through the supply chain from birth on dairy farms to their harvest at meat plants. Without this information to identify cohorts, the existing carcase data has little value in national evaluation as the genetic information contained within the records cannot be reliably partitioned from the effects of farm management practices.

Further, better use of NAIT and meat plant data would mean that new traits could be added to BW, or added to sire catalogues for use by interested farmers.

These include facial eczema resistance which could be assessed from liver scores at meat plants, or susceptibility to bovine Tb or to liver fluke, that are routinely evaluated in Ireland using phenotype collected at meat plants. It is ironic that we might look to Ireland to improve our breeding programmes when in the recent past it was the Irish that looked at New Zealand

SIL runs a national genetic evaluation that compares sheep of all breeds and crosses from all environments.

to identify best practice.

Although many of the cattle born on dairy farms have recorded parentage, this may not be true of many of the animals being harvested in the meat plants.

Furthermore, recorded parentage that has not been DNA verified often includes something like 20% parentage errors.

Genotyping can easily be used to verify parentage, and if undertaken using say

a 50k SNP chip, can readily be used for parent discovery in addition to genomic evaluations. An increased use of genomic technologies is anticipated as occurring in order to capture some of the prize.

Identifying the sires in multi-sire mating pastures would be an obvious opportunity for generating more information from existing data. For a commercial beef farmer, the value proposition for SNP-chip based •

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“A major management challenge is to modify the system from year-to-year, in an attempt to make it more efficient, and more profitable.” parent discovery is unlikely cost-effective.

However, at the national level where the genotypes can also be used for quality assurance, and improving the accuracy of evaluating the merits of beef sires, the value proposition is much more appealing.

The ability of the beef or dairy cow to remain in the herd over a sustained number of years has a huge impact on the efficiency of the beef or dairy herd.

This is partly because older cows tend to be more productive than younger cows, partly because there will be more surplus offspring that don’t need to be retained as cow replacements, and partly because the costs of feeding the replacements is no longer a cost against the cow herd. It is very difficult to collect reliable data on culling of old beef or dairy cows, but this could be readily achieved using carcase data along with NAIT data.

Reducing bobby calf kill The information component of the prize is not limited to dairy cattle. Clearly, the same information systems would provide data for dairy-beef crosses, most of which originate on dairy farms. Industry efforts to reduce the harvest of bobby calves might include finishing more of those animals, as well as increased use of sexed semen and increased use of beef bulls in the dairy herd. Or perhaps even embryo implantation to generate beef calves rather than dairybeef calves born to dairy cows. Embryo implantation on a widespread commercial scale is already commonplace in some parts of the world, even under extensive farming circumstances. The processes that need to be put in place to capture this data for cattle that originate from dairy herds could easily include the capture of data from animals born on sheep and beef farms.

In the past 10 years, the dairy industry pedigree includes records on the use of over 2000 Angus bulls, over 2000 Hereford bulls, and almost 1000 Wagyu bulls. That represents about as many sires as would have been progeny tested in registered beef cattle herds. However, it would represent many more total dairy cross offspring, and

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Longevity has a huge impact on the efficiency of the beef or dairy herd partly because older cows tend to be more productive than younger cows.

would mostly comprise sires that have no recorded progeny in beef cattle herds.

Information on the performance of those animals, for calving ease, carcase traits and other measures of performance would increase the accuracy of evaluating their ancestors that were widely-used in the beef cattle industry. This would improve the rate of genetic gain for beef farmers.

The challenge for the livestock industry is to demonstrate its willingness to share data and use the resulting information to improve all manner of decision making and accelerate the rate of genetic gain. These

practices would ensure that our farmers can be more profitable and efficient farmers well into the future.

• Dorian Garrick is chief scientist at the AL Rae Centre of Genetics and Breeding at Massey University, a Director of Performance Beef Breeders (PBB) and on the scientific advisory committee of Interbeef. He is a founding partner of Interbeef, and a founding partner of ThetaSolutions LLC, whose software has been used under licence in beef cattle and dairy cattle genomic analyses including those of ABRI, PBB, IGS, PACE and NZEL.

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GENETICS

Rearing

New Zealand is lagging behind most other countries in its use of sexed semen in dairy and beef herds, but a catch-up is expected in the near future.

Sexed semen’s implications BY: ANDREW SWALLOW

the third most popular choice from LIC’s beef catalogue. f your farming system is based “But the vast majority are still shorton rearing or finishing Friesian gestation Herefords with dairy farmers bulls, then you are likely to face a continuing to favour that white face marker continued dwindling supply of your and the additional milking days on offer,” preferred stock class next spring and says Ellis. in years to come.

In total, LIC beef breed straw sales Accelerating uptake of sexed semen in the increased by 24,000 last year, an increase of dairy industry is cutting purebred Friesian 7%. At an average conception rate of 60% bull births, as is the general shift towards that suggests a little over 14,000 more beefKiwi-cross in the national dairy herd which cross calves nationally next spring resulting will further reduce supply of purebred from LIC’s AI services.

Friesian calves in the future, LIC’s general Ellis notes the increase in beef semen sales manager New Zealand markets, Malcolm doesn’t correspond with the sexed semen Ellis says. growth as in many cases farmers ordering “About 70% of dairy replacement heifer some sexed semen straws are mating the calves reared now are Kiwi-cross,” he told cows freed up to LIC’s premier sires, ie dairy Country-Wide. breeds, as they recognise the That will mean purebred potential opportunity for LIC’S TOP 5 SELLING Friesian, or come to that live export.

BEEF BREEDS 2020 pure Friesian x beef calves, That’s despite LIC • Short Gestation will become harder to offering a free insemination (SGL) Hereford procure but it doesn’t mean service for each beef straw • Wagyu there aren’t beef options bought with a sexed semen • Speckle Park for non-replacement calves straw, effectively a 33% • Angus born to Kiwi-cross cows, he discount on each beef straw stresses. inseminated.

• Standard Hereford Wagyu-cross are proving LIC’s sales of sexed semen popular for their ability to more than trebled last year, produce marbled beef and use of semen to 108,000 straws, up from 13,000 in 2018 from double-muscled beef breeds such as and 33,000 in 2019. Orders are on track to Charolais and Belgium Blue is also on the total 180-200,000 this year and by 2025 increase, albeit from a low base. sales are planned to be in the order of The other “big move” last spring was to 500,000, says Ellis.

Speckle Park bulls, which leapt to become It’s not just New Zealand’s dairy industry

I

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going down the sexed semen track, he adds.

This year’s LIC Genetics catalogue is the first to feature a flip-flop design where one way up it opens onto dairy genetics pages, while flipped over and turned around, it opens onto beef genetics pages. In the past, beef occupied just a few pages at the back.

The catalogue is available online, enabling dairy-beef calf-buyers to look at bulls available and liaise with their dairy farmer suppliers about which ones’ progeny they’d like to be buying.

CRV Ambreed product manager for Oceania, Peter van Elzakker, echoes Ellis’ comments about the growth in use of sexed semen with CRV’s orders for next season already matching last year’s total and on track to make up about 10% of the company’s sales.

“But it’s a bit early to say if that increased use of sexed in dairy will lead to an increase in beef semen sales, be that sexed or conventional,” he says.

In other parts of the world use of sexed semen is already much higher, at 20 to 25% of all inseminations in the US and close to 50% in the United Kingdom (UK), says van Elzakker.

ST Genetics’ Rudolph Linde, who has just returned from working in the UK, agrees with that UK figure, putting it at 48 to 50% sexed and while only a “single digit percentage” of that is currently beef semen, it has seen use of non-sexed beef semen soar to 51% of all inseminations. He believes the UK trend will be replicated here.

“We’re at a very early stage of this evolution in New Zealand but it is coming.”

Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s general manager genetics, Dan Brier, says a proposal to research how sexed semen might facilitate better integration of dairy and beef is being put together by B+LNZ with Dairy NZ and semen suppliers.

There are many drivers for dairy farmers to remove bulls from their farms, including health and safety, biosecurity, better genetics available through AI, diversifying income streams through higher calf values, and avoiding having to sell bobbies, he notes.

Hopefully, that will result in a win-win for beef and dairy farmers alike, he says.

“I would like to think buyers of four-dayold calves will be having a conversation with their dairy farm suppliers so the (dairy farm) calves have the traits they are looking for.”

• The LIC catalogue is available online at www. lic.co.nz/about/publications/

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GENETICS

Future proofing

Future farm a testing ground

B

+LNZ’s Future Farm Lanercost will be used as a testing ground for tools, technologies and management systems to help sheep and beef farmers futureproof their business.

The organisation’s general manager, farming excellence, Dan Brier, says B+LNZ has considered how the 1310ha North Canterbury hill country farm can best be utilised to help levy payers and has come up with five focus areas reflecting the challenges and opportunities facing sheep and beef farmers.

These are drench resistance, environmental management, virtual fencing, low methane genetics and accelerated genetic gain.

Brier says the immediate focus will be on

managing a farm with drench resistance and using B+LNZs farm plan as a tool to build a better business. The near future opportunities include looking at how virtual fencing can be used on a hill country farm, low methane genetics and accelerated genetic gain.

Dan says with all these, the impact on

the whole farm system will be taken into account and while for example drench resistance has been diagnosed in sheep, cattle will play an integral part in the parasite management programme.

The use of virtual fences will be of particular interest to cattle farmers, as this technology is likely to play an increasingly

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important role on hill country farming systems, particularly as farmers are required, through environmental regulations, to exclude stock from waterways and wetland areas.

Dan says virtual fences could be a more cost effective and practical alternative to fencing and while they have been trialled in the USA, Australia and New Zealand, they are unproven in this country’s terrain and farming systems.

He says a typical hill country sheep and beef farm, Lanercost will be an ideal testing ground for this technology. It will allow farmers to assess if virtual fences could be a solution for their farm.

