Page 18 - NZ Herefords Magazine 2018

very lightly stocked and running 2000 Herefords, including
1200 breeding cows. Keen to bolster numbers, Alan built
the herd with homebred replacements. He says a key criteria
for breeding cow selection has been, and continues to be,
structural soundness.
“We don’t want them big and rangy. We like them well-muscled
and well-framed which is very important in this environment.”
Bulls used to be bought in but sourcing a suitable breeding
pool became an increasingly expensive and time-consuming
exercise. Although the bulls looked the part, several simply
couldn’t cope in the high altitude conditions, Richard says. The
increasing number of bull breakdowns got them thinking of a way
to guarantee hardier sires for the Beaumont environment and led
to the establishment of a non-recorded stud herd in 1993. The
herd, based on six cows bought at the Braxton dispersal sale, was
increased through AI, embryo transfer and careful replacement
selection. Now, the 160 cows are mated to five bulls.
The breeding sire pool is topped up each year, the most
recent purchases being from Duncraigen, Limehills and Okawa.
Of the bull progeny, 15 are kept for Beaumont and the surplus
are sold as dairy beef herd sires or slaughtered. About 30 heifers
are retained and mated as yearlings to low birth weight bulls and
calve on the lower lying paddock country around the homestead.
Beaumont’s breeding mandate for a hardy and consistent
performer has remained constant but the selling policy and end
markets has changed.
Alan’s initial focus was producing yearling store cattle
for the local spring sale, which in practical terms involved a
30-kilometre, two-day horseback droving exercise. A mob
of about 900 was walked 20 kilometres down the steep and
winding Beaumont access road to an overnight stop beyond
Millers Flat, and early the following morning walked another 10
kilometres along the flat to the Mt Benger sale yards. It was a
taxing trek for both man and beast and all the more so when
prices at the sale yards didn’t measure up.

16