Pete & Erica Fitz-Herbert - Country-Wide June 2016

FORK IN THE ROAD

Russell Priest reports on a breeding-finishing dilemma tackled by the Fitz-Herbert family. Photos: Graeme Brown.

Pete Fitz-Herbert and his father Bill have finally had to confront the beef breederfinisher’s dilemma – to continue on the growth path with the breeding programme or to back off and introduce some more maternal traits?

The answer was delivered when they discovered that retained females sired by Angus bulls out of their first-calving heifers were getting in calf more readily (with fewer dries) than their Simmental cows.

“So I managed to convince my father that we needed to reintroduce some maternal genetics into our breeding cow herd,” Pete said.

“We decided to introduce a breed that had similar characteristics to the Angus but without the price tag, so we ended up buying a Shorthorn. Unfortunately it broke down during mating so it wasn’t a very good start.”

Pete and his partner Erica Bentley along with eight-month-old son Harry, are in their first year farming on their own account in the Upper Pakihikura Valley, 50km north of Feilding in the northern Manawatu. They lease a block of 263ha of Pete’s father’s land and run about 90 beef cows (split from Bill’s herd of 220), 900 ewes and 60 stud Dorset Down ewes from which are bred their terminal sires.

Bill has an arrangement with Pete and Erica whereby he buys the bull calves from their herd and they keep the heifer calves. Pete still works part-time for his father on his remaining 400ha.

Bill’s breeding and finishing business runs 160 cows and replacements, 1600 ewes (145% lambing), 600 ewe hoggets and 120 finishing bulls. It consists of a 283ha medium hill-country sheep and beef breeding unit in the Lower

FARM FACTS

• Upper Pakihikura Valley, 50km north of Feilding

• Pete and Erica run about 90 beef cows, 900 ewes and 60 stud ewes

• Pete still works part-time on dad Bill’s 400ha farm

• Bill runs 160 beef cows,1600 ewes, 600 hoggets and 120 finishing bulls.

• Reintroduce maternal genetics into beef cow herd

• Bull calves bred for finishing

Pakihikura Valley, a 97ha flat bullfinishing unit just north of Cheltenham, and a 20ha heifer/hogget-growing unit near Halcombe. A leased block on the outskirts of Feilding is also used for the same purpose. The overall stocking rate is 8.2su/ha.

Pete Fitz-Herbert steers clear of buying tall, rangy bulls as they have to be able to mate on hillsides.

Pete Fitz-Herbert out on the hill-country block.

The Liquorice Allsorts

Before 2005, Bill had bought HerefordFriesian heifers and mated them first to an easy-calving Angus bull, then to Simmental bulls as MA (mixed-age) cows. Udder, mastitis and metabolic problems, with a high incidence of eye cancer, prompted him to begin retaining his own replacements for breeding.

As the percentage of Simmental blood in the herd increased, so did cow size and leanness, with early signs of a decline in conception rates and an increase in later calving cows. In spite of some cows weighing around 600kg they were weaning bull calves at 350kg.

“Winters up here can be very long for big rangy cows that don’t carry a lot of condition on their backs,” Pete said

“We need cows with moderate size and good positive fats that can survive on very little over the winter.

Bill had always selected replacement females on size (weight) but Pete eventually convinced him to put some of the Angus-cross heifers back into the herd.

Peter says they got back in calf more readily than the Simmental types so last year Bill agreed to buy a Shorthorn bull.

“Hopefully the genes that it managed to pass on will add a bit more guts to our herd.

“I like a cow herd with a bit of variation because it’s more adaptable but I don’t know what direction Bill will head in now that we have split the herd.”

The Fitz-Herberts now have two herds totalling 240 cows (including 60-70 R2 in-calf heifers) from which bull calves are bred for finishing, and heifer calves are bred for finishing and for replacements. The combined herd normally weans about 95% of calves (cows to the bull).

“Five or so years ago Bill decided to

I like a cow herd with a bit of variation because it’s more adaptable ...”

Angus bulls are mated to the Fitz-Herberts’ 15-month heifers.

Pete’s and Erica’s cows and calves. They want cows with moderate size and good positive fats that can survive on very little over the winter.

steer the male calves but soon realised how much more flexible bulls are in terms of when they can be killed.”

Replacement heifers are selected on temperament and size. Pete would like to place a lot less emphasis on size than Bill has in the past.

He doesn’t like tall, lean, high-maintenance females, preferring those that are more compact with more body fat. Heifers not selected as replacements are killed at Land Meats in Wanganui at about 22 months at 230-270kg carcaseweight (CW).

“Erica must be able to able to work with the cattle in the yards, so temperament is of utmost importance,” Pete said.

Heifers are mated on October 10 at 15 months to Pine Park (Ed and Philson Sherriff) Angus bulls selected for a combination of their calving ease and growth EBVs (estimated breeding values). MA cows are mated a cycle later on November 1. This gives the heifers more time to rebreed after calving and synchronise with the main herd. The conception rate in the heifers is normally 97% and in the cows 94%.

Spring and summer is spent grooming the hillcountry pastures for the sheep. All male calves are left entire. Weaning takes place in late March/April depending upon the feed situation at the bullfinishing unit.

Pete spent several years working in Australia where he learned about yard weaning calves. He was so impressed he introduced it to their operation and is convinced it has some significant benefits.

“It certainly quietens the calves down and makes them more manageable.”

After weaning, any dry cows are killed and the herd starts cleaning up paddocks that have become

Bull finishing

A 97ha easy contoured farm 30km from the home farm is used to winter the weaner bulls.