“Over time, the goal will be to find farm production and profit opportunities for virtual fencing.”

The first virtual fencing collars are scheduled to be fitted in August.

Dan says by trialling and demonstrating the use of new technologies, such as virtual fences, and management systems on Lanercost, B+LNZ levy payers will gain an understanding of what might and might not be appropriate for their individual

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businesses without taking financial or production risks.

There will also be opportunity to consider adopting and adapting outcomes of work to suit different farm and management systems.

“Through our extension work and communication channels, we will keep farmers up-to-date with what we are doing on Lanercost, how we are doing it and most importantly what is working and what isn’t.”

He says it was about trialling new technologies and management practices on a commercial, hill country sheep and beef farm. A farm with all the usual climatic and economic challenges common to all farmers.

Five Focus Areas • Farm plan: Demonstration of use and application of a farm plan, specifically using B+LNZ’s farm plan and demonstrating how it can be used as part of a total farm management plan. It will also align with the New Zealand Farm

Assurance plan (NZFAP) and NZFAP Plus requirements in time • Drench resistance: Drench resistance is a huge concern for the sheep industry in particular, with triple drench resistance having been identified on an increasing number of sheep farms, particularly in the North Island. Drench resistance has been identified on Lanercost so the farm will be able to help farmers as the management team address the issue with the help of experts.

• Low methane genetics: Lanercost will use low methane rams over a portion of the flock to see how the low methane sheep perform on the farm when compared to the existing genetics.

• Artificial breeding of sheep: Using a few high merit sires widely in a flock or herd is one way to increase the rate of change of genetics. Simple artificial breeding technologies which don’t require surgery will be used on the farm’s ewe flock.

• Virtual fences: Alternative to fencing.

• Supplied by B+LNZ.

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GENETICS

Breeding programme

Next generation beef programme launched

L

ast year, B+LNZ Genetics launched a future-focused beef programme designed to generate more income for beef producers and the economy while protecting the environment.

Building on previous work by B+LNZ Genetics such as the Beef Progeny Test and Trans-Tasman Maternal Cow Project, this programme is the industry’s response to increasing demand for high quality food produced with a lower environmental footprint.

B+LNZ Genetics’ general manager Dan Brier says with the right science and tools, farmers will be able to produce great tasting meat with a good environmental story while maintaining and improving

their production efficiencies.

“Our meat companies are already moving in this direction, with several introducing quality grading systems and working under the Taste Pure Nature initiative to target the ‘conscious foodie’ consumer.”

According to Brier, modelling has shown that through this programme, farmers can increase the beef industry’s income by $460 million while improving the environmental and social outcomes for their farms and communities.

AbacusBio consultant Jason Archer will be providing the science lead on the programme while Matias Kinzurik from B+LNZ Genetics will be the overall manager.

Anna Boyd is genetics operations specialist-beef and she will be at the coal-

face of the programme, overseeing all the on-farm work and data collection. Anna will also be the contact for stud and commercial beef breeders and will be driving the associated extension work.

Four focus areas The programme incorporates four areas of work which start with the development of NZ specific breeding objectives.

Dan says these will be focused on this country’s pasture-based system where cows play a dual role of supporting sheep production while producing a high-quality product.

A data measurement and collection system will be developed to collect phenotypic and genotypic data. A new

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The newly launched beef programme could increase the beef industry’s income by $460 million with a lower environmental footprint.

beef progeny test, using Angus, Hereford and Simmental genetics, will identify the performance of the agreed-on traits linking with international beef and dairy beef genetics.

“The Beef Progeny Test got underway last spring after having secured a farm and identified bulls to create linkages to international datasets and previous progeny tests. Time is of the essence when dealing with biological systems so we took the opportunity to get started so we have calves on the ground this year.”

The fourth area of work is the use of next generation commercial genomic tools to support stud and commercial operations.

Commercial farmers, who are performance recording, will be used to ground-truth these tools and provide broader-based performance data and feedback.

Dan says B+LNZ Genetics will use their experience of building a genetic engine for sheep to build a similar engine for beef, combining phenotypic, genotypic and genomic data to calculate breeding values for agreed traits.

Ultimately, under the Beef Programme, B+LNZ Genetics plans to extend nProve

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May 2021

genetics systems to include stud cattle. This would give commercial users the ability to quickly and easily source the right genetics for their environment and farm system.

“The final and arguably most important part of the Beef Programme is industry uptake and we will bring a laser-like focus to this challenge, ensuring we are transferring knowledge to commercial farmers and making cutting-edge tools and resources available to the beef industry.”

The NZ beef industry is made up of 18,000 farms (excluding dairy) and 3.7 million beef cattle. Of these, one million are breeding cows which combine with the dairy herd to produce 1.9 million animals for processing annually (excluding cull dairy cows). Beef exports total $4.2 billion.

Determining traits Matias Kinzurik is the beef programme manager, charged with coordinating different parts of the programme and liaising with research providers, stakeholders and the Government.

He says their initial priorities are determining which traits are meaningful in the NZ cattle industry, establishing a

standardised measuring system for these traits, doing the measurements on the national herd (incorporating commercial and stud operations) and creating software through which the collected data can be turned into tools such as breeding values and an evaluation scheme.

The final priority is communicating with the industry and encouraging participants to champion the programme and get others to contribute.

“The more data points we can collect, the better the outcome,” Matias says.

Last December, the first mating got underway with a cross between pure Angus and pure Hereford cattle, a common cross, but there are no scientific measurements to determine the degree of hybrid vigour generated from the cross and compare the progeny’s performance with purebreds farmed within the same system. Simmental will also be included in the cross-breeding programme in the near future.

He says the ultimate aim of the programme is to create value for NZ beef producers.

• Supplied by B+LNZ.

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A WINNING FORMULA Breeding and feeding. That’s the motto at Damien Humphrey’s Manawatu beef cattle trading operation. Farming in conjunction with his father on a second nearby farm, Damien is finishing up to 1400 R2 heifers annually. Rebecca Greaves visited him.

Photos by Brad Hanson.

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PRODUCTION

O

pen to new ideas and willing to experiment, Damien Humphrey is mindful that the way they farm and its impact on the environment will have to change.

He’s already taking steps to find a way that is kinder on the environment, his staff, and can still be financially viable.

Damien, 40, and his wife Jaimie, who is an accountant, farm 180 hectares near Kiwitea, Manawatu. The majority of the business is beef cattle trading, though there is a small lamb finishing component. Damien grows processing peas for McCains too.

Just 7km down the road, Damien’s parents Ross and Wendy run the second farm.

Although they trade as the same entity, the two properties are managed separately. This works well, Damien says, they farm together, while having their own space.

Cattle are the main focus on Damien’s farm, but he stresses that sheep are of key importance to the overall business, with the family’s Brookfield Romney Stud located in Taihape.

Cattle are bought in winter and finished in the summer and autumn. The cattle come in as R2 and the goal is for them all to be gone as R3 by the end of autumn.

Cattle are bought in during June, July and August.

Over the last three years cattle have wintered on precision planted swedes, grass silage and supplementary pea hay (a byproduct from the processing peas). Silage was cut onfarm in spring – everything is inhouse – and stacked at each end of the paddock.

“It was cheap as we weren’t moving anything, just feeding under a wire, ad-lib.

It was amazing but extremely hard on the ground and the people, moving tyres from the pit,” Damien says.

This year, in a bid to get away from the silage pits, for the first time they are trying standing hay/standing grass alongside the swedes. Cattle will get a fresh break of swedes and grass daily, as well as pea hay.

“It’s for environmental reasons and wanting to make life easier for ourselves.”

They are trying to get the same volume of grass standing and half the amount of swedes for this winter.

“It does mean we’re dialling back on the amount of cattle we will be able to physically

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159

The 180ha Manawatu farm allows flexibility and the chance to grow process crops as well as finish stock.

FARM FACTS: • Kiwitea, Manawatu • 180ha • Annual rainfall: 1000-1200mm • Predominantly Kiwitea silt KIWITEA loam soils • Contour: Majority flat, balance easy hill (90% croppable) • 1000-1400 R2 heifers finished annually • 600-700 mixed sex lambs finished annually • Processing peas grown for McCains each year.

160

winter as we’ll be using so much more area to winter the cattle on.”

Cattle will be in the swede/standing grass wintering system until about the second week of September, when they move on to straight grass.

He says they plan to have enough grass behind them by then, as a rough rule.

Because they are high, about 400m above sea level, they usually don’t get any grass growth until September. The cattle are fed nothing but grass from September to March, when they are sold.

A lot depends on the buy-in weight. They target nothing under 380kg LW for buying in and the preference is for R2 heifers. The last three years cattle have averaged 0.6 to 0.7kg/ day weight gain over the wintering period.

The general rule is to buy in an animal at 400kg, put 200kg on it and sell at 600kg.

They don’t work off cents/kg DM, but on buy in and sell price to give them their margin.

“Things are always changing but we aim to get everything on board for under $1000.”

When it comes to what they buy they are fussy.

“Our motto is breeding and feeding, 50% being genetics and breeding, 50% what you put in.”

They would rather buy quality than work off a buying price.

Damien says that’s what they have learned from seeing the performance of genetics their sheep stud, it flows through to beef too.

“If you buy from well-known farmers using good genetics you see the gains.”

Damien admits that when running large numbers he can’t always get the right breed at the right price, but that’s the gold standard scenario.

He says the best cattle to buy are an Angus first cross. He prefers heifers as he finds them easier to manage, but will buy steers if he has to. The right animal is one thing, then it’s up to how well you feed them.

Their philosophy is buy good stock, put weight on as cheaply as possible and kill them.

“I don’t measure feed, everyone says I should, I do it old school and it seems to work.

“It’s solely down to the art of breeding and feeding.”

