Page 22 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Philip and Shirley Shepherd and their son Paul work as a team on Waimaire and Otengi Herefords in the Far North. Philip says his
considerable industry governance roles would not have been possible without back-up from Shirley and Paul.

If there is a connection between pastures calving in spring and 60 in the autumn.
in stunning coastal locations and genetic Initially comprised of first-calvers, the autumn-calving
expression in cattle, the Shepherd family and group is now mixed-age and produces 18-month bulls for sale
their Waimaire & Otengi Polled Hereford Stud in the spring.
What used to be two bull sales a year, winter and spring,
are best placed to find it. has now been consolidated in one September sale of yearling,
18-month and two-year bulls, plus paddock sales of two-year
hey farm leased land on hills overlooking the bulls in the winter.
beautiful Mahinepua and Wainui Bays and the “Bulls of both ages are similar in size and do the same job
spectacular Cavalli Islands, while the home farm is for our dairy farming clients, but 18-month bulls go through
inland nearer Tauranga Bay, Whangaroa Harbour only one summer for us and are therefore more efficient,”
Tand Kaeo township in north-eastern Northland. Paul explains.
Philip and Shirley Shepherd are in business with son Paul The home farm is 240 hectares, which is 170ha effective, plus
and his wife Marie, and daughter Louise and her husband about 30% native bush.
Chris Blackler, who live in Kerikeri. Philip is the fifth The three main lease blocks make up 180ha effective, the
generation since the mid-1800s to farm in the location and majority coastal hard hills. They are adjoining blocks with
Paul and Louise the sixth. associated bush reserves under different absentee owners; one
Philip chairs the World Hereford Council and Performance the Shepherds have leased for 40 years and another for 25 years.
Beef Breeders in Feilding, and is a past president of NZ An old deer farm block of 40ha, of which only 14ha is tractor-
Herefords. He founded Otengi Polled Herefords in 1974 after accessible, had a pH of 5 and Olsen P levels between 4 and 6
coming home from Massey University. when the Shepherds began leasing and rebuilding soil fertility.
Paul’s Waimaire registration began with his grandfather Louise provides all soil tests and fertiliser recommendations
Stan in 1968, and is now the longest continuous Hereford stud through her own job consulting for Nutri-Link.
in Northland. When some more dispersed coastal lease blocks expired
Both studs are firmly focused on producing structurally about six years ago, the Shepherds went out of sheep and were
sound Hereford bulls with good temperaments to put over able to maintain their cattle numbers on the reduced area.
heifers and dairy cows with the desired calving ease, low birth That also meant an end to walking livestock between
weights, and good growth rates. blocks on the busy Wainui Loop Road that connects Kaeo
Registered cattle in both studs are run in one herd under and Whangaroa with the coastal settlements of Tauranga Bay,
commercial hill farming conditions like those of their bull- Wainui, Te Ngaere, and Matauri Bay.
buying clients. Paul also gave up contracting work in favour of cattle
Herefords are favoured by those clients because of their farming, using his tractors and implements to crop and re-
strong white face markings in calves when used over other grass home farm paddocks.
cattle breeds, and for good milking and mothering abilities. He is now president of NZ Herefords’ Northland Club, following
Together, Waimaire and Otengi have 220 cows, 160 of them Philip into governance, and is active in badminton leadership

20 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2022