Page 35 - NZ Herefords Magazine 2019 Edition

On Farm

Beef breeder

scaling up

Hereford numbers

WORDS / PHOTOGRAPHS ROB TIPA

SHAG VALLEY BEEF BREEDERS Steven and Jodi Joyce are regular buy better quality bulls and that has made a difference in calf
buyers of bulls from Andy Denham’s Stoneburn Hereford Stud. weights,” he says.
The couple have bought six bulls in the past six years and in The farm splits weaning so they don’t have too many cows
May this year paid the top price of $11,500 for the best of the 25 and calves around the yards at once.
bulls on offer at Stoneburn Hereford Stud’s annual on-farm sale. “In the past couple of years our bull calves have weaned
The Joyces farm 550ha of mostly river flats on both sides of over 300kgs and our heifer calves around 270kgs off their
the Shag River near Dunback. mothers a couple of weeks earlier than the bull calves.”
Steven has tried a variety of different beef breeds in an Steven has a standing commercial relationship with an
operation that historically runs more stock units in beef than Oamaru dairy farmer, who takes most of his bull calves to use
sheep. This year they are running 510 cattle, about 1100 ewes across his dairy cows. The rest are moved to the Joyce’s lease
and 500 hoggets, so cattle are a key part of his business. block and finished there. They also buy in about 230 beef calves
The Hereford’s legendary quiet temperament is important to from the Palmerston spring calf sales every year and take them
Steven, who generally looks after the farm on his own, with help through to processing as two-year-olds.
from Jodi to weigh and record calves. Steven says beef returns have been solid in the past few
“Cattle are a lot easier to manage and less work intensive years and markets for sheep have been fairly stable too.
to look after by yourself,” he says. “I have experimented with “I’m more comfortable with cattle because I know how much
other cattle breeds before and they were quite good but their weight I can put on a cattle beast over winter and it’s easier to
temperament was not quite as good as the Herefords. work out,” he says.
“It’s all about safety in the yards, which is important when “When I buy a cattle beast as a yearling I know how many days it
you’re mostly working on your own.” will take to get it up to a finished weight, more so than a lamb.”
Steven has been steadily scaling up numbers of his own
Hereford breeding herd for the past four or five years since he TOP TO BOTTOM; Steven Joyce with a mob of Hereford breeding
started buying in bulls from Stoneburn. cows and calves at foot on his Shag Valley property. He has been
buying bulls from Stoneburn Hereford Stud for the past six years as
“I’m heading towards all Herefords and working towards a he scales up his own Hereford herd numbers; Two Hereford cows
closed unit to avoid any issues like Mycoplasma bovis,” he says. and calves on Steven Joyce’s Shag valley property near Dunback.
He currently has 70 Hereford breeding cows and is adding
another 40 R2 Hereford heifers each year.
“Generally I buy a yearling bull off Andy every second year
or so to use a low birth-weight bull across the yearlings to calve
as R2 heifers and a bigger bull across the cows. Since I’ve been
buying bulls from him, I haven’t had a single problem with a bull
– no issues with their feet or any infertility problems. I’ve been
really happy,” he says.
The relationship works well for his beef operation.
“We have paid a bit more in the past couple of years to
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