Damien targets finishing 1000 animals a year though in good seasons it can be up to 1400. About 80% of the cattle are exported, while the balance go to local trade.

“For local trade you need heifers.

“I think people worry about the grading

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

Top: A shot of the lush countryside with sheep in the background.

Above: Swedes are the preferred feed crop.

with heifers but I find if you buy the right stock you don’t have any grading issues.”

Ross has always been a staunch AFFCO supporter, Damien says, and the family has a 100% supply contract with AFFCO. In times when the pressure comes on, like drought, they have been great. There’s no lag in time to get stock away when everyone is trying to kill.

“They’re good to us and we’re good to them, it’s a good relationship.”

Cropping regime Damien grows processing peas for McCains annually and this is his only cash crop. Peas are planted in paddocks the cattle have wintered on, or any older pastures that aren’t performing.

Peas are planted in November and are in for three months, before the paddock is put back into pasture. Damien is a fan of tall fescue grass and says 80% of the farm’s pastures are now in it.

“This soil type is bad for grass grub. I was sick of pouring on chemicals to get rid of it and thought there had to be a better way. “ About 80% of the farm is in a tall fescue/ red clover mix. They still have grass grub but not as severe.

The tall fescue is also quite drought tolerant but can't be grazed too hard, it does like to be rotationally grazed.

“In summer on hot days it just keeps growing.”

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The cattle are fed nothing but grass from September to March, when they are sold.

NO ANIMAL HEALTH COSTS Damien does not treat the cattle at all.“The cattle are three quarters organic basically.”

They come off the truck, get fed a diet of swedes and grass, come back in and get weighed once. The heaviest go on the truck and the lightest go back on grass.

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Everything is on a seven-year rotation. A paddock is in grass for seven years, winters cattle, goes into peas and then back into grass.

With peas the income can be really high, and really low. The key is it’s only in the ground for a short time and is easy on the ground. ”Peas are a legume fixing free N for you and we have the byproduct of pea hay that we feed out. It’s organic matter being poured back into the ground.”

He says the stock enjoy the pea hay and do extremely well on it. With the peas gone

by February there is a four-week window to get the paddock back into grass before rain hopefully comes at the end of March.

The swedes are precision planted in rows.

Damien likes swedes because everything is

below the wire and all it requires is someone to shift the break.

“We trialled planting our own swedes at lower rates, but the yield from the precision planting blows everything else away.”

They have tried kale previously and thought about the idea of fodder beet, but swedes are far cheaper and he doesn’t have any animal health issues.

“The thing with the wintering, it’s getting harder and harder to have such a concentration of cattle in a small area.

Environmentally we’ve got to figure out ways to be easier on the land. That’s why we’re trying the standing grass, and half the stocking rate.

“We either have to experiment with buying dearer stock in the spring or cropping more

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ROTATIONAL GRAZING Damien likes to rotationally graze his farm. He has big mobs of cattle, 100 plus, which are moved every two to three days for a fresh pick, depending on covers.

“I’ve always loved the concept of how dairy farms work and how simple it is to measure how much grass they have.”

He likes it because he can visually see how much grass he’s growing.

“I use my eye and believe you grow more grass by rotationally grazing.”

maybe. Having this type of land gives up flexibility. It’s an experiment, nothing ventured, nothing gained. That’s farming – I’m trying to be ahead of the eight ball.”

Family ties Damien is the third generation of his family to work this land, having grown up on the farm, and he counts himself lucky. He has been managing the farm since 2014 when he returned from overseas.

“Dad is still super active, so we’re lucky to have the two farms. We can farm together, but with space. He has sheep at his place so I’m there a lot helping, 80% of the work would be down there.

“I’m pretty lucky. It’s a privilege to be farming – it’s hard to get into farming now. I love it. I grew up driving utes and backing trailers, it’s in the blood.”

He never had any doubt he’d end up on the home farm, though his father took some convincing after Damien did a few stints building in Australia, Wellington and the UK in between farming jobs. He reasoned that if he was going to devote 40-odd years of his life to the farm, he’d quite like to see a bit of the world first.

Both farms at Kiwitea (about 1000 acres in total) are predominantly beef and cropping. The Romney stud ewe flock is located in Taihape with Mike and Vicky Cottrell. After weaning, lambs come to Kiwitea, those that make the cut genetics-wise, about 500 ewe hoggets, stay on at Ross’s property to be mated and lambed, before returning to the hills as 2ths.

The rams also spend three months at Kiwitea, prior to selling onfarm.

“About 15 years ago dad decided to shift the stud to hill country. It’s a share farming arrangement with the Cottrells, they own the land and we own the ewes, and it works extremely well for us. As breeders we need to be breeding sheep off hill country to go back on to hill country. Back in the day this road was

Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

Above: Damien prefers swedes because they are below the wire making it easy to shift the break.

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May 2021

“I don’t measure feed, everyone says I should, I do it old school and it seems to work. It’s solely down to the art of breeding and feeding.” called ‘ram alley’ now it’s all finishing.”

The move changed the stud dramatically, Damien says, and it has been a positive one.

“It’s really turned the sheep into little hill country nuggets.”

Whatever lambs are not considered good enough to go back into the stud flock are sent to Damien’s farm and finished.

He finishes 600 to 700 mixed sex lambs annually.

“The hard core part of the business is beef and, since we shifted the ewe flock we got led to trading beef.”

An eye to the future While Damien admits he’s very traditional in some ways, he doesn’t budget and measures pasture by eye, he is also keen to learn new things and try them out on-farm.

Damien with worker Will Taylor.

He’s taken an interest in regenerative agriculture and, while it’s not all for him, there are some principles he’s keen to adopt, such as incorporating a wider variety of plant species and more legumes.

Although he’s not officially organic either, there’s no fertiliser or spraying on the farm.

Weeds in crops are controlled through repeated mowing, and he’s given grass grub a good knock by using tall fescue.

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Damien’s ultimate dream is to move to a system where the farm is finishing cattle 12 months of the year, rather than relying on buying during a three-month window and intensive wintering. He feels it is the future for the soils, stock and the people.

In the back of his mind he knows the almost completely flat farm could have other uses, and he doesn’t rule that out. The beauty of the farm is it affords flexibility.

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CROP & FORAGE

Fodder beet gets the tick A dissertation by Lincoln University agricultural science honours student Zivana Katelyn King has found fodder beet an environmentally efficient and cost effective feed. The findings have been welcomed by Canterbury sheep and beef farmers, the Fisher family. Sandra Taylor reports.

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dissertation by a Lincoln University’s agricultural science honours student has shown that high density beef wintering systems (fodder beet and pasture) are the most resource efficient with the lowest methane and nitrogen losses.

The study by Zivana Katelyn King concluded that days to slaughter had the most overwhelming influence on resource use and methane and nitrogen (N) outputs.

The dissertation assessed drymatter and metabolisable energy (ME) intake, methane production, N intake and excretion, water intake and the direct cost of feed of seven different beef finishing systems. These were: 28-month pasture, 25-month fodder beet, 25-month kale, 16-month pasture, 16-month fodder beet, a New Zealand feedlot and a United States feedlot.

The highest use of ME, the greatest methane and N output was associated with maximum days to slaughter, which was the 28-month pasture system. This was followed closely by the 25-month kale system which had similar values except for ME. The most efficient system was the US feedlot.

Meanwhile, the best ranked NZ systems were the 16-month pasture and fodder beet systems, but the pasture system had considerably higher methane outputs when compared to the fodder beet system.

Comparing the 25-month forage systems, the beet system had considerably lower methane and N outputs than the kale.

The highest water intake occurred in the 25-month kale system closely followed by the 28-month grass system. The US feedlot had the lowest water intake.

Comparing feed costs However, looking at direct feed costs (per kg CWT) the US feedlot was the most expensive followed by the NZ feedlot, the 28-month pasture, 25-month kale, 16-month grass, 25-month fodder beet and

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16-month fodder beet.

It was the systems that focused on increasing cool season energy intake in young stock accelerated finishing and achieved far better environmental outcomes, although fodder beet was found to be much more resource efficient forage than kale.

The study argues that the critical time to alter stock slaughter age in spring born cattle is the first autumn and winter. Low mid-spring liveweights tend to prevent forage-fed cattle achieving slaughter weights before their second winter and that is the pivot point for increased resource use, methane and N output.

The good news for farmers is that the most efficient systems were also found to be the least expensive.

In the report’s conclusion, it states that the fodder beet system had the lowest methane and N excretion values reported in forage feeding systems for beef anywhere in the world, and this should be a good- news that warrants wider community attention.

“Given that recent history has shown the trend for consumers to include environmental impact in purchase decisions around food, this information should be extended widely to the beef industry to equip farmers to meet the future community expectations for beef.”

However, NZ farmers face a conundrum.

That’s because the most resource efficient, fast-finishing system is also the one that has stock grazing winter pasture or crop at high stocking rates (the 16-month pasture and 16- month fodder beet). These systems have come under increasing scrutiny in recent years from regulators and the wider public.

The study also calls on processors to reward early slaughter with either premiums on carcase-weight or preferential access to killing floor space.

“The value would be recovered with marketing the fast-finished beef with appropriate labelling and both the initiative and practice could be leveraged by the processors for the good of the broader industry.”

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Low carbon beef producers should be rewarded When the Climate Change Commission released its report calling for the primary sector to either reduce its emissions or cut livestock numbers by 15 percent, the Fisher family were, in some ways, pleased.

They saw this as the shot in the arm the beef industry needed to improve resourceuse efficiencies and encourage the whole beef supply chain to look at ways it can become more productive and profitable.

The Greenpark sheep and beef farmers have been calling for change in the way beef is produced in this country for many years, but recent environmental regulations and a Lincoln University student’s Honours dissertation has provided grist to their mill.

