Page 35 - Hereford Magazine 2021

Big year

for Maungahina

Fifth generation Hereford breeder Mark McKenzie (left) and his father, Bruce, from the Maungahina Stud near Masterton.

Words: Rebekah Wilson. Photos: Supplied. sales, bringing in about $100,000 from those sales alone,
Mark says.
espite feeling as though the odds were against “Being one of the last Hereford sales was pretty nerve-
Maungahina Stud hosting its 75th annual on- racking, farmers might have bought prior to the sale because
farm sale, it resulted in record prices. we pushed it out a month; that was in the back of my mind.”
The uncertainty of Covid-19 forced the With the combination of droughts in the north and farms
DMcKenzie family of Masterton being bought up for forestry, Mark says it
to delay the landmark sale by a month. But “Each sale was a trying time.
the new date was a cold, wintry July day that “Given everything that has happened
brought torrential rain and snow on the gives us more with Covid, farmers may have been a bit
Remutakas, and breached rivers, threatening confidence. We frightened that it would get blown out here
the sale even more. have to do things and they may not have a bull. But it was
All stresses aside, fifth-generation breeder more stressful when the weather came in,”
Mark McKenzie says the sale lineup was “the right, and if we he says.
best one yet”. don’t have the “We had rivers and creeks up, we didn’t
Maungahina Cracker sold for $40,000 right genetics out think we were going to get the speckled
to Andy Denham of Stoneburn Herefords there, they won’t bulls in for the sale because the river went
in Otago, fetching the McKenzie’s highest perform. We have straight over the culvert.”
on-farm bull sale price in the farm’s It has been a big year for one of the
history. They sold 27 of 33 Hereford bulls poured in a lot country’s oldest Hereford studs. Mark’s
with an average of $10,907, and 17 Speckle of resources to father, Bruce, was awarded the Companion of
Park bulls sold for an average of $11,735. get where we are the New Zealand Order of Merit in June for
Speckle Park bull Promise fetched $35,000, now.” services to the cattle industry.
equalling an Australasian record for the “It’s not every day someone gets that
breed at auction. Mark McKenzie award; he was pretty humble about it,” Mark
Five semen packages were sold for Maungahina Stud says.
an average $2325 per straw, while X5 For the past 50 years, Bruce has been
Maungahina Legacy sold for $5150 per straw, a pioneer in genetic development in the
claiming a world record price for the breed, and X5 SPKNZ primary sector. He was involved in the importation of different
Extreme E27 sold for $3200 per straw. livestock breeds, alongside frozen embryos and semen, with
Australian-based buyers dominated the semen packages the aim of improving herd quality in New Zealand. He was

Year 2021 HEREFORD MAGAZINE 33