Page 69 - NZ Herefords Magazine 2018

shares in the working business in 1998. They have worked hard
to grow the business to what it is today, alongside their father
John and cousin Graham, who also became a partner in 2008.
“We looked at the resource and thought about future
opportunities. It’s not about Hereford, it’s about producing
value-add bulls for dairy beef production,” Will says.
“The great thing about a Hereford is it has a genetic marker
of a white head, good performance recording structures in New
Zealand, and a bunch of other breeders and animals that are
performance recorded and can be genetically compared against.”
The Ezicalve brand started in 2008 when the Morrisons and
Cranstones jointly purchased it from the New Zealand Hereford
Association (NZHA), which had previously trademarked, but not
used, the name.
They saw great opportunity for it and their investment is
paying dividends.
“The Cranstones have a similar family business and values
to us, they are great like-minded people and fantastic to work
with. And they’re great friends,” Will says.
They decided on a set of criteria for a bull to achieve the
Ezicalve brand next to its name in the catalogue. It must be in
the top 10% for calving ease and low birth weight for the NZHA
Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) and dairy indexes. The bull’s
sire and dam must both achieve this standard too.
“Breeding for Ezicalve, we have to be really structured and
disciplined with our breeding. That means being very objective
and having emphasis on EBVs and indexes and productive
traits – no excuses.
“We were anticipating big growth in the dairy beef bull sales;
we could see the massive growing dairy industry but we could
also see dairy farmers getting frustrated and leaving the use of
beef bulls because they were having calving problems.”
Their aim was to create a brand that assured farmers they
could use Ezicalve bulls over their heifers and cows, and to
differentiate their bulls from anything else on the market.
“They were going to have a fantastic calving experience, we
created Ezicalve, so the bulls have to front up and deliver it,” he says.
Have they achieved this? Will believes they have, but qualifies
that by explaining the challenges faced when half a calf’s genetics
come from its mum – something they can’t control. “We had
some questions about the risk and what it meant for us. Then
there’s the environment and management influence.
“Part of the reputation and promise of the brand is that it’s
good enough to overcome these things. The Ezicalve brand
needs to be absolutely bombproof. These bulls need to be able
to mitigate any higher birth weight genetics of the heifer or the
environment and management she might experience.”
Because of the rigorous criteria, not all the bulls they breed
qualify for the Ezicalve brand. “But everything is targeted towards
breeding bulls for that standard. When the criteria is based on
percentages, only the top tier of bulls will ever get that stamp.”
While Will was thrilled with this year’s sale result, he does
wonder about how to keep up with demand. “It was the most

THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: Hereford breeder Will Morrison
sees huge opportunities in the dairy beef market; Work often starts
before sunrise at Morrison Farming; Will Morrison and his wife Erica
at their annual Ezicalve sale, held at Fern Flats, Marton; A bull in the
sale ring at the Ardo Herefords sale.
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