This dissertation, which compared seven beef finishing systems in NZ, looked at how resource use efficiency, methane and nitrogen output differ. It found that there was opportunity for beef producers to cut methane production by about 50% simply by improving their production efficiencies.

Fast finishing is at the crux of these production efficiencies and as Anna Fisher puts it, “the longer animals are alive the more methane they produce”.

“By far the majority of what a beef animal eats goes purely into maintenance.

“Getting the quantity of high ME feed into the animal is the key to fast-finishing.”

Anna, her husband Brent and Brent’s parents Barry and Maureen farm 1100ha running between Greenpark and Motukarara in Central Canterbury.

Their property is a 50:50 split between hill country and flats which flank the environmentally fragile Lake Ellesmere.

As well as running the Silverstream Charolais stud, they run 1100 ewes and finish 800 trading cattle on a fodder beet and pasture system every year.

This frustration in the inefficiencies of this country’s beef systems stems back over 20 years when they entered a bull into the Canadian Charolais Conception to Consumer progeny test programme.

Looking at Canadian systems, they saw beef cattle finished at 12 months at 300kg CW and this was the catalyst for Brent to start questioning why NZ producers couldn’t be finishing beef much earlier than the typical two years-plus.

While he admits Canadian feedlot cut-and-carry finishing systems are very different to NZ’s grass-based farming, there

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May 2021

Anna and Brent Fisher are calling for a change in the way beef is produced to increase efficiencies and reduce beef’s carbon footprint.

was still huge potential for the industry to do better.

“We know the cattle have the genetic capability to do it, it’s just getting the management in place to help realise it.

“If you look at the sheep industry over the last 30 years, there have been huge gains in terms of productivity.

“Generally speaking, there haven’t been the same gains in cattle and often they are only thought of as pasture groomers for more productive sheep.”

Brent says while there is no one silver bullet, there are a number of small factors that could add up to significant gains across the industry.

“We have extremely good technologies for recording.

“From our experience, the more we learn the more we realise just how much more there is to learn.”

In their own system, they use fodder beet to grow cattle over winter and set the

yearlings up so they can make the most efficient and effective use of spring pasture to drive growth rates.

Brent says years of records have highlighted that on average, they grew 50% of an animal’s potential growth in the spring period.

Their top lines are sent away in December and the family has the bulk of their cattle ready for processing over summer and autumn. This coincides with the cull dairy cow kill, when processors are disincentivising beef producers for having animals ready at this time.

“It makes perfect sense from the processing industries point of view as cull dairy cows are cheap and readily available, but it does little to help the beef industry.

“It just helps encourage the inefficiencies which have constrained the industry.”

He says he would like the processors to think about the whole supply chain as if it was their own, particularly the cooperatives, as their existence relies on farmers staying in business.

If it was any other industry, they wouldn’t tolerate inefficiencies in any one part of it.

“If we don’t address these issues, we will continue to see beef cow country lost forever to trees.”

Brent would also like to see producers being rewarded for producing beef with a low carbon footprint and he says banks have signalled that in the future, carbon footprint will be included in lending criteria.

But the family also believes improved production efficiencies are a huge market opportunity for NZ to produce and market beef with a low carbon footprint.

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Nutrition

Finding balance on legume pastures

Have pasture tested at a laboratory immediately before the paddock is grazed to gauge quality.

BY: ANDREA MURPHY

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enerally speaking, farmers are pretty good at feed budgeting. Whether it be by eyeball or plate metering, good stock people innately and/or mathematically know when there is sufficient feed to meet the needs of their cattle. This never ceases to amaze me, particularly on sheep and beef runs where there are so many different stock classes across a wide and diverse landscape.

But what happens when cattle aren’t growing well, despite having plenty of feed? This may be the situation on lush spring and autumn legume rich finishing blocks, with the tell-tale signs being loose manure, and in the worst cases, bloat.

However, these challenges can be mitigated and liveweight gain targets achieved by focusing on nutrition. In a finishing system this means quantifying and balancing the supply of nutrients from the pasture, with the demand for nutrients for a particular growth target.

The best way to understand the quality of a pasture is to have it tested at a laboratory immediately before the paddock is grazed.

Although the test results may come back

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after the cattle have finished in that paddock, the data is still valuable because it gives a retrospective picture of what went right and/or what did not, and is a useful guide for the future.

Interpreting feed tests A basic feed test includes information about drymatter (DM), crude protein (CP), acid detergent fibre (ADF), neutral detergent fibre (NDF), ash, crude fat, starch, soluble sugars and organic matter digestibility (OMD). It’s a lot to take in so I concentrate initially on CP, NDF and ADF, applying the “20-30-40 Rule of Thumb”.

20% CP: Young growing cattle require about 20% crude protein; as the animals grow, the requirement for protein decreases.

The CP levels of lush, legume rich spring and autumn pastures may exceed this level and when ingested produce more soluble protein than the rumen can handle – more about that later.

30% ADF: ADF, or the plant fibre which can be broken down in an acid environment, can be an indicator of the relative energy in a forage. As ADF increases with plant maturity, the energy

density decreases. I look at ADF before I look at metabolisable energy (ME). ME is a calculation and the actual MJ of energy metabolised by the animal is highly dependent on many factors. If the feed test is at or below the 30% mark, the energy density of the feed will be good.

40% NDF: NDF, or the fibre which can be broken down in a neutral environment like the rumen, is an indication of the bulk of a forage. As NDF increases with plant maturity, drymatter intake potential goes down. NDF values around the 40% mark means there is enough fibre to optimise rumen health, but not too much to inhibit intake. Insufficient fibre may compromise rumen health, increasing the risk of rumen upset and bloat.

What nutrients do we need?

To reach a target level of productivity and profitability, it pays to run calculations around the optimal number of days to finished weight, from which an average daily weight gain (ADG) can be determined.

Understanding the target level of daily weight gain is important because the nutrient requirement demands will be different for different objectives. Imagine

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Table 1: Finding the right balance Supply Lush, legume rich pasture

Drymatter intake (kg/h/d)

Metabolisable energy

Crude Protein

Neutral detergent fibre

8.09

12 MJ/kg DM or 97.08 MJ/h/d

27% or 2.18 kg*

33% or 2.67 kg

8.09

87.38 MJ/h/d

12(min)-22% (max) or 0.97-1.78 kg CP

30-35% (min) 2.4-2.8 kg

Balanced

~10 more MJ/h/d than required

380 grams more CP than the maximum required.

Maybe on target?

Depending on how much leaf is consumed in comparison to stem.

Rumen capacity should look good.

Cattle viewed from behind should have an apple shape on the left side and a pear shape on the right side.

Are animals gaining at the targeted ADG? How is body condition looking?

Check the manure consistency.

Loose manure with undigested particles may be related to excessive protein and/or rumen upset.

Check the mob for signs of rumen health. How many chews before the bolus is swallowed?

Less than 40 may be a sign of insufficient fibre.

Demand 300kg LW R2 at 1kg ADG Balance

Visual checks and signs in young cattle

*Animals eat kilograms, not percentages. Therefore, using DMI, the kg of a nutrient can be calculated as follows: 8.09kg DM x 0.27 = 2.18kg as crude protein.

a beef finishing system running 300kg LW steers targeting 1kg of average daily gain (ADG), the feed intake requirement is 8.09kg DM down the throat, 87.38 megajoules of metabolisable energy (MJME), no more than 1.78kg of crude Protein (CP) and a minimum of 2.8kg as NDF. To evaluate the requirements for a particular mob at your place, the Beef + Lamb New Zealand FeedSmart calculator is highly recommended for calculating both drymatter intake (DMI) and energy demands.

Lush legume rich pastures may lead to bloat.

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Table 1 compares the nutrient supply of a lush, legume rich pasture with the demand of a 300kg LW R2 steer targeting average daily growth of 1kg. It is important to note that the supply line of the table is based on book values and is not indicative of the pasture quality in your paddock. To be certain of your circumstances, take a feed test.

The table shows that when the target DMI demand of 8.09kg is met, the animals will be consuming 97.08 MJ of ME, 2.18kg of CP and 2.67kg of NDF. That sounds good, given that an R2 needs 87 MJ and is getting 97 MJ. So why are they not doing?

In this case, the animals require a maximum of 22% CP or 1.78kg as protein.

In consuming lush legume rich pastures, the rumen may be flooded with soluble proteins – the protein which is released quickly in the rumen, like sugar in a cup of tea. The more readily available the soluble protein, the greater the chance of a build-up of stable foam causing bloat.

The stock exposed to the same highly soluble protein, but which avoided clinical bloat, may likely be the poor doers. The excess of nitrogenous compounds must be expelled out of the rumen, through the rumen wall into the blood, then out of the system via urine and manure – an environmental risk. This process of elimination costs energy. In practical terms,

even though the energy was supplied in excess of the requirement, much of that energy is used by the body to expel waste, thus reducing growth potential.

Fibre also matters. Extrapolating from other ruminants, the NDF requirement to optimise rumen health in 300 kg steers would be 2.4-2.8kg as NDF (or 30-35%).

Even if a paddock tests at 33% NDF, it may not be truly representative of what the animals are eating, especially on the first day on the new paddock when the ratio of low fibre leaf to high fibre stem may be out of proportion. In fact, chicory, plantain, and clover leaf values as low as 24% NDF have been recorded. Hungry cattle on leafy, low fibre pasture may have an increased risk of rumen upset and/or bloat.

Solutions Forages low in fibre and high in protein is a combination ripe for bloat. At the same time, excessive protein is eliminated from the body through urine and manure – a process which requires energy, creates environmental risk, and may compromise average daily gain. Even if pasture utilisation is high, an unbalanced rumen means nutrient utilisation is low. Reduced feed conversion efficiency will compromise performance and profitability. Ensuring the animals are full before they go on to the stand and offering free choice straw, hay, or long stem baleage in the corner of the paddock would not go amiss.

