NEWS FLASH!
The New Zealand Angus Association (Inc) to host the 2013 World Angus Forum.
At the recently held International Angus Secretariat in Ireland the New Zealand Angus Association was awarded the hosting rights for the 2013 Angus World Forum.
This a great honour and a huge opportunity for the New Zealand Angus Association and its members to promote both New Zealand as a country and our New Zealand Angus genetics to a world wide audience of Angus breeders.
The planning for this will begin immediately when Council meet for their next meeting in Christchurch on the 12th and 13th November 2007.
2009 World Forum Report
25 members of the New Zealand Angus Association travelled to Calgary in Alberta, Canada for the 2009 World Forum
from 13th – 17th July.
Held in beautifully fine weather at the prestigious horse stud of Spruce Meadows this was a wonderful event to be present at. Found just on the outskirts of Calgary, Spruce Meadows is a World renowned horse stud and eventing centre who specialize in breeding Hanoverian. Horses for the world circuit.
The Canadian Angus Association had pulled out all stops to make this a lasting memory for all who attended and they achieved that in spectacular fashion in picking this venue to stage this event at. There had been a Pre-Tour held over the 3 days prior to the forum which attracted approximately 170 people from all corners of the globe.
On this tour they visited an area of Alberta East and South East of Calgary; visiting Alta Genetics semen collection centre at which there were a number of Angus bulls, Irvines Tack, Trailer and Western Wear at Crossfields where they saw the biggest collection of saddles and all things to do with horses they are ever likely to see, the Marshall family feedlot, week long hockey school camp for 5 - 8 year olds, Olds Auction Marts, Clearview Arena to watch western riders performing, and then onto Rocky Mountain House where we camped for the night.
Next day was spent in the magnificent Rocky Mountains with visits to; Bow Summit, Petyo Lake, Lake Louise, Colombian Ice fields, stopping this time overnight in the lovely town of Banff. Saturday gave time for shopping in this beautiful tourist town, a trip up on the Sulphur mountain gondola, a visit to the Cascade gardens and then 12 away back to Calgary to book into the Hotel for the forthcoming Forum and to get ready to go to the night session at the Calgary Stampede and the Chuck wagon racing semi finals and a mind blowing fireworks display which incorporated spectacular acts by a whole array of different performers.
Sunday and the start of the ‘official ‘proceedings and first up was the Secretariat meeting for the delegates and observers. NZ Angus had 3 delegates in Richard Rowe, Tim Brittain and Rob Wylie, 2 observers in Bruce Alexander and Richard Martin and the Youth delegate Mark Stevens at this meeting. Following the welcome from the President of Canadian Angus John Donaldson, each countries present was asked to give a brief outline of agriculture in their country.
This was very interesting and indicated the strong presence the Angus breeds has in so many countries around the world. The secretariat now has 21 members made up of both black and red Angus cattle – the split being approx 60:40.
Those youth delegates present then spoke and Mark Stevens spoke extremely well on behalf of NZ Angus Youth outlining our Youth programmes, youth exchanges with Australia and the USA and plans for the 2013 Forum in New Zealand.
Agenda items then followed;
Articles of Association
it was agreed that each country would pay $200 membership / year. A quorum of 60% of members was required to hold a meeting.
Worldwide Genetic Evaluation
It was agreed upon but not felt achievable at this point.
DNA assisted EPDs/EBVs
It would be necessary to validate reference populations in individual countries. Peter Parnell informed the meeting that Australia was funding the establishment of a reference population for this purpose.
SNP DNA Technology Bryce Schuman (CEO American Angus)
introduced a discussion on the new SNP DNA technology. This meeting recommended that we should be adopting a ‘standard panel’ of SNP technology over and above the current method for ‘parent verification’ and should have present in Argentina a panel of experts to further inform us on this subject. Bryce was asked to coordinate the flow of information on this subject amongst member countries.
Genetic Defects
It was voiced by Tim Brittain (NZ) that the lack of communication in the area of Genetic Defects was causing concern to all member countries and asked that all members agreed to circulate to others, any problems that were surfacing in their own country.
It was felt there was a role for the Secretariat to play in this area. Peter Parnell was asked to Chair a committee to coordinate a listing of Genetic Defects in each country and collate the ways and means by which they are handling them.
The meeting finished at 12.30pm and we left to take in the finals of the calf roping, barrel riding, bull and horse rodeo at the Stampede and then back to the Deerfoot Inn for the evening meal and entertainment at the Casino and bar.
Monday was the fist official day of the Forum and for this they loaded 500+ people on plenty of buses and we set off (in torrential rain – which they needed!) for the historical Bar-U-Ranch for a cattle handling show Canadian style. With packed lunches we then headed for “Smashed in head Buffalo Jump” an historic tourist …………. which gave some insight into the way the Indians hunted and killed their game for food, clothing and building materials.
Then we boarded again to head to he community hall at Stavely, the alternate venue for our visit to the Flying E Ranch who were to have hosted us to a ‘pitchfork bar-b-que but because of the heavy rain could not do it.
Tuesday was the ‘official’ opening of the Forum and this was appropriately held out at Spruce Meadows. Dignitaries representing both the Canadian and the Alberta Governments were on hand to welcome everybody to the World Forum in Calgary and Canada.
Following this, the ‘Technical Conference’ was held with three speakers addressing those gathered: Chelsea Carruthers - ‘calpastatin in Angus cattle – concluding that Canadian Angus cattle have the highest presence of tenderness. Jerry Taylor - High Density SNP chip technology. Bob Church – the whole genome – epigenetics. Healthy animals, healthy people!!
Enviromental differentials and total resource management. Following that they had lunch and then headed across to watch the cattle auction, included amongst the cattle for sale were some of the animals from the different countries that were sent across 3 years ago as embryos.
The auction was both interesting and amusing – plenty of money changed hands but cattle came in to the ring in any order and consequently took a bit of following. However it was for a good cause so they would have been pleased with the way it went.
World Forum Continued...
Then it was into town to change after this and then back out to Spruce Meadows for the ‘opening gala dinner. It was a late night with the NZ continent on the last bus!!
The next two days were given over to the competitions in the cattle show rings – a spectacular venue for the black and red Angus cattle to be showed off in, starting with (on the first morning) the ‘WAF Futurity Show’ – cattle of both colours which were selected as calves 2 years ago and have worked their way through elimination at many shows, got in-calf, had a live calf and got to Spruce Meadows for the World Angus Forum prestigious awards.
In the afternoon came the WAF Red Angus Show and the following day the WAF Youth Show followed by the WAF Black Angus Show. All the time the “Shows’ were going on the cattle houses were a-buzz with people visiting the cattle that weren’t taking part at that time or breeders that were just there to promote their cattle and their studs.
For many of our members this was the most enjoyable part of the