Good morning everyone, from Wellington!
We head off to the airport shortly, and should be back at the farm mid afternoon.
It was a wonderful couple of days down here, with the Hutt Valley High School reunion. The School is now huge – with over 2000 students. It is quite impressive. It was so nice to catch up with many old school acquaintances. I already have a close group of old High School friends and we communicate regularly on WhatsApp. We all met up on Sunday morning for brunch, which was very cool.
Back on the farm:
Our neighbour, Cliff, has moved our herd for us every morning, and sent us photos of the herd each morning. Whilst I have missed them lots, I have not missed the hand feeding out of the silage. We still have over 20 bales left of the silage that we will have to hand load out. We will use them up first, so it’s still going to be a tough few more weeks. But when the cows are happy, I am too so I really don’t mind.
Our fencing:
The fencers were back on the farm the day we left, working on our cattle yards, putting in some new gates to make the flow of stock through the yards was much easier. This photo was taken the day we left for Wellington. I will look forward to checking them out when I get back.
The fencers were back on the farm the day we left, working on our cattle yards, putting in some new gates to make the flow of stock through the yards was much easier. This photo was taken the day we left for Wellington. I will look forward to checking them out when I get back.
“Estimated Breeding Values” (EBVs):
One of our customers emailed me last week, asking for more information on the criteria we use to achieve our breeding goals. Whilst I don’t want to get too heavily into it, I am very happy to explain what our goals were. Now that we are in our retirement years, we do not want to replace any of our herd, so these goals have definitely diminished.
- Ease of calving: This is a prerequisite – no one wants to see cows having calving issues. The nice part about Angus cattle breeding is that most do calve easily, without issues
- Growth: We always wanted to be in the top 10% for growth. We do have a couple of cows who did not quite meet this criteria, but made up for it with other attributes. Cattle that grow faster will finish faster and be bigger than their contemporaries at finishing time
- Marbling (or “IMF”). Although we are not paid for marbling, this was always a source of pride for us. A well marbled steak will always be better than a steak with no/low marbling. Next year we are hoping to get bull semen from a USA bull with the highest IMF rating in the world. We have our fingers crossed we can get some!
- Carcass weight: We always wanted to be in the top percentile for this
- Structure: It goes without saying that
As I reflect on it now, we probably looked too much at “the numbers” instead of looking more at the animal itself. If you weigh cattle regularly you know which animals are growing faster, when they are in a herd together, eating the same grass. In fact it is only the IMF that you can’t see, but if animals are scanned at 400 days of age, you can find out which animals will produce more marbling.
I will explain a little more about our newer breeding goals next week.
Our Feral kittens:
They are no longer feral, and are just delightful new family members. We love them to bits and can’t wait to get home and make sure they are OK!
Spotlight on:
Today we would like to spotlight a young heifer who is really important to me.
Today we would like to spotlight a young heifer who is really important to me.
This is SALLY and she is the daughter of one our most special commercial cows, STORM. A few weeks ago I wrote of my regret at sending Storm off, as she had lost her pregnancy. I still feel so bad at my mistake, and this has made it very important to me to retain Sally in our herd. Sally is definitely a “keeper” and will stay for as long as I am on the farm. You are a champ, Sally!
That’s all for this week.
Comments: We love feedback, so would love to hear from you!
Regards,
Colin and Keryn