It is acknowledged that long stem forage is more expensive than pastures and/or crops, but when fibre is a limiting factor these supplements can pay dividends. Good nutrition is not always about feeding more, it is about feeding strategically.

Checks and balances  



Feed Test

Determine nutrient requirements of cattle with B+LNZ FeedSmart tool

Use the model in this article as a

template to identify the limiting nutrients onfarm.

Observe the behaviours of grazing 

cattle to help identify nutrient imbalances.

Make sure cattle are full before they 

go on to legume rich pastures.

• Andrea Murphy is the lead ruminant nutritionist with Metabolik Precision Nutrition, a Division of Image Holdings.

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CROP & FORAGE

Pastures

The success of a one-year trial has convinced Mt Linton general manager Ceri Lewis of the need to increase the legume content in the station’s pastures.

Clover the recipe for weight gain BY: LYNDA GRAY

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60ha block of overgrown red clover was the catalyst to legume dominant pastures for cattle finishing at Mount Linton.

Mount Linton general manager Ceri Lewis says the block was direct drilled on a steeper part of the downlands in 2014 as a fail-safe forage for finishing lambs during dry summers.

“It was a straight red clover, and it grew exceptionally well but somehow we missed the boat with getting lambs on to it early enough and it got too long.”

Cutting it for balage was out of the question because of the steep country, so the possibility of grazing the crop with bloat capsuled steers was investigated. A stock and station technical rep told Ceri that the idea was a bad one, but he decided

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otherwise and went ahead.

After a gradual and cautious transition the Angus steers packed on liveweight over 12 weeks from mid-February until mid-May. Over the first six week grazing rotation the steers achieved a daily liveweight gain of 2.75kg, and in the second 2.25kg which rounded out to a 12 week average of 2.5kg LW a day.

“It was phenomenal, most were more or less finished by the time they came off the clover.”

Red clover looked to be the answer for cattle finishing but changed animal health protocols in the United States market which the Mount Linton steers were contracted to, banned the use of bloat capsules which Ceri was not prepared to forgo in grazing red clover. However, the success of the one year trial convinced him of the need to increase the legume content of Mount Linton pastures.

That’s led to the establishment of a 680ha downland cattle finishing block sown out with Relish red clover (6kg/ha), Quartz white clover (4kg/ha), Tonic plantain (2kg/ ha) and Eastern tall fescue (14kg/ha).

Another 80ha has the same mix for growing out Mount Linton’s stud bulls.

“It was phenomenal, most were more or less finished by the time they came off the clover.”

Ceri says the pastures are 60 to 70% clover dominant and puts the success of the legume down to the clover-friendly tall fescue. The fescue is sown at a relatively light rate and it’s growth pattern is such

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Left: Angus steers packed on an average of 2.5kg LW a day on the downland red clover. Since then, Plantain and Tall Fescue have been introduced to the mix. Of the 1400 grazed, about 30% are killed prime at 320kgs before winter. Below: Mark Kennedy, Mount Linton’s hill manager inspects a hill country clover block, aerial sown in November 2020.

that it allows the clover to establish.

“It’s different from the standard pastures we’ve had in the past. They were heavy in ryegrass and within a couple of years they usually smothered out the clover.”

This year the Eastern tall fescue seed was in short supply so Quantica was used instead in the spring established pastures.

“It’s looking good, perhaps even better than Eastern.”

A watchful eye is kept on pasture cover during the transition of the cattle.

He would like the cattle to go on to a reasonable cover for the first spring graze of about 2500kg DM and they come off at 1500kg DM. Then they try to keep covers as low as possible in the 2500-2700kg DM range to maintain quality which is the key to liveweight gain.

Watching for bloat Cattle are observed for possible signs of bloat, but there’s been very few cases – and that’s without bloat oil in the troughs.

“During spring we might take an animal off twice a week but generally speaking we’ve had few if any problems.”

About 1400 R2 steers graze the downland blocks from mid-September until May. The average daily growth rate up until Christmas is about 2kg, and after that about 1kg a day. Over the last couple of years the R2 steers averaged about 1.4kg a day over

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the seven months of grazing.

The challenging time is through JanuaryMarch and this year they managed 950g/ day.

“The secret is keeping the pre-graze covers below 2700kg DM.” Inspired by the growth results on the downlands, Ceri was keen to replicate the legume pasture roll out on the hill country.

A further impetus was joining the Red Meat Profit Partnership (RMPP) Southland Hill Country group which provided expertise and encouragement to pursue cloverdominant pastures. In autumn 2019 a 40ha steep northerly facing block was sown out in red, white and sub clover. The block was left to seed over summer then cattle grazed it over autumn.

Another block of 260ha was established in spring 2020, and a further 860ha will be sown this spring.

These new hill legume dominant pastures are primarily for lamb finishing, with cattle being used to strategically graze them during the establishment phase. However, the opportunity to finish cattle on this area in the future is a real possibility.

Reducing the amount of grass seed and upping the clover content of Mt Linton pastures will continue, Ceri says.

“We’ll keep doing it on both our downlands and hill country because we’re confident it will have a big impact on animal performance.”

Top Tips

for legume-rich pastures

Don’t be afraid. Have the confidence to lower the grass rate and up the legume content.

1. Start with a small block.

2. Establish legume with compatible grass species. At Mount Linton, tall fescue has worked well, it’s slower growth rate giving the red and white clover plenty of time to get a foothold. Also timothy, established on the downlands has a similar growth profile.

3. Take the transition slowly and use bloat oil in the troughs for the first few weeks. Once cattle are used to the clover the bloat oil can be stopped.

4. Keep an eye on the cattle especially in the early spring, and remove any with signs of bloat. If you find repeat offenders, remove them completely.

5. Graze new pastures with young cattle for the first few rotations as they don’t graze as low and damage the young clover.

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ENVIRONMENT

The Northland nurserymen of beef Beef farmers Jeff Martin and Helen Linssen fatten Friesian bull calves and want to be in on a nation-wide farm assurance plan. Glenys Christian reports.

Winners are grinners: Northland beef farmers Jeff Martin and Helen Linssen by the solar panels installed in 2017 to pump water from their Foster block lake. Photo: New Zealand Farm Environment Trust.

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orthland beef farmers, Jeff Martin and Helen Linssen, describe themselves as nurserymen. They take 100 kilogram Friesian bull calves bought from rearers through to about 350kg liveweight before selling them on, usually in the following December.

They’re strongly of the view that the New Zealand Farm Assurance Plan Plus (FAP+) needs to extend to their vital part of the beef supply chain, having worked towards this aim for over five years.

“The story alone is fantastic but you need traceability,” Jeff said.

“We’re the next step down. FAP+ is the mechanism by which we’ll get a premium.

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We want to be able to make that offer to farmers so they can take their stock further.”

He believes FAP+ is a way to differentiate product and give conscious foodies what they want.

The couple are the Northland Ballance Farm Environment Awards supreme regional winners for 2020.

Jeff is on the Beef + Lamb NZ Northern North Island farmer council as well as being a member of its nationwide environment reference group (ERG).

Jeff and Helen also belong to a RMPP action network group under which aims to reduce animal losses and increase liveweight gains.

They buy bull calves predominantly from one Waikato rearer who they know well, who also supplies Pamu (Landcorp).

“He has a high M bovis protocol to reduce any risk so we pay a premium price,” Helen said. This means they have been M bovis free so far.

They used to buy calves from the South Island but with the arrival of theileria in the area became wary. Through a tickicide trial they participated in, they learned a lot more about the disease.

“And the calves didn’t adjust well to the long travel,” she said.

So in 2014 they switched to their current rearer and keep the connection strong with annual visits between their farms.

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Sifting through stock Last summer 975 Friesian calves arrived on the three properties which make up Te Karoa Farms through November and December with the last arriving in January.

Two thirds were contracted to give them security, but the remaining one third were bought on the spot market.

They see the logical next step as building the same close relationship with buyers of their stock.

“We’ve had a long relationship with our stock agent and his same clients come back and buy our cattle every year,” Jeff said.

“But the returns are dictated by the schedule price and our prices are an equation of that. We can’t forward contract well but we have talked about receiving a percentage of the schedule price.”

Once the calves arrive on their farms, they go on to transitional feeding with a 20% protein meal used by rearers fed in plastic troughs in paddocks to up to 35 different mobs.

“They can be very delicate or robust,” Helen said.

“You’ve got to be around them constantly.”

The calves are all weighed at the end of February and May to identify individual animals which aren’t putting on weight.

They can be susceptible to worms up until nine months old but as they get older they can clean up pastures after them on their cell grazing system. They did try using cows behind the calves but found them too

“We can’t forward contract well but we have talked about receiving a percentage of the schedule price.” heavy for their soils.

“We try not to over-drench by keeping an eye on which animals need it rather than doing them every 28 days,” Helen said.

They used to carry out faecal egg counting but found sometimes the results would indicate that drenching wasn’t required when visually it appeared as though it was. Animal health costs are between $16 to $18/calf or $4/su.

Jeff and Helen admit they probably don’t weigh their stock as much as they should but have recently upgraded their scales and tag scanner. And they’re well aware of what the record-keeping requirements are that the farm assurance programme they would like to see in place would require.

They will generally speed up their rotation in August, even though there’s sometimes a feed pinch in September or October, to keep good quality feed through to December.

“Spring can be a bit of a fizzer and sometimes we’re growing more grass in July than in October,” Jeff said.

“The only reliable season is winter.”

Flexibility is required in getting stock off the farm, which Helen refers to as sifting,

where stock are repeatedly weighed to get the greatest amount of consistency in each truckload sold.

“Because we’re trying to get a tight weight range we’ll go through 150 bulls to get 60,” she said.

“We’ll weigh a lot of bulls then.”

