Page 144 - NZ Herefords Magazine 2018

Our Breeders

Hobby turns into a

passion for Herefords

WORDS / PHOTOGRAPHS WILLIAM MUIR

HEREFORDS STARTED OUT AS AN INTEREST in 1997 for Willy
Muir, a way of breeding his own Hereford bulls to complement
his dairy herd.
Willy’s hobby, however, soon developed into a passion for
Herefords, and his early beginning of four Hereford heifers has
grown into a herd of 150 breeding cows.
“I love the big, fat, easy care, extensively farmed beef
cows,” Willy says. “They are a contrast to the high input, high
maintenance dairy cows, but I enjoy the challenge of both.”
Dairy farming is at the core of Willy and wife Keely’s farming
business and, with their three daughters, they live on their dairy
farm at Otaua, in Waiuku, south of Auckland.
“Otaua is a flat and fertile area of land that lends itself well to
dairying,” Willy says.
At Otaua they milk 320 cows on 90 hectares, with two full-
time staff. The farm operates with an intensive, split calving,
system 4 model, producing 1800 to 2000 milk solids per
effective ha.
The Muirs also low order sharemilk on a 300-cow, split
calving farm on the Awhitu Peninsula, 15 kilometres away
from their home farm. This is managed by two employees, and
produces 1200/ha effective.
Willy is proud of the fact that all calves from both dairy units
are reared. Heifer replacements, Friesian bulls, Friesian/Jersey
X bulls, white face bulls and heifers are all made efficient use of.
These are then sold on the spring grass market, which is usually
in early October, as yearlings or weaner calves.
A further 520 hectares are leased over five blocks of land
to cater for the calf rearing, wintering of the home dairy herd,
supplementary feed, and the Hereford herd.
Willy explains that once the surplus stock is sold, the lease
blocks provide ample supplementary feed for conservation, THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: Herefords started out as a hobby
but developed into a passion for Otaua farmer Willy Muir; The Muirs
grazing of the replacement females, and new calves over the sell about 50 bulls per year at 2-year-old, 18-month and yearlings,
summer months. mostly privately; Recent weaner bull calves.
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