Page 24 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Emphasis is put on docility EBVs when selecting an AI sire
because dairy farmer clients don’t want stroppy progeny.
Other traits being emphasised at present are short gestation
length and intramuscular fat, while of course keeping the ease
of calving, birth weight and growth rates uppermost.
The AI sires are Ardo Ajax 5014, Koanui Xcel P358, Wirruna
Matty M288 from Australia, and Mohican Bar Star Revved Up
78A from the United States.
Matty is one of the best available here and in Australia for
short gestation length, with an EBV of -8.9 days with 98%
accuracy, and for IMF, +3.5 and 89%.
When Mycoplasma bovis became a threat, the Shepherds
stopped bringing in live bulls and instead put more cows to AI
sires.
The 2021 September bull sale was conducted completely
online on the Bidr platform because of Covid level 4 Father and son team Paul, left, and Philip.
restrictions on travel to and from Northland.
The Shepherds sold 58 of 73 bulls offered and the yearlings The same Northland dairy farmer paid $3900 for Otengi
averaged $3007. The top price was $4900 paid for spring-born Echuca 21, by Otengi Echuca 29. The yearling bull 21 has his
yearling bull Waimaire Bismark 15, by Ardo Bismark out of own good EBVs for calving ease and birth weight, plus the
Waimaire Leonora 2382. He has a direct calving ease figure of dairy beef index of $118.
+11, a gestation length of -3.8, and dollar figures in the top 5% Repeat buyers were not able to assess bulls in person but
for Hereford beef heifer index and dairy beef index, $251 and have sent back reports to Paul and Philip that the bulls that
$133 respectively. walked off the trucks met their high expectations.

Timber helps biodiversity

A native timber resource on the Shepherd’s home farm is
being turned into beautiful slabs, planks, and oiled and
polished boards.
Paul Shepherd uses only trees or logs that have died from
natural causes such as drought, storm damage or diseases;
these include pohutukawa, taraire, puriri and totara, and
Paul also mills the exotic Tasmanian blackwoods, macrocarpa
and eucalyptus.
“With the natives, often good timber can be obtained from
the trunks of trees that have been dead 20 years or more.
“All of my native timber production comes with MPI milling
certificates and we never cut down live native trees.”
Logs are sawn with a swing-blade mill and an Alaskan
mill, purchased after a tree contractor was used to take out
potentially dangerous old macrocarpa trees near the cattle yard. Paul and Marie Shepherd with examples of the native timber and
Paul applied online for a sawmilling registration for resin boards, alongside the swing-blade sawmill.
indigenous timber and the milling certificates specific to each
dead log that had been located and photographed. Returns for high value timber, eucalyptus and redwoods for coppicing,
must be kept of the subsequent processing and MPI makes cutting for poles and logs, and sustainability.
occasional inspections. Paul believes treated pine for farm use will be replaced in
He continues to survey and map the farm for dead trees, a future by natural hardwoods like eucalyptus.
job given some urgency by the Far North District Council’s A sustainable management and harvesting plan for totara
recent publication of proposed Significant Natural Areas may also be developed with help from Kaeo landscape
covering 42% of the land areas within the council boundary. architect Paul Quinlan, a force behind the Northland Totara
That process has been halted following strong public backlash, Working Group.
especially from iwi landowners. About 9ha has been identified for planting trees over
Even root bases and branch junctions can be sliced into the next few years, spread around the farm, with only two
irregular shapes and then assembled into feature cutting locations having more than 1ha each.
boards and small table tops with strongly contrasting coloured “I am not planting for carbon credits because most of it
resins filling in the irregular shapes. won’t qualify, but for erosion control and amenity.
The Shepherd family is establishing a small tree nursery “It’s a great interest and activity to have while improving
for both exotics and natives, aimed at producing about 2000 the biodiversity and aesthetics of the farm.”
seedlings a year for planting around the farm. Blackwoods are

22 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2022