Page 12 - 2020 NZ Hereford Magazine

PICTURED LEFT: Peter runs the calf-rearing and beef.
BELOW INSERT: Robert’s grandparents David and Nellie bought
what is now the home farm, running alongside the Pomahaka River,
in 1929.

KANE FARMS (FORMERLY WESTHOLM),
GORE, SOUTHERN DISTRICTS.
THE NUMBER ONE OBJECTIVE of the family’s diverse farming
business is milk production. OWNERS: ROBERT AND MARY-ANNE,
“We’re dairy farmers first and foremost,” Robert Kane explains. ALONG WITH SONS PETER
“Our number one priority is to get our cows to peak milking as AND LUKE, AND LUKE’S
soon as possible after calving; number two is that they produce a WIFE NICOLE.
live calf; and number three is that the calf grows quickly.” SIZE: A diverse 1000ha farming business
The Kanes are ticking off this critical top three using their comprising dairying, sheep and beef
own Hereford bulls. The family has a 50-year-plus track record breeding, and stud cattle.1000ha of river
of Hereford breeding, with Robert’s father Murray offering the flat and gentle rolling country on the West
first beef bulls for sale on-farm in 1966. The primary focus then, Otago/Eastern Southland border, 7km
and up until 10 years ago, was the turnout of bulls to put across southwest of Tapanui.
beef cows. However, diversification into dairy farming in 2010
brought with it a new breeding focus stemming from a potential STOCK UNITS:
income source – bobby calves. DAIRY COWS (75% FRIESIAN-BASE)
“I could see the biggest waste we had on the dairy farm was • 680 + replacement heifers.
the bobby calves. We had really good calves we were sending SHEEP (ROMNEY-BASE)
away on the truck and getting, at most, $30 a head.” • 1500 ewes and 1000 winter lambs.
The family saw the opportunity to beef them up by mating STUD CATTLE (POLLED HEREFORDS,
the first-calving heifers to specially selected Hereford bulls. HEREFORDS AND ANGUS)
“We know heifers that calve unassisted milk sooner and • 160 breeding cows.
better, and that’s where the smaller and low birth weight calves DAIRY-BEEF CATTLE
fit in,” Robert says. • 260 R2 steers and heifers.
However, the family has for a long time been mindful of • 260 R1 steers and heifers.
turning out bulls for calving ease.
“It’s been part of our breeding philosophy to calve two-year-
olds and do it easily, and it was the progeny from one of our own
bulls, Burnfoot Playboy, that convinced us this was possible.”
They started applying this same thinking to their dairy heifers
by selecting Hereford sires with breed values for low birth weight
but high growth rate.
Great care is taken to source the right genetics: in 2018 they
paid the second highest price nationally for a yearling Hereford
bull, semen from which was used over the Friesian cows as well
as mixed-age Hereford cows to produce low birth weight bulls.
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