Bulls brought in from Southland

01-06-2010 | Not Specified

It sounds like bringing coals to Newcastle, but this year Paparatu Station has brought Angus bulls from Southland.

The Gisborne station has been able to buy two bulls with top EBVs from Mt Linton for about half the cost of buying them locally, manager Steve Perrett says.

"For us to buy the same bull on the Coast would cost $6000 to $7000."

Steve also sources bulls from Grant Crawshaw at Nuhaka and Graham Bull at Pihanui Station, Wairoa.

The Angus bulls are mated to a herd of more than 1000 Angus Hereford-cross cows.

From mating to calf marking they get an 83-85% result, which Steve is working hard to improve.

This year the rising two-year heifers had an 89% conception rate, which he is pleased with.

For the past five years all the heifers have been vaccinated for BVD and given a 7:1 injection. After pregnancy testing all the dry cows are culled and sold.

It's a strict one-winter policy with the progeny: Any which are not finished are sold store before the second winter.

Most of the male progeny are steered, with a few left as bulls. They are taken through to 18 months in a 200ha beef unit.

"We are cranking up the beef unit to produce 500kg/ha."

Considering the medium hills of the bull unit, yearling bulls have been putting on a respectable 1.5-1.8kg/day which is "pretty good for up here", Steve says.

Three hundred female progeny are kept as replacements, and the remainder are sold store at 18 months.

It's quite a young herd now, with the cows sold when they turn 10, as either scanned in-calf or run with the bull. Last year this line of cows returned $588.

Winter is the toughest time for the cows, but this past year with its dry spring which carried through to January and February was also difficult, Steve says.

Using Farmax as part of the Te Taumata programme has been good to help plan ahead to fit the grass curve.

"It's a bit like a diary," Steve says. Once a month he does a grass assessment on every one of the 109 paddocks so he knows where they are heading.

  Printable View