The animals are carefully inspected before they leave with the couple’s marketing skills coming to the fore.

Bought their first farm in 2001 The couple were both born in the north but didn’t meet up until they attended Massey University. Jeff studied a Bachelor of Agricultural Economics and Helen a Bachelor of Business Studies, majoring in agricultural and horticultural business and marketing. They both ended up in the horticultural sector with Jeff working for Turners and Growers both in exports and imports, then South Island-based company, Demeter Pacific.

Helen worked in Auckland for two years, travelled overseas, then worked for KeriFresh in Kerikeri, managing packhouses and local marketing. They realised after meeting in the 1990s that she’d been in charge of processing squash for Jeff’s company. After five-and-a-half years she left to set up one of the first environmentally friendly drycleaning businesses in the country in Kerikeri.

Jeff’s father fell ill, so he returned home.

His father had a 474ha farm at Mangamuka, further west of where they are now, where

Jeff and Helen switched from finishing big bulls to younger bulls to protect their soils. Photo: NZ Farm Environment Trust.

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he ran an Angus stud and Romney sheep.

In 1995 Jeff bought 100ha nearby and was able to lease two other blocks where he ran 120 breeding cows. They were living in Kaeo using one vehicle to get to and from their different businesses and life was only going to get busier.

They bought their first farm together in the Otangaroa Valley, northwest of Kaeo, in 2001, after selling Helen’s house. It’s 92ha with about 40ha effective, the balance being in native bush which has been fenced off for over 20 years. By this time Jeff was running a forestry gang after pruning and thinning blocks he’d started planting at 11 on his father’s farm and they had two toddlers, Mary-Jane, now 22 and Oscar, 19.

In 2004 they bought the Linssen block of 190ha (160ha eff) which was part of Helen’s parents’ farm 6km away. They used handheld GPS and sticks and strings to subdivide from paddocks of two to five hectares in size down to 0.4ha cells giving 60-day rotations. They switched from finishing big bulls to younger bulls to protect their soils.

Three years ago they added the nearby Foster block of 207ha. The farm had grazed sheep and Santa Gertrudis cattle and been a dairy farm in the past but there was little infrastructure when they arrived. They flew a drone over the farm to give 20cm contour lines. This data was used by AgDesign to design a cell system down to 0.25ha as well as marking out riparian areas. That was also used to lay out ware lines and locate troughs. Development work included building a 5.5 million litre lake, fencing dams off and installing five tanks and five pumps across all three farms. So a total of 307ha is now in cell grazing, 23ha used for extensive grazing which may go into forestry, 133ha in bush and 43ha in riparian planting.

“It took two and-a-half years but it was so

much fun,” Helen said.

Part of the design was making sure there was always pasture above riparian areas which extend up to the top of the hills in order to capture nutrient run-off.

“It was all built on the computer and precision marked with a GPS system much more complex than our earlier hand-helds,” Jeff said.

“There are only two gates in each cell so staff members can’t get anything wrong. It’s farming by numbers.”

Three-and-a-half years ago they took on their first employee, Matthew McGregor, who has now been joined by cadet, Tane Burns-Kingiwaiaua.

FARM FACTS • Finishing Friesian bull calves from 100kg to 350kg LW • Area: 506ha, 307ha now in cell grazing, • 133ha in bush and 43ha in riparian planting.

• Gross farm income is $2850/ha • Farm working expenses $2000/ ha, includes ost of buying stock • The effective farm surplus is $619/ha • Animal health costs $16 to $18/ animal, $4/su

Grazing and stocking They tried regrassing but found that new ryegrass species were overtaken in a couple years by the predominant kikuyu. Jeff reasons that more grass might be grown per day if establishment was possible but

kikuyu would still win out over the whole season.

Their stocking rate is moving up slightly each year as pasture root systems develop more and the grazing cells allow stock to

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“It was all built on the computer and precision marked with a GPS system much more complex than our earlier hand-helds.” be moved regularly and enable long winter rotations. With a range of silt and clay soils on the farm numbers of stock can be varied by use of land management units (LMU) to manage pasture better.

“It’s practicality and science coming together,” Helen said.

They used to plate meter pastures but now believe they have a good idea of covers.

“You’re gathering information to make decisions and it’s up to you how you get that information,” Jeff said.

“Cell grazing tends to even it out because you can set the rotation then change the size of the cells.”

Gross farm income is $2850/ha and farm working expenses (FWE) $2000/ha, which includes the cost of purchasing stock. The effective farm surplus (EFS) is $619/ha.

Thirty units of phosphate goes on annually, along with 26 units of nitrogen(N) and a small dressing of sulphur.

It’s flown on by fixed wing aircraft from an airstrip situated between their farms. They might also add a side dressing of N in the spring if they think it’s needed. Lime will go on every three years as well as carrying out a herbage test for trace elements. Their soil’s pH is 5.8 and Olsen P level between 25 and 35 after using reactive phosphate rock (RPR) for some years.

Dung beetles have played their part in improving fertility after being introduced by entomologist, Dr Jenny Dymock, based at nearby Taipa, who they heard speak at a field day.

“We had some long conversations with her to make sure they wouldn’t kill off our worms,” Jeff said.

“We weren’t sure at the beginning.”

But now the beetles have spread six kilometres down the valley and they believe they’ll keep going until they reach a barrier of some type.

Environmental awards They’ve progressively fenced off native bush, wetlands and riparian areas with help from the Northland Regional Council as part of their farm environment plan.

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Jeff Martin and Helen Linssen with farm cadet Tane Burns-Kingiwaiaua and employee Matthew McGregor. Matthew has worked for the couple for three-and-a-half years.

Invertebrates in the 18km of stream frontage on their farms feeding into the Wainui River they regard as “little scientists”.

“You can test on the day and that will give you a snapshot, but they’re doing it all the time,” Jeff said.

The couple is also acting as guinea pigs for Cloud Farmer, which is developing a new environmental part of its app, which they find particularly handy in coordinating the running of three different properties.

They plan to plant shade trees in the cells which don’t already have them with the debate continuing as to which species will be most suitable. And that includes the replanting of 10ha of recently harvested forestry, with an eye to natives or a different range of exotics.

“Poplars can fall over after 20 plus years,” Helen said.

“But we have planted some on steep slopes for erosion control. Research has been a big part of what we’ve done. We’ve learned from other farmers and we keep looking for new ideas to keep the passion.

If you’re not going forward you’re going backwards.”

As well as winning the supreme environmental award for their region, they also received awards for water quality enhancement and agri-business management, including: • B+LNZ Livestock Farm Award • Bayleys People in Primary Sector Award • Synlait Climate Stewardship Award • WaterForce Wise with Water Award.

They were particularly pleased to receive the first of that slew of awards.

“There’s a lot of work looking after water from the top of the hill,” Jeff said.

“And it doesn’t have to be at a cost for us or our animals.”

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May 2021

ENVIRONMENT

Soil fertility

Soils need feeding not more microbes BY: DR DOUG EDMEADES

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oil microbiology is the new frontier in soil science, but new techniques and tools are required to peer into their tiny world.

New Zealand soil microbiologist Dr Graeme Sparling advised that only about 10% of soil microbes had been described, and little was known about the physiology and ecology of soil microbes.

A large proportion of viable soil microbes apparently cannot yet be cultured in the lab, and new techniques of biotechnology and genetic modification would be needed as part of that process.

However, we do know, given current knowledge and technology, that it was very difficult to introduce new organisms into the soil without first killing off the existing ones. When I first went to Ruakura in Hamilton there was a large research project on VA mycorrhizal fungi. It has long been known that these fungi live in association with plant roots and in effect extend the reach of the plant to scavenge for nutrients and in particular phosphorus. This research showed, while it was possible to identify more efficient strains of these fungi and to successfully inoculate plants, this could only be achieved in sterilised soils. In normal field soils the existing population of fungi simply swamped out the new intruders.

The outstanding exception to this ‘nuke first’ rule was the rhizobia bacteria, so essential for the process of nitrogen fixation in clover. NZ soils did not have an indigenous population of these bacteria and hence they could be, and were

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successfully, introduced into NZ soils with the introduction of clover – there was no competition. They were now ubiquitous in our soils and sowing inoculated clover seed was no longer required unless breaking in virgin soils.

Despite their abundance in soils, microbes lived a bleak life. Dr Sparling, described it thus: “Microbes in soil generally live a lean and mean existence... they exist in small micro-colonies intimately embedded in clays and organic matter.”

It seems so irrelevant – get the soil fertility right and the bugs will look after themselves.

Their role was vital. They lived on and hence broke down organic matter that returned to the soil via dung, urine and plant residues. The more of these residues added to the soil, the more soil microbes.

These residues were nutrient rich and the microbes enriched it further and when they died they released these nutrients, mainly N, P and S into the soil for further plant growth. The amounts were agronomically significant and could contribute up to 60kg N, 25kg P and 10kg S/ha/year.

These nutrients were not free – they were bought when you bought the farm or paid for in the fertiliser added to the system. The same applied to organic farming – bringing in compost and other organic ‘waste’ materials onto the farm was just another

way of buying nutrients.

Soils do not make nutrients – they stored them in a form that cannot be leached, releasing them when conditions, and in particular soil temperature and moisture, are conducive for microbial activity.

Remember, the golden rule of soil microbiology; the size and activity of the soil microbial population depended on how well it was fed. Correcting nutrient deficiencies whether with super, potash or urea would increase the amount of plant residue going back into the soil and hence was good for soil bugs. That was one reason NZ soil scientists have not talked much about soil microbiology. It seems so irrelevant - get the soil fertility right and the bugs will look after themselves.

Be wary of those who peddle magic brews containing supposedly more virulent and effective soil microbes. You should also turn a deaf ear to those who tell you that chemical fertilisers, especially super and urea, sterilise soils. The only way I know how to sterilise a soil was to put it into an autoclave (100C for a few hours will do it) or treat it with a nasty chemical - methyl bromide gas.

