Page 78 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Velvet finish

for Herefords

Quality Hereford cattle go hand in hand with performance out of them … The cows come in and groom
quality stud deer for Central Hawke’s Bay pastures, and the deer are pretty much allowed to eat and
farmer Grant Charteris. But as he tells Kate graze and pick the fruit salad out before the cows go through.
Taylor, it’s the deer he loves. We couldn’t run our system without the cows or some form of
beef cattle.”
That policy changes slightly at different times of the year.
rant Charteris can’t keep the smile off his face – “When you have a rapid growth in pasture, we’re flicking the
he’s just struck gold with a record velvet weight of cattle around in certain areas trying to keep that seed head
6.7 kilograms from one of his two-year-old stags. down. Not chewing out paddocks but maintaining a level of
“Are you sure you don’t want to talk more quality all the way through; the pasture can get ahead of the
Gabout the deer?” he asks with a laugh. It’s raining hinds because they want to hide their fawns.”
on the 327-hectare Tikokino farm, which is adding to his smile He says it’s a balancing act to get those numbers right.
after two years of droughts. “I could have three times as many cows in a good season,
After a few early awards in the trophy market, Forest Road but we all know what feeding a breeding cow through a
Farm has focused on straight velvet genetics. drought is like. We’re at a happy medium now with 60 cows
“We want heavy-beamed, tidy velvet. Each year it’s amazing and we’ll do the rest with trading cattle, mainly heifers.”
to see what’s coming through from our sale three-year-old The farm is usually okay until Christmas, which is when
stags, as inheritably is so rapid with velvet.” the “tap has been turned off” in the past couple of years. The
Deer may be his passion, but as a former Young Farmer of usual relief valves – sale yearling hinds, two-year-old velvet
the Year grand finalist, Hawke’s Bay Farmer of the Year winner, stags sold to a neighbouring velvet farmer, and surplus cattle
and deer industry environmental winner, Grant has proven – had already been exercised in December and January.
if he’s going to do something, he’s going to do it well; his In 2020, the brakes were well and truly on by early February.
commercial Hereford herd is no exception. The drought was widespread, but Grant managed to get
Production on the Class 6 hill country farm is 80% Red deer, grazing near Linton for 200 R2 stags, which as his future sale
15% Hereford cattle, and 5% Wiltshire sheep. A lot of planning stags, are a huge part of the farm’s income. He also killed 20
goes into cropping and stock policies, especially with buffer of the older Hereford cows, leaving him with a young, well-
strips and adlib feeding the stags, which can lose up to 30% of marked herd of about 45.
their body weight in the roar. The drought continued to get worse and thanks to his bull
“The secret to growing good velvet is putting a high-quality breeder, Bruce Donald, Grant found more grazing south of
feed in them earlier in the winter so they maintain that Dannevirke.
internal body fat so when they come to button drop at the “I had no cattle on through that 2020 winter and 200 fewer
start of August, the crop’s finished and done its job.” deer, plus we sold another 100 capital stock hinds at weaning
This is where the cattle work in well with the deer, especially time. Because of their stud profile and pedigrees we were able
the cows. to get decent money, well above works schedule.
“The deer are browsers not grazers. The biggest key to “It was about pulling every single lever we could. Every
farming them profitably is not to farm them like sheep week, just as we thought there were no more levers left to pull,
and cattle and push them too hard, or you won’t get your we had to get really creative. It was really taxing and plays on

76 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2022