Page 79 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Mixed age in-fawn hinds on Forest Road Farm. Sire stag, Craftsman, grew 8.9kg of velvet as a four-year-old.

you a lot, but at the end of the day, when you’re a farmer you robust cows that are good natured and well-marked.”
have to look after your livestock.” The target for bull calves at weaning is 240kg to 260kg, with
They spent $150,000 on supplements, at a huge cost to the the occasional one up to 300kg. Grant keeps about 10 of the
business, but the farm bounced back quickly when it finally best heifers and puts a bull to them as yearlings in October at
rained through June and July. the same time as the mixed-age herd.
He says they were mindful of ongoing, downstream Bulls are from Bruce and Chrissina Donald’s Ngakouka
production effects if they’d put too much pressure on stock, Herefords.
such as a reduced in-fawn hind rate or other collateral damage. “Bruce came with a good reputation from my sources, so I
“That was our mindset all the way through and I’m really bought two bulls, including Lot 2, at his first sale. I’m really
pleased with the decisions we made. As it turned out we could happy with them and I’ve found Bruce really good to deal
have got more grazing, we could have kept those Hereford with. We’re getting longevity out of the bulls, the progeny is
cows, but when you’ve made 50 decisions it’s very easy to pick growing great, and they’re quiet. It’s not my bread and butter;
on one bad one; hindsight’s a marvellous thing.” I’m not a big cattle operation, but I’m getting the results that I
Grant described spring 2020 as a ripper, but the tap still need to justify doing it well.”
turned off at Christmas. The cows and calves are balanced with about 150 R2
“It dragged on and on again, and we still did a lot of feeding heifers – quiet lines of cattle with a variety of breeds – bought
out and spent a lot of money on feed again, but we were able through independent stock agent Alister Cameron from
to carry more stock through. This spring [2021] was a bit Fairview Livestock.
slower but it has really shot off and we’re in a position where Grant emphasises the need for quiet cattle.
we’ve got good fertility levels and a lot of trading stock, the “With the integration with the deer and the cattle, we don’t
most we’ve had for a long time.” want something that is going to race the mob to the other side
Breeding cow numbers are back up to 60. Grant says his of the paddock and spook the deer. It’s a matter of finding
policy is to keep things simple. the right type of cattle for both us and the deer, and having
They calve from mid-August then the bull calves are sold, an exit strategy for those cattle, bearing in mind the real
entire, at weaning time for new owners to take through for the production hub of the farm is the velvet and the stud stock.”
yearling dairy market. The farm has run 200 pure Wiltshire ewes for two lambing
“Taking them from weaner market to yearlings is quite a seasons (bought as hoggets). The aim is to send all of the ram
lucrative twist. The question has been asked of me, ‘why don’t lambs away at weaning at 18kg. Half the ewe lambs are kept,
you do that?’, but it gets pretty cold up here in the winter and with the other half sold to a friend for breeding stock.
to do that job properly is a priority class of stock. The deer “We like the Wiltshires because they’re low maintenance at
are my bread and butter; I have to focus on growing as much the time of year when we’re busy with the deer. As long as they
grass as I can outside of my feed curve late winter early spring maintain the laneways, eat the ragwort, and continue to make
to grow good velvet and to grow my sale stags out … The deer good money, they tick all the boxes for us.”
are my passion. I do like cattle, but they’re not what gets me Grant and his wife Sally, who is a primary school teacher,
out of bed in the morning.” have two children, Harry, 8, and Lottie, 6.
Grant’s original cows four years ago were cast for age, in-calf Future-proofing the business is something the couple work
cows from Puketapu, to which he added heifers bought from hard at, especially since the death of Grant’s father in 2013;
Ngakouka Herefords. The following year he bought his pick of Bruce was Grant’s mate and sounding board.
two-year-old heifers from a line of 160 commercial Hereford “We’ve used Coach Approach as a business mentor since
cattle from a coastal Gisborne station. Dad died. We just keep going back to Dick Kingston and
“Obviously the older cows are gone now, although I still setting goals and planning things that will drive us as people,
have progeny from them; the crux of my herd now is my that fit in with our values. It’s a really powerful way to keep
replacements and those coastal cattle. They’re just really nice, yourself motivated.”

Year 2022 HEREFORD MAGAZINE 77