Limehills Herefords Awarded 2010
Herd of Excellence

The 2010 New Zealand Hereford Association Herd of Excellence was awarded to Gray and Robyn Pannett of Limehills Herefords, Roxburgh, Central Otago. Thanks to the supporters of the award being NZX Agri represented by John Watson, left, guest judge David Marshall, Gray Pannett and Adele Gray from Pivot Design another generous supporter of the title.

The Pannett family farm 2878ha, which includes 1000ha of native tussock land only used for brief grazing over summer. They aim to run a highly profitably module with low labour inputs and animal health requirements but reasonable fertiliser.

EXCELLENCE IDENTIFIED
IN MARTON

The 2009 NZ Herefords Herd of Excellence award was presented to the
Morrison family of Ardo Herefords. Richard, left, John, Ros and Will.
Absent is daughter Rachel.

The Morrison family of Marton have been named the 2009 recipients of the NZ Herefords Herd of Excellence Award. John and Ros Morrison along with sons William and Richard and daughter Rachel were revealed as the winners of the prestigious Hereford title at the Hereford breed dinner, held in conjunction with the Meat & Wool NZ Beef Expo.

The Morrisons were judged by a panel of two along with other breeders from Northland to Southland. The NZ Herefords Herd of Excellence is an award for excellence is all things farming. John Morrison said to receive the title is “huge” for the family.

“It’s something we honour and respect. We see the Herd of Excellence as being for the Hereford community, not just the individuals.” He qualified this by saying the family saw the public field day as an opportunity to showcase the breed and beef industry.

The family farm 980ha near Marton and Hunterville in the Rangitikei district (including leased land). A further 350ha has recently been acquired under a new partnership with cousin Graham Morrison. It means the original Morrison farm, from 1862, is now farmed as one by descendants of the original family members.

The property currently, carries 500 stud Hereford cows run alongside 2700 ewes and up to 5000 lambs. The livestock are managed in large mobs under an intensive grazing regime. In order to balance pasture production with animal demands, the Herefords and the sheep both compete against and complement each other.

The breeding objective is ‘to breed quiet Poll Hereford cattle that are born easy, grow fast, and can quickly finish to optimum specifications on our meat schedules’. The family sees it as their role in the industry to supply clients (dairy or beef farmers), with bulls that are easy to handle, provide a stress free calving, and the resulting calves command a premium.

In the beef herd, the heifer calves spend their first winter on Kestral Kale as one entire mob, ensuring the individual’s performance is directly compared to its contemporaries. They are mated as yearlings at an average of 300kgs to yearling bulls. Conception rates have been good with less than 10% dry in recent years. All dry heifers are culled.

The heifers then spend late summer and autumn on hill country prior to another winter on kale. Once the heifers have weaned their first calf a decision is made on if the heifer will progress as a breeding cow relocating to hill country property near Hunterville. For this to occur the heifer must have had an unassisted calving, weaned an acceptable weaner, be structurally correct and look the part. Failure to achieve this and the animal is culled. Most of Ardo’s selection pressure is around heifer performance.

This complements the breeding of bulls suitable for use in the dairy industry or heifer mating. The two-year-old heifers record a calving tally of about 86% while the mixedage cows average bout 96% calving. However, it is the bull calves that are the top priority in the business, targeting the annual yearling bull sale in October. The target sale day weight is 400kg. To achieve this, the Morrison’s have identified that winter growth rates need to be exceptional, considering some animals are less than 12 months old and all animals were either reared on hard hill country or were born to a two-year-old heifer.

After weaning, those bull calves which have the potential to get to 400kg by October 1 are put into mobs of 25-30 head. The remaining bull calves are kept as one mob and are fed according to the seasonal pasture growth. These bulls are either sold privately after sale day (often as tail up bulls or to out of season dairy herds) or are carried through and sold as two-year-olds at the October sale.

At Ratanui, the Hunterville hill country property, the breeding cow herd has an invaluable role on the hills - controlling the brown-top grown and providing pasture quality for the sheep. Pasture is saved from late autumn on the better hill slopes for calving. Here, the cows are break fed allowing the calves birth weights to be recorded. Cows remain in the herd as long as she calves annually, delivering a good weaner, and her performance stacks up against the following year’s females.

Each year about 15 yearling sires are selected for use. Twelve homebred sires and three from other studs. Bulls are selected for low birth weight relative to good growth EBVs and top Dairy/Maternal Index values. The bulls must look the part and come from good dam lines. The Morrison’s feel it’s important to test as many of these as possible in their first year, especially over heifers. Each bull is mated to about 25 heifers.

Once their first crop of calves hit the ground their calving performance is analysed and together with an assessment of what the bull looks like, it is decided whether that bull is to become a herd sire, sit on the reserve bench, or culled. There is an attrition rate of about 40% of bulls used as yearlings, that won’t be used again. The Ardo business runs two flocks of sheep.

There are 1000 Wiltshire ewes. Wiltshires are a unique breed of sheep known for the trait of shedding their fleece each year. The Morrisons have found they also have good fertility, easy lambing, good mothering, and produce a large lean carcass. The second flock comprises 1700 Easycare ewes.

An Easycare ewe is the families own composite breed derived from Wiltshires, Texels, Poll Dorset, and a little of Romney and Cheviot. A ewe is not breed specific but the aim is to remove effort and costs from the sheep enterprise. The docking tally sits around the 125- 130%. Lambs kill out at an average carcase weight of 17kg.

*A public field day at Ardo is planned for this summer.

Footnote: The NZHA Herd of Excellence is a holistic award, not recognition for the best looking cattle. It has been established to identify a breeder who has, through focussed breeding objectives and farm management achieved the highest standard with Hereford cattle and their total farming enterprise.