Page 42 - 2020 NZ Hereford Magazine

Once all the yearlings are sold off the blocks are shut up for If they ever have any trouble with the bulls, Riverton Ezicalve
silage, although James says taking some of the animals through offer a fantastic follow-up service, James says.
to finishing is a strategy he would like to pursue in the future. “Mike always has spare backup bulls and replaced one
“The dairy beef yearlings are sold across Manawatu and overnight when we had a problem once. He often turns up
Hawke’s Bay; with their white faces they are really easy to when we are mating or calving to check how it’s all going too.”
market and highly sought after.” After 12 years buying from the Cranstones James says
To take advantage of a slightly different market, James they couldn’t go anywhere else – they have developed a great
retains 30 Hereford Friesian cross heifers from his own block relationship and they really appreciate the beers and steak
and mates them back to the Hereford yearling bulls, selling sandwiches after the sale.
them as in-calf heifers at the Feilding saleyards in March. The yearling Hereford bulls are mated to around 120 of the
“We manage to get a couple of hundred dollars of extra larger framed yearling heifers on the run-off and brought back
value out of them, over an empty heifer – so that is a market to the milking platform for calving.
worth pursuing.
“It’s another option to make more money from the dairy THIS PAGE, BELOW AND BOTTOM: Once the cattle are sold the
whole farm is shut up for silage; Breeding all the Friesian heifers
beef stock.” and cows to Hereford beef bulls creates valuable yearlings for the
The family manage to extract maximum value out of every Tennant family to rear and sell.
bull – buying them as yearling bulls for mating over the yearling
replacement heifers, then using them as two- and three-year-
olds in teams over the mixed age cows.
“We have up to 18 Hereford bulls on the farm at one time –
we put them into teams of four to five bulls and have a team in
each herd of 300 cows for three to four days before swapping
them out for a fresh team,” James says.
“They are the quietest bulls we’ve ever had – which is a
huge safety factor for the staff when the bulls are out with the
herd and for ensuring things don’t get wrecked on the farm.
“The bulls might stay in the paddock while the cows are at
the dairy shed or they are easily drafted out of the herd if they
come into the yard – if the cows are shifting paddocks, the bulls
are brought along.
“They are really easy to draft, just like the cows.”

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