Page 111 - NZ Hereford Magazine 2023

New breeder

sees value potential

One of NZ Hereford’s newest members is
Campbell Lawrence and his Te Pukerakau Stud.
Our editor Kate Taylor visited his Eketahuna
farm on a rare fine day.

he main breeding goals of the new Te Pukerakau
Stud near Eketahuna are calving ease with
exceptional growth figures and good fats.
“I’d like to sell a bull that will make what I’m
Ttrying to achieve here happen for anybody,”
Campbell Lawrence says. “The meat yield has to be up there,
but it also has to be able to calve a heifer and go right through
with the cows. A one-stop shop; my bulls will need the
characteristics to get them right through the whole spectrum.”
Five years ago, Campbell and his partner Dani Josephs
reverted the dairy farm to beef. Four blocks have been added Campbell and Dani sit with their children Lottie and Izzy.
to the original 160-hectare family farm to now total 472ha
(425ha effective), including 200ha of flats, 150ha of rolling calving ease of the Hereford,” he says. “I expect good calving
hills, and the rest steep. ease but then I expect good growth rates. I like to pick a bull
The farm borders the Mangatainoka River on one side, and that can have a calf from a heifer and then stay with the cows
has only a couple of 80ha blocks separating it from hunting and carry on making good calves for the rest of its life. Most of
blocks and the Tararua Range on the other side. It has about my heifer bulls have a 600 day weight of 90 or more; the goal
50ha of bush, including 3ha of virgin 40-mile bush that is in is meat at the end of the day.”
a QEII National Trust covenant. Campbell’s inherited some He has 20 stud cows he bought from Ardo’s Will Morrison
unmanaged pine tree plantations with the newer blocks, but last April, as well as six stud yearling heifers.
he says he can’t wait to remove them. There are also some He has bought bulls from Glenbrae, Koanui, Limehills, and
unfenced mature kahikatea stands that are good shelter for Okawa, and one from Willowspring at the 2019 National Sale.
their stock. It’s a windy spot, and wet. The farm’s average Last year he bought bulls from Otapawa (for $22,000), Okawa
annual rainfall is 1950mm, but 2022 was exceptional. and Ardo.
“In the past 12 months [spring to spring] we’ve had “I bought a Limehills bull in 2021, one of the Streaker ones,
2400mm. We had 1500mm of that in under six months.” with exceptional intramuscular fat, to see if I can twist those
Last season, the farm calved 400 commercial cows, 60% genetics in. His first calves are on the ground so I’ll know
Hereford and 32% Charolais, with some remaining dairy-cross more this coming winter; 18 months, it’s a slow process.
cows. Campbell bought his first stud bull from Otapawa to put “I sell the progeny at 18 to 20 months, because it’s too
across those dairy-cross heifers, which were all he could source wet for them to stay a second winter. I’m trying to get a
at the time of the conversion, and is now looking to phase out. premium at Alliance. They’re killing at 300 kilograms carcass
His mixed-age Charolais cows are mated to Charolais bulls. weight but they’re not quite mature enough for that good
“I only put the first calving heifers to Hereford for the intramuscular fat.”

Year 2023 HEREFORD MAGAZINE 109