Strategic autumn/spring dressings of nitrogen in the form of DAP are applied. The autumn one is aimed at building up pasture covers before the weaner bulls arrive in April. They are set-stocked at 3/ha during the winter and fed hay daily when feed gets short. Their growth rates throughout this period depend upon how mild the weather is.

“Bulls grow at an average of 1.2kg/ day from weaning until slaughter in good years,” Pete said.

All bulls are slaughtered at AFFCO in Feilding at an average of 340kg CW during January and February when the country starts to dry out and before the peak cow kill occurs.

“I’ve been keen to start killing them when the schedule peaks in November/ December; however Bill likes to get as much weight into them as possible before they are processed,” Pete said.

Build weight: All bulls are slaughtered at an average of 340kg CW during January and February when the country starts to dry out and before the peak cow kill occurs.

Pete Fitz-Herbert and Erica Bentley with son Harry, have started farming on their own account.

rank over summer. This process carries on into the winter.

“We try not to take too much fat off their backs during the winter because if we do they won’t milk well after calving and they’ll be too difficult to get back in calf,” Pete said “You’ve got to strike the right balance otherwise you can get in trouble later on.”

By mid-July pasture availability is getting a bit scarce so hay supplementation begins. Conventional bales are fed out using a four wheeler because a tractor causes too much damage. Hay is fed out for 80-100 days.

“Hay allows us to calve earlier,” Pete said. “Our aim is to produce as big a calf at weaning as possible.”

Heifer calving begins in mid-July and the MA cows start early in August. Heifers are inspected twice a day and MA cows once. The Fitz-Herberts believe in being proactive at calving time by addressing problems before they occur. Calved cows are shed off the calving paddocks two days after giving birth on to saved pasture (covers of 3000kg/ha) boosted in the autumn by 80-90kg/ha urea.

“We lose very few calves at birth; however, if we do we generally foster a Friesian bull calf on to the cow,” Pete said “This year my 88 in-calf cows produced 85 calves.”

The incidence of twinning in the herd is significant and can cause mismothering problems when one of the calves wanders away while the other is being born.

Calved cows are moved out among the ewes and lambs when a surplus of feed begins appearing in the lambing paddocks, generally in October.

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Pete Fitz-Herbert keeps the heifer calves and sells the bull calves to his father Bill.

Bull management and selection

The three cycles the bulls are out with the cows is a critical time of year for the Fitz-Herberts.

To achieve their aim of maximising calf weaning weight their bulls have to be in the best possible physical condition for mating.

Their practice of single-sire mating also puts additional pressure on the bulls to perform.

To minimise the possible effects of bull failure, the Fitz-Herberts are meticulous in their selection and observation of bulls for structural soundness.

“We place a lot of emphasis on soundness because we are very aware of the financial implications if a bull breaks down,” Pete said.

“Our bulls have to be able to mate on hillsides so we steer clear of buying tall, rangy ones.”

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Pete Fitz-Herbert sells the bull calves from the herd to his father Bill to rear and keeps the heifer calves.

While out with the cows the bulls are checked regularly for mating capability and for general health. To minimise the risk of infertility they are rotated around the mating mobs each cycle. Cows are divided into small mating mobs of 35-40 to ensure a manageable workload for each bull.

Simmental bulls have been selected in the past on temperament, structural soundness, ease of calving and 400-day growth EBVs. Bulls have been sourced mainly from Glen Anthony (Tony and Glenis Thompson) and Kerrah (John Knauf)

Future herd sires will be sourced according to the direction in which Bill and Pete each want their herds to go. Simmental has been Bill’s sire breed of choice in recent years but this changed when he bought the Shorthorn bull last year.

“Dad has always been keen on the Simmental and still is, but I said to him the sooner we change from that breed the sooner we can get back into it,” Pete said.

The Fitz-Herberts’ two hill-farm blocks are mostly of moderately steep contour and lie between 250-518m above sea level.

The area is normally summer safe and receives an annual rainfall of around 1000mm (911mm last 12 months).

Soils are predominantly sandstone over mudstone (papa)/clay and are prone to erosion, some of it quite deep. Poplars have been planted over the years to stabilise the hillsides.

These hill soils have a constant requirement for sulphur and to a lesser extent phosphate, so the Fitz-Herberts apply an annual autumn dressing of 185kg/ha of maxi super 15.

“We have to apply sulphur in the elemental form when we apply it in the autumn because the sulphur in straight super leaches out of the soil over the winter,” Pete said.

The Fitz-Herbert family settled in the Pakihikura area after World War II

Beefing up health

All the Fitz-Herbert farms are selenium deficient so small quantities are applied with the annual fertiliser application.

Cows receive a mecton plus liver fluke drench, a copper injection, and a rotovirus vaccination before calving.

Last year a few cows slipped their calves, prompting the Fitz-Herberts to blood test the herd. BVD antibodies were found to be circulating and one animal was found to be a PI (persistent infector).

“We run a relatively closed herd and were surprised how easily the disease was able to enter the herd,” Pete said

A BVD vaccination programme has now been implemented to prevent any future outbreak.

Bulls also receive a copper injection and a drench before going out with the cows and a selenium and copper injection before the winter.

Calves receive an oral combination drench at weaning, followed by six-weekly drenches until they become too strong to handle, at which point they are injected. Drenching ceases early in spring.

when Pete’s grandfather Michael bought “Kestrel”, a 162ha ballot farm which Bill still farms today. This forms part of the 283ha home farm where he lives.

Bulls are regularly checked during mating.

A lot of money has been spent over the years on infrastructure including fences and lanes. The average paddock size is about 9ha.

Simmental bulls have been used extensively in the Fitzherberts’ breeding programme.

Poplars have been used extensively for erosion control.