Soil scientists are often accused of ignoring soil biology but this was not true.

Soil textbooks which date back 50 to 100 years, showed soil scientists have always been acutely aware of the important role of soil microbes, and their big cousins like earthworms. Charles Darwin himself studied and wrote about them over 100 years ago.

• Doug Edmeades is an independent soil scientist and consultant.

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ENVIRONMENT

Global warming

How B+LNZ can fix climate rules BY: STEVEN CRANSTON

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o matter what some segments of society might wish for, pastoral farming in this country is not going away any time soon.

Just ask movie director James Cameron, his grand ambitions of converting two Wairarapa dairy farms into organic vegetable production have quietly faded away. Grazing livestock have now returned to the land, along with a healthy dose of economic realism. Pastoral farming is the most productive and efficient use of land for large swaths of this country. That said, there are major challenges ahead for many farmers, particularly those on more marginal land.

What concerns me most about the

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Climate Change Commission’s plan to curb emissions is the farmers that have the least negative impact on climate are the ones that will pay the highest price.

Hill country farmers are expected to lose another 700,000 hectares to exotic and native forestry in the coming decade.

Some of this change will make good environmental sense, allowing steep and erosion prone land that never should have been converted to pasture in the first place to revert. But much of this change will see good productive farmland lost forever. Jobs will be lost, rural communities broken up.

This does not have to be the future.

Vision, tenacity needed B+LNZ have the resources and ability to turn climate change regulation into a net positive for their farmers. What has

been missing is the vision and tenacity to make it happen. We know if methane emissions are stabilised they do not add to climate change. We know that sheep and beef farmers have reduced their methane emissions by 30% since 1990. This reduction in atmospheric methane since 1990 has helped cool the planet. It is not just ‘reduced warming’ as some politicians like to spin it. The sheep and beef sector has less methane in the atmosphere today than there was in 1990, which results in a cooling effect.

The other half of the equation is the estimated two million hectares of woody vegetation on sheep and beef land. This is easily enough carbon sequestration to offset any remaining warming caused by nitrous oxide emissions. In fact, the estimated 10,000t CO2-e of carbon uptake

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from trees should be enough to offset the entire agricultural industry’s 8300t CO2-e of nitrous oxide. Bottom line, sheep and beef farmers on average do not add to climate change and likely haven’t for decades.

These facts, if used coherently, should be a marketer’s dream. Yet barely a single steak eater or woollen shirt buyer even knows about it. This knowledge gap is the fundamental root of the problem farmers now find themselves in. People do not understand how farms influence climate.

How could they? The industry itself has done next to nothing to explain it.

This is something B+LNZ have a lot to answer for. They write submissions calling for more acknowledgment of methane’s minimal warming impact. They signed a petition calling for the IPCC to use more advanced metrics like GWP* to measure methane warming. Yet when they produced a major climate change report back in September 2020, they did not use the opportunity to promote either point. Instead they continued with the old self-defeating language of trying to be ‘carbon neutral’. Equating methane back to carbon equivalents is what causes all the misunderstandings in the first place.

Carbon neutrality and climate neutrality are two completely different things. The difference between them is about 80% of total farm emissions. Adding to that, the overriding goal of the Paris Agreement is

to stop warming, not emissions. Farmers have no way to compare themselves against that goal if it is not measured. Asking the Government to pay more attention to the warming effect while not promoting it in their own work is an incoherent strategy.

The sheep and beef perspective Sheep and beef farmers have a great story to tell on climate but it needs to be told in a clear and consistent way. It is time to try a fresh approach. The sector must complete a net warming budget to demonstrate they do not add to climate change. This is not difficult or time consuming, all the hard work has already begun with the collection of woody vegetation data. All that needs to change now is to use the more advanced GWP* metric for methane and it is complete. GWP* is a specific measurement of global warming potential (GWP) and sometimes referred to a GWP-we.

At least a basic preliminary model that can be built on over time.

This needs to be more than just a one-off scientific report which makes headlines for a couple of days and then is forgotten about.

The industry needs to back itself and make this messaging a core part of the brand. Beef and lamb need to become synonymous with

being climate neutral. Public opinion will change if proper information is provided and repeated.

A climate neutral sheep and beef industry is the only real argument against an arbitrary emissions tax. There is no point lobbying the Government and writing submissions asking for change if the industry itself is not prepared to lead by example.

Some form of agricultural emissions scheme is inevitable. In time, every farm will have an emissions budget. But if this is implemented correctly on a net warming basis rather than gross emissions, many farmers could profit handsomely. Any farm with a large area of trees and a steady or declining stocking rate would have a legitimate argument for receiving an emissions rebate.

This excellent opportunity to turn climate regulation into a positive will go the way of James Cameron’s vege patch if real changes to the current strategy are not made urgently. Let’s get on with it. B+LNZ, you have been dealt the winning hand, it’s time to play the cards.

Bottom line, sheep and beef farmers on average do not add to climate change and likely haven’t for decades.

• Steven Cranston is a Waikato-based environmental consultant and farmer. For more, see Country-Wide April 2021 issue.

Brazil’s beef has most emissions to lose A study has highlighted ways to cut beef emissions on farms globally but not for New Zealand.

A global review of 292 studies into reducing beef’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions has found Brazil’s systems have the greatest opportunity to cut their contribution to climate change.

The open access review paper by Daniela Cusack and others published in the April issue of Global Change Biology, makes no mention of NZ. Reading between the lines we would be among those with the least opportunity to cut emissions. Our calves raised for beef here nearly all originate from either extensive pastoral systems or pasture-based dairy

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farms, and are finished on intensive rotational grazing systems, both of which are high carbon sequestration systems.

However, efficiency is the other part of the equation, and the US’s intensive feedlot finishing wins on that score.

Whether feedlot or grazed finishing is more likely to reduce net beef GHG emissions is a point of contention in the literature, the paper notes.

“Many studies show that feedlots are the more GHG-efficient beef finishing strategy because of reductions in enteric CH4 emissions resulting from more digestible feed and greater stocking densities, compared to more fibrous diets and longer finishing times in grazed

beef… Other studies argue that finishing cattle on pasture or rangeland, rather than in feedlots, is more beneficial to the climate because it promotes land-based C (carbon) sequestration and requires less climate-intensive feed crops while also supporting natural grassland conservation and animal welfare,” it states.

The paper’s abstract concludes that even if carbon sequestration and efficiency strategies could be fully applied in beef systems globally, “the trajectory of growth in beef demand will likely more than offset GHG emissions reductions and lead to further warming unless there is also reduced beef consumption.”

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SOLUTIONS

Alliance Group Southland taking beef ALLIANCE GROUP HAS SUCCESSFULLY started processing beef at its upgraded facility in Southland.

The company began processing cows and light bulls at Lorneville near Invercargill in mid April after an 18-month project to further upgrade its modern venison plant on the site.

Alliance Group chief executive David Surveyor said the project was a key part of the co-operative’s beef growth strategy and in direct response to farmer demand.

“We have seen a steady increase in supply volumes year on year and our farmers have been seeking more beef capacity in peak season. This investment meets this need but also benefits our deer farmers because we have increased the plant’s venison processing capacity.”

The new beef processing facility will free up space at the co-operative’s Mataura plant for prime steer, heifer and bull.

Alliance Group is continuing to invest in a premium beef portfolio and strengthening its beef performance at its Mataura, Levin and Pukeuri plants, Surveyor says.

“We are focused on maximising our

operational performance to benefit farmershareholders and create a stronger cooperative. This beef expansion also reflects our commitment to the Lorneville plant, which is an important part of our network and the Southland region. The expansion creates a longer season for our venison/beef

plant employees at Lorneville and adds new jobs to the region.”

He added that Alliance Group is Southland’s largest employer and the Lorneville plant employs almost 2000 people during the peak processing season.

Give calves the best head start MILLIGANS FEEDS HAS FOUR specialist products designed to fit any calf rearing system.

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There are products in the range to suit both a traditional twice-a-day or once-a-day feeding system.

Milligans also offers a Multi Milk Replacer which provides the convenience of having one milk replacer that can feed all animal types, including lambs, goat kids, foals, cria, piglets, puppies, and kittens.

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Milligans Feeds has the field covered with products for animal rearing, including whey-based milk replacer products for lambs, goat kids and calves.

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Country-Wide Beef

May 2021

Weighing in on cattle

The downlow on the Lowline

BEEF FARMER ELLIOT MORGAN used to dread weighing cattle. Fighting his cows through inefficient yards and ancient scales took hours and left everyone exhausted.

Morgan avoided the whole process whenever he could. But in the modern era, not knowing stock weights affects all sorts of farm management decisions — and profits. So, nearly four years ago, he called livestock handling company Te Pari.

"Now it's so easy to weigh cattle, you actually go and weigh them when they need to be weighed. I can have cattle in the yards, weighed and back on their feed in 40-odd minutes," he says.

You don't need a lot of people to work cattle in Te Pari yards either.

"Two's easy — often three is too many."

Along with his new cattle yards, Te Pari's T30 scale system means that now Elliot can be confident in his management decisions.

"One of the reasons we went with Te Pari was they can offer an integrated electronic identification (EID) solution, now you know exactly what your animals are doing every time."

"You can see where the cattle have come from and see their growth.

Having that information affects everything from deciding on the best-

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May 2021

performing grasses to booking space at the works.”

While weighing his cattle, the session details are displayed on his T30 Tablet along with individual animal data.

After the session, the information is loaded into the cloud and Morgan can head to his desk, check the graphs and decide on his next moves.

Not every farmer is tech-savvy, so he is pleased with Te Pari's customer service. A simple phone call can often fix a problem on the spot, but Te Pari can also remotely log into the T30 scale so a technician can work while Morgan is watching and sort out any issues, as well as educating him on the best ways to use the system.

