Page 38 - Hereford Magazine 2021

Consistent

crossbreeding;

hybrid vigour key to success

William and Hudson with two sire bulls from Limehills Polled Hereford Stud.

Consistent crossbreeding on Middlemarch’s
Matarae Station enters its second generation
as William and Emily Jones take over the family
business.

Photos and words: Rob Tipa

rossbreeding Hereford and Angus cattle has been a
consistent, proven strategy on Matarae Station for
the best part of 30 years.
William and Emily Jones are in the middle of a
Csuccession plan to take over the 5500-hectare farm,
an amalgamation of five smaller properties, from William’s
parents, Ron and Juliet Jones.
Juliet owns 80% of the cattle on the property and William
and Emily look after them to give his parents an income from William and Emily Jones and young son Hudson on Matarae
the farm. The couple own the other 20% of the cattle herd, Station near Middlemarch.
which comprises 170 mixed-age Hereford/Angus cows, 35 R2
heifers and 35 R1 heifers. This season the Joneses have spent a total of $45,000 on three
Ever since William can remember, his parents have bought new bulls, a big investment for a breeding herd of 170 cows.
Hereford bulls from local Central Otago studs – Gray and Matarae now has four Hereford sire bulls – three from
Robyn Pannett’s Limehills Polled Hereford Stud in the Teviot Limehills and one from Nick France’s Okawa Polled Hereford
Valley and Geof and Joyce Brown’s Locharburn Herefords near Stud near Mt Somers – and three Angus bulls from James and
Cromwell. Fiona Fraser’s Stern Angus stud at Pleasant Point.
“I remember we always got good longevity out of those type As William explains, their Hereford/Angus crossbreeding
of bulls,” William says, longevity being a factor he regards as strategy is all about hybrid vigour.
important in sire selection. “It probably gives us a slightly bigger calf on the ground
“I think you’d like to see five to eight years out of a sire bull, from day one and they always come off their mothers looking
especially when you have to pay good money for the bull that really good and at good weights at weaning. When you’re
you want, as often the same bulls are sought after by other selling calves it’s all about growth,” he says.
buyers,” he says. “You may as well get them as big as you can, so if a bit of

36 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2021