Taking it to the top

12-05-2010 | Cathrine Peter

Playing around with exotics early in the 1970s and finding most came up short convinced a Nelson couple to start breeding their own cattle.

Malcolm and Ingrid McConochie began breeding stud Herefords in 1982.

"It was also something we could do together," Malcolm says.

The first 20 stud cows were bought from the Coopers at Blarich Station in Blenheim. This quickly grew to 100. Malcolm reckons, "if you are going to breed 30 you might as well bred 100 and make some real progress".

The initial herd were horned and although Malcolm has no preference for horned or polled cattle, client demand suggests polled cattle are preferable.

Lake Station is situated 10km from St Arnaud, south of Nelson. The station rises to 500m, average rainfall is 1500mm, and winter is typically 120 days with two to three snowfalls on average.

The 1150ha property (960ha effective) is farmed in conjunction with Malcolm's brother Doug and his wife, Jane. Daughter Rebecca is employed as stock manager.

About 3000 Romney-Pole Dorset cross ewes run alongside a commercial herd of 200 cows and the 120 stud cows.

The commercial herd is pivotal to the success of the stud herd and vice versa.

"We need to breed functional cattle, with good temperaments, excellent weight gains and top production" Malcolm says.

The object of the stud is to produce bulls that will breed steers that finish 300kg carcaseweight at 18 months. The bulls they breed for themselves must meet those criteria. This is reflected in the commercial herd.

Top weaning weights in 2009 were 327kg for bulls, 309kg for steers and heifers 298kg.

It took the McConochies 10 years to build up a base of cows with mid-performance genetics. Initially out-crossing using American, Canadian and Australian genetics, they now use more of their own sires.

"It's now time for us to stabilise and breed a consistent type," Ingrid says.

Ingrid says the female line is extremely important.

"You must have a good line of females to breed good bulls. Genotype and phenotype are of equal importance."

She says good confirmation is also paramount. "Fancy genetics and good EBVs are no good if your animal can't move around."

Most of the calving duties fall to Rebecca and Ingrid; easy calving rates right up there with the most desirable traits. The only time they will intervene is for malpresentations or the odd stuck heifer. Otherwise both the stud and commercial herds are left to calve themselves.

Any calves from assisted birthing are immediately culled.

Malcolm's grandfather has also influenced the development of this stud. The thinking at the time was 20% breed, 80% feed.

"Grandad disagreed with this and said ‘No, it's 100% breeding and 100% feeding'.

"He felt if you got both right you could meet your targets; however it was important to identify the steps you needed to get there."

Scanning plays an important role in both the commercial and stud herds.

Cows can be separated into early and lates and fed accordingly. Four years ago they identified 13 sets of twins and got 20 calves. Malcolm would like to follow this trait further because he is convinced the economics of weaning 500kg a cow is a "no-brainer".

Not everyone is in agreement.

"It's okay for dad - he isn't the one doing the extra work," Rebecca says.

At this stage they are not pursuing the twin option. Malcolm acknowledges it won't work for everyone but it could be useful in years to come. He isn't sure it is a genetic trend and thinks it may be more related to feed and nutrition.

"Our clients may not thank us for it. Maybe one day?"

Malcolm well remembers a time when twin lambs were viewed with scepticism.

Rebecca is quietly developing a management strategy for cows that do produce twins. She has found they do best if they are by themselves for 24 hours after calving. Then they are okay to go into a paddock with other twin-producing cows. Plenty of feed is also essential to successfully raising twins.

An on-farm sale is held in June each year with about 25 bulls on offer.

They run a Helmsman auction. Malcolm likes this system as it gives everyone an option to bid and buy, paying competitive market value without pressure. It also means if a preference is for one lot and the bidder misses out on that bull, he or she is still able to bid on their second choice.

Most bulls have a reserve of $2200. The average price is about $3800. Last year the top sale fetched $7000.

Malcolm and Rebecca buy bulls for the stud together. As breeders they are always looking to improve traits.

"We buy bulls from people with a similar philosophy to us and in turn they will buy from us," Malcolm says.

Two of the sires the McConochies credit with most influencing their breeding programme are Okawa Tyson and Rangitoto Nightcap. They were bought for $20,000 and $30,000 respectively.

Once these sires were recognised within the industry, selling semen became easy. Okawa Tyson paid for himself within two years. AI sires Dunrobin Superstar (Canada) and Venapark Jackpot (Australia) have also left their mark.

Every breeder aims to breed that special animal and the McConochies have done just that with Ted E Bear, this year's winner of the prestigious Meat and Wool Cup at the royal show in Christchurch.

Twelve judges decide the winner and the whole process takes about an hour. In the end Ted was awarded 10 firsts, a second and a third and finished 50 points ahead of the nearest rival. No Hereford had won the cup since 1995.

Rebecca knew Ted was special the day he was born. The fact that he is also out of one their top cows, Lake Spot Z101, a Rangitoto Nightcap daughter, helped too.

He won champion Hereford as a yearling at the royal show in Christchurch and she decided that if he still looked good as a three-year-old she would take him back. As a rule she doesn't show her animals as two-year-olds, preferring to allow them to develop naturally.

"I don't like over feeding them to get them into show condition. I still want my bulls to be sound at five to 10 years old," Rebecca says.

She is well-known in showing circles; she is gaining valuable experience working for various cattle studs around NZ, breaking in and showing cattle for them.

Showing cattle is her passion and Malcolm and Ingrid are there to support her. Rebecca admits she is competitive and would have been disappointed if Ted had not won Champion Hereford. She is also realistic enough to know the vagaries that accompany showing stock. The Meat and Wool cup was a bonus.

Malcolm and Ingrid acknowledge the work Rebecca put in and say Ted really did look good on the day.

For a large bull he has a great shoulder and is mobile with an "awesome temperament", something which is paramount to the McConochies' breeding programme.

There are no plans to sell Ted E Bear because he will be valuable to the breeding programme.

"We will use him as a stud bull and then across the commercial herd," Rebecca says. "He will also serve some of my own cows."

For her 20th birthday she was given two cows and has been steadily breeding up her own herd. She has a clearly defined breeding programme and all stock must rank in the top 20% of Lake Station stock.

"I don't just rank my stock against each other."

This can be hard with a small number, but Rebecca believes this rigid culling programme will allow her to breed better stock long term.

Lake Station is the grazing property for the Tru Test New Zealand Hereford Super Sires group. Rebecca is sent around 12 bulls each year from the South Island group.

The bulls come to her in January as yearlings and Rebecca manages them through to May. Then they go, as a group, to the national Hereford sale at the Beef Expo in Fielding this month.

Before arriving at Lake Station in January, all bulls have been used by their breeders over at least 20 cows achieving an 80% or better conception rate.

"It's a big responsibility as these are really valuable animals and other stud breeders are counting on you to produce their stock to a high standard," Rebecca says.

After leaving school Rebecca went on to Telford for 12 months, then spent a few years working on farms throughout the country.

"It was all a great experience and you soon find out what you don't want to do."

So is dairy and option?

She says: "No way - dad's on his own if he thinks he's going to convert."

She does enjoy milking cows, once in a while, but it's not for her.

At the moment the McConochies have no plans to change the system that works well for the environment they farm in.

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