Morgan is pleased with Te Pari's products, sales and services. Their products are easy to get, simple to use and increase stock knowledge and profitability.

"You've got the yards, the crush, the EID reader and the T30 scale... everything's all in one place. It's one business; you've only got to make one phone call. That's the beauty of Te Pari being a one stop shop."

• For more information on the T30 Scale System, visit www. tepari.com

TODAY, THE LOWLINE IS A COMPACT beefy breed. Genetically pure, free from inherited defects and health issues, Lowlines now show consistency in breed traits.

From humble beginnings in New Zealand in the late 1990s as a show and lifestyle boutique breed; this moderately-sized breed of cattle is becoming a popular option for the dairy sector where Lowline bulls are being sought to ease the sleepless nights of exhausted dairy farmers at calving time.

These bulls are perfect for dairy heifers providing them with an easy first birth to get them started on their dairy journey.

Lowline bulls provide a shortened gestation length of about 270 days, and these bulls provide a stocky, black beefy calf that is bound to fetch a good dollar once reared. It's not a long history for Lowline studs within NZ but it is a changing time for the breed.

Thanks to the efforts of a handful of combined studs and the approval of the Australian Lowline Cattle Association, there is now a NZ-bred Lowline bull taking part within the Beef + Lamb NZ Dairy Beef 2020 progeny trial.

It is the first Lowline to be included in this trial and represents a big step for the breed.

Stud owners are all holding their breath for results. Up against all the mainstream breeds the Lowline should have some standout traits displayed throughout the rigorous assessment period. These calves show hybrid vigor and finish earlier than what is seen as normal in the dairy beef market these days.

Lowline studs within NZ are selectively improving the breed for the NZ market.

With quality semen being available locally the breed is looking well for the future both in purebred and dairy beef markets.

• To find out more, visit Lowline Angus via Facebook.

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SOLUTIONS

New indexes make bull selection easier

SELECTION INDEXES ARE A GREAT tool to get a quick glimpse at overall ratings to help find a bull to fit a herd’s breeding strategy.

The NZ Herefords Technical Committee has identified three key markets and developed three indexes to help bull buyers make balanced bull selection decisions.

The three indexes include Hereford Prime, beef heifer and dairy beef. Each index considers the relevant growth, carcase, fertility and efficiency attributes of each animal to identify the most profitable animal for each commercial enterprise.

The beef heifer index is ideal for farmers looking for calving ease for heifer mating, focused on some maternal traits so heifers can be kept. This is suited for Angus and other beef herds looking for hybrid vigour and replacement heifers offering fast growth and calving ease.

The dairy beef index is designed for dairy farmers looking for terminal bulls producing moderate calving size with good carcase and growth traits for export. This index estimates the genetic differences between animals in net

profitability per dairy female joined with all progeny destined for slaughter.

The Hereford prime index is aimed at commercial beef farmers seeking moderate to medium birth weight calves, good carcase traits including intramuscular fat and positive fats suited to moderate mature cow size, good fertility and moderate days to calving.

This index estimates the genetic differences between animals in net profitability per cow joined for a typical self-replacing commercial herd where Hereford bulls are joined to either Hereford or other British breed females, and targeting the production of grass finished steers for the Hereford Prime programme.

Like estimated breeding values (EBVs), selection index technology is based on science used in many livestock species around the world. Selection indexes provide an overall score of an animal’s genetic value for profit for a specific production system and are calculated based on weightings placed on individual traits that are deemed to be important for that production system.

As such, selection indexes account for both

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Check out www.milligansfeeds.co.nz for more information on the range and where to buy.

0800 786 253 | feedsales@milligans.co.nz | www.milligansfeeds.co.nz 182

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May 2021

sides of the profit equation - costs and income, and also reflect both the shortterm profit generated by a bull through the sale of his progeny, and the longer-term profit generated by his daughters if they are retained in the herd.

Incorporating selection indexes into buying decisions takes all the hard work out of trying to decide how much emphasis to put on individual EBVs when determining which bulls to purchase.

The recommended strategy for selecting bulls is to identify the selection index of most relevance for a commercial herd, then rank the animals on their selection index value, consider any individual EBVs of importance, and finally, consider other traits of importance that aren’t included in the genetic evaluation, such as structure, bull fertility, bull docility, genetic conditions and pedigree are all important considerations in this step.

All selection indexes are reported as an EBV, in units of net profit per cow mated for a given production or market scenario. They

reflect both the short-term profit generated by a sire through the sale of his progeny, and the longer-term profit generated by his daughters in a self-replacing cow herd, where applicable.

• Visit the NZ Hereford website, www.herefords.co.nz or call the team at New Zealand Herefords on 06 323 0745 for more information.

For more information give us a call on

0800 227 228

or check out our website

combiclamp.co.nz

“I think this crush is a game changer. So easy to use and puts less stress on the animal and myself” - Hayanmi Farms

Auto H

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FULL CATTLE CRUSH RANGE

Vet, Vetless and Squeeze options Automatic catching and self resetting head bail Rubber floors, split and top access gates, anti-backing ratchets are standard

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May 2021

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SOLUTIONS

Clamp saves time, prevents injuries NORTH WAIKATO BULL FINISHING farm manager Craig Pallister is sold on his Combi Clamp Heavy Duty Vet Crush installed 18 months ago on his Waerenga property.

“The quality of the build and the materials is superior to anything else we considered. The head bail is just more solid and the auto-catch feature means I can operate the yards on my own without any issues and in a very safe manner,” he says.

“The auto-catch mechanism works beautifully every time. The doors on either side of the bail are set backwards so they close on the animal as it walks through the gap, and they are held there so I can drench them, put in a bolus, or anything like that.”

“Once you release an animal from the bail, it automatically resets itself for the next one to enter and be caught in the bail again,” he says.

Pallister buys in about 320 Friesian bull calves on contract from local dairy farmers each November. The calves arrive at a minimum of 100kg and leave the farm about 16 months later at 600kg liveweight for slaughter.

When he switched from running dairy heifers on grazing contracts to bull finishing a couple of years back, he was keen to improve the yards and handling facilities to cope with the more challenging bulls.

“We did a lot of homework on what to buy, but the best thing we did was head to the Fieldays at Mystery Creek and review

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The Combi Clamp HD Vet Crush can hold the feistiest of bulls.

all the head bail options side by side. That was great because we could see the quality of the Combi Clamp option and it was also great to support a New Zealand family owned business too.”

Combi Clamp also added an extra partial gate which allows a veterinarian to take a liver biopsy without any risk from injury.

“I find I’m putting mobs through the

NOW E ONLIN

yards more often because they are just so easy to operate compared to the old set up and head bail we had.”

“We’re weighing our bulls more regularly to monitor weight gains more closely. It’s not a chore any longer,” he says.

• Visit combiclamp.co.nz for more information.

MAY 2021

NZ BREEDER DIRECTORY nzfarmlife.co.nz/beefstuds

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May 2021

Winning formula “When Country-Wide arrives every month, it’s hard to put it down. We get a lot of free farming material in our mailbox, but we always put time aside to read Country-Wide first because it is full of trustworthy, topical information we can apply to our own farming business. We really recommend subscribing to Country-Wide.”

Richard and Becks Tosswill, winners of the 2021 Keinzley Agvet Wairarapa Sheep and Beef Farm Business of the Year.

MARCH 2021

ERS BACKING FARM

BACKING FARMERS

BACKING FARMERS

Vol 43 No 3

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FARM OWN ERSHIP

FORGING AHEAD Taihape vet Anthony Oswald is also a farmer, dad and adventure racer p73

GENE EDIT ING INNOVATIO N

rton drew Mo ep and An she Stewart of the oldest 6 e aland p3 run on New Ze studs in

A look at the for opportunities p crossbred shee farmers p17

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Strong wool

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Regenerative ag

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Ag scientists rubbish Landcare study

A burn and oversow programme is beating wilding pines

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You can read the Tosswills’ winning formula in our June issue To subscribe to Country-Wide or pre-order a copy of the June issue, visit our website or call us today.

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FARMING IN FOCUS

Top left: Ben Trotter walks the lucerne area at his dairy bull beef finishing farm in Luggate, Central Otago. Top right: Scott Cooper, with daughter Grace, helps out with the dairy bulls three or four days a week, at Luggate, Central Otago. Centre right: Dog day afternoon at Whangara.

Centre left: A vintage Emerson farm tractor owned by Willie and Laura Akers. Above left: Andrew Cribb is a co-lessee of the Lane Brothers’ Whangara Angus property. Above right: Angus bulls in profile at Whangara Angus.

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Top left: Mark Guscott has had decent rain at Carterton, but, as you can see he is not in the clear yet. Top right: Barry Gledhill with one of his prized Simmental bulls at Tokomaru, Manawatu. Centre right: Looking to the future: Laura Akers with son Henry. Above: Damien Humphrey checks the herd at his beef finishing farm in Kiwitea, Manawatu.

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May 2021

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What you put in today will pay dividends tomorrow.

By taking an integrated approach to the health, growth, energy and vitality of your young cattle, you’re setting them on a path to become future high producers.

Go to futureproducers.co.nz for all you need to know

about young cattle health management, including how to integrate the product suite below into a 360° health programme for maximum results.

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 

Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited. Level 3, 2 Osterley Way, Manukau, Auckland, New Zealand. MARKS-MIN®, COPAJECT®, ECLIPSE® & IVER MATRIX® are registered trademarks of the Boehringer Ingelheim Group. Registered pursuant to the ACVM Act 1997, No’s. A011687, A011573, A011151 & A011065. © Copyright 2021 Boehringer Ingelheim Animal Health New Zealand Limited.

All rights reserved. NZ-BOV-0001-2021.

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