| By
Diane Bishop
Middlemarch
farmer Ken Elliot is continuing a family tradition of breeding
Red Poll stud cattle. But the emphasis has changed somewhat from
his late father John Elliot’s day when the dual purpose
cattle were farmed more for their milk than for their quality
carcass attributes.
Numerically
Red Poll cattle, which were imported into New Zealand from England
in 1898, are one of the smaller breeds in the country with just
26 registered breeders nationwide.
Ken’s
father formed the Garthmyl Red Poll stud in 1928 with purebred
cows from the Dominion, Cray and School studs and purebred bulls
from the Otahuna and Glen Eden studs.
“Dad
wasn’t satisified with the milking cows that were around
at the time so he got the Red Poll for its meat and milk,”
he says of the medium-sized breed that evolved from a cross between
a Norfolk Red and a Suffolk Dun in the early 1800s.
The
Elliot’s originally milked about 30 Red Poll cows to supply
the former Taieri and Peninsula Dairy Company in Dunedin until
1957 when they decided to produce a specialist beef herd with
an emphasis on better fleshing animals while retaining fertility,
milking ability and docility.
Six
years later Ken took over the stud, which now comprises of 50
stud cows, 15 rising two-year-old heifers and several sire bulls.
He
also farms 100 stud South Suffolk and FinTex (Finn-Texel) ewes
as well as 1100 Romney cross and FinTex cross commercial ewes,
300 ewe hoggets, 60 sale Ram hoggets and 40 Friesian-Red Poll
rising yearling steers and heifers on 205ha.
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More
than half of the flat property is established with K-Line irrigation
and these pastures have helped finish the stock at good weights.
Ken
has set some basic parameters in which to achieve functional efficient
cattle that survive and thrive in a harsh climate.
The
cows, which are mated as yearling heifers, must be capable of
producing a good quality calf each year to retain their place
in the herd. “We aim to get 10 calves out of a cow over
their lifetime.”
Ken
focuses on carcass quality, in particular taste and tenderness,
as this is being demanded by consumers and fetching a premium.
The
flatter the rib bone the more tender the meat is and this also
applies to the softness and silkiness of the skin, he says. “It’s
a fallacy that you need a thick skin for a harsh environment.”
The
cows are strip grazed on grass plus barley straw over the winter
while the young stock are strip grazed on turnips or greenfeed
and supplemented with hay.
The
cows and yearling heifers are artificially inseminated for several
weeks before they are mated to Red Poll bulls to calve in September
and October.
Ken
uses his own bulls in his mating programme as well as other sires
and recently bought the semen rights to an Australian Red Poll
bull for $18,500.
“I
liked his balanced length and he’s got the soft skin and
flat bone that I’m after. His mother is one of the best
cows I’ve seen.” |
He
says it’s often more cost-effective to buy semen than go
to the extra expense of importing a bull.
Many
of his clients are dairy farmers who have moved away from using
Jersey bulls over their cows and heifers after their AI run, to
using Red Poll bulls, as their progeny are sought-after by calf
rearers.
Ken
sells an equal number of yearling and two-year-old bulls for breeding,
which includes selling one bull and semen straws at the annual
National Red Poll bull sale. The surplus bulls are killed at 18
months before the second winter.
He
buys back about 40 Red Poll Friesian cross heifer and steer calves
from dairy farmers that he has supplied bulls to at 100kg and
they are finished at 14 months for a specialised supermarket trade.
Ken
selects his heifer replacements on structural soundness, dam history
and docility. “They must also be from a cow that has weaned
a good weight calf.”
He
aims to have the heifer and bull calves at a minimum 240kg and
280kg respectively at weaning in April.
The
cows are culled ruthlessly if their udders become pendulous which
makes it difficult for the calf to feed. This can occur in young
cows but is more common in cows that have had six or more calves.
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