Page 32 - NZ Herefords Magazine 2019 Edition

“We’ve just had our seventh sale last May and that was the
best sale we’ve ever had.”
Twenty-five bulls sold for an average price of $6800 a head.
Andy says Herefords are well suited to this type of country
because of their mobility and reputation as good foragers.
“They also have a good temperament. We’ve had people
who haven’t worked a lot with Herefords help out in the yards
and they can’t get over how quiet they are. They’re just a
pleasure to work with.”
Beef cows are getting pushed back into the hills more and
more, so hill country farmers have to have cattle that can handle
the conditions in that terrain all year round.
“So we treat our breeding cows the same as we treat
commercial cows. We winter them on tussock blocks without
supplements and they lose a bit of weight if it’s a harsh winter,
but that’s just the way we do it.
“There’s a lot of rough feed in tussock hill country and that’s THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: The stud’s two top herd
where the beef cow comes into her own. She’s probably the sires, Matariki 690 and their new young Stoneburn-bred bull
best converter of rough feed on hill country than any other Stoneburn 16/132; Stoneburn Hereford breeding cows with
calves at foot on typical East Otago hill country, prone to
farmed animal. drying out in summer but regarded as good healthy country
“We’re breeding for good hardy cattle,” he says. “You don’t for livestock.
need a big cow to produce a good calf. It’s no good having a
big animal if you can’t feed it and usually the bigger animals “THERE’S A LOT OF ROUGH FEED
take a bit more feeding. IN TUSSOCK HILL COUNTRY AND
“You can see our cows are not huge. They’re pretty much
the same size as commercial cows but they’ve got to rear a THAT’S WHERE THE BEEF COW
good calf otherwise they’re down the road. COMES INTO HER OWN. SHE’S
“They’ve got to have a good udder shape and we cull PROBABLY THE BEST CONVERTER
anything that can’t rear a good calf unassisted. If their offspring OF ROUGH FEED ON HILL COUNTRY
grow into nice, meaty animals, that’s the proof of the pudding.”
Andy has been breeding Herefords for 27 years. Originally, THAN ANY OTHER FARMED ANIMAL.”
he started breeding horned Hereford cattle that came from
Lindsay Tregonning’s Mill Creek Stud at Milton as a hobby to
produce the particular type of bulls he was looking for on the herd sire Braxton Deep South, which set them off in a new
farm. He describes this original herd of horned Herefords as direction breeding polled Herefords.
“good gutsy cattle and great foragers” that used their horns to They moved to farms on the Maniototo and North Canterbury
get in amongst the tussocks on hill country. – taking their Hereford stud with them – before returning to East
“As time has gone by the market has shied away from cattle Otago. It was a good move, Andy says, because it is “good
with horns, so we decided to go the poll way and put polled healthy country”, despite its reputation for dry summers.
bulls over our horned cows, probably in about 2000.” Stoneburn has an annual rainfall of about 600mm. Locals
The Denhams had the pick of half of Blair Lowery’s expect a dry spell every seven years, give or take a few years,
Rothiemay Polled Hereford Stud at Waitahuna, including their so tend to farm accordingly with conservative stocking rates.
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