Page 34 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Hybrid vigour in

Shag Valley

Hereford-cross cattle are wintered on a tussock run block close to the summit of the Pigroot, overlooking the Maniototo Plain.

Words: Rob Tipa. Photos: Supplied. The properties are all run as one farm. In dry years they
have enough hill country to send stock on to the hill to give
paddocks on the home block a rest, so they respond a lot
he Shag Valley in East Otago is well known as good quicker when they do get rain.
cattle country, particularly for traditional beef breeds. Historically the Patons have run straight Hereford or
The Paton family, farming 3000 hectares of Hereford-cross cattle. In recent years they have opted for a
rolling to steep hill country at the head of the Shag breeding herd of Hereford/Angus-cross cattle to make the
TValley between the small settlement of Morrisons most of the gains from hybrid vigour.
and the summit of the Pigroot (State Highway 85 between Heifer mating has been a profitable component of their
Palmerston and Ranfurly), have always run Herefords or breeding programme in recent years and, with this in mind,
Hereford-cross cattle. they have bought five stud Hereford bulls as yearlings from
Brothers Mark and Paul Paton are the third generation of Mark’s wife Liz’s parents, John and Mary Allen of Mahuta
this family to farm the Dolphins, along with their own families Herefords at Glen Murray in Waikato.
and their mother Allison, who is still actively involved looking “Heifer mating has been a focus of John’s for many years,
after the younger cattle. especially for the dairy industry, and he also targets fertility
Mark and Paul’s grandfather Jack Paton settled at and early finishing in his cattle,” Mark says.
Morrisons just after the Second World War. That block Both the Patons and Mahuta Herefords have previously
(Iona) was about 600ha, and he added the Dolphins block bought stud bulls from Gray Pannett’s Limehills Stud at Millers
in the 1960s. These two blocks were soon run separately by Flat, so they were not really changing bloodlines too drastically.
Jack’s sons David and Henry, but were amalgamated again In short, Mark liked the look of the Mahuta Hereford
in 2014 when Iona came up for sale. The purchase of Iona yearling bulls, they had traits the family liked and, as he puts
balanced the business by substantially lifting the proportion it, “fertility is king”.
of cultivated ground and has been used to grow 80ha of With less competition from beef breeders in the North
lucerne, rape and swede crops. Island, the family could buy three yearling bulls for the
These days the family runs between 250 and 300 Hereford/ same price as one in the South Island and get an extra year’s
Angus-cross breeding cows on run blocks between 300 and production out of them.
960 metres of altitude up as high as the summit of the Pigroot, Calves are quite small when they are born, but they grow fast.
as well as about 2000 Merino breeding ewes and about 1000 “This year we didn’t pull a single calf,” Mark says. “One of
Wiltshire ewes that came with the purchase of Iona. my concerns in the beef industry is people chasing bigger
Stocking rates have not changed dramatically over the animals. We all want animals that grow faster but that comes
years, Mark says. The property is still conservatively stocked, with a compromise. We don’t really want big animals up here
but what has changed in the past eight years is that all lambs in the winter or during a drought.”
are now finished on farm rather than being sold as stores. The Patons have always aimed for a compact cow with EBV
“East Otago is known for drying out, so we don’t like to mature cow weights not creeping above the 50% weight mark.
overstock, and we don’t like to be at the whim of the market,” As Paul explains, big-framed animals are not as mobile or agile
he says. “We’ve come to the philosophy of trying to get the on hill country.
best out of the animals you’ve got before you start upping “We don’t give our mixed-age cows any supplements.
stock numbers. “They’re wintered on hill country. The only thing they get is
“Buying this block means we can now finish whatever we a protein block they have to eat alongside tussock and rank
breed and look after young stock a lot better.” grass. They tidy up the pastures really well for spring.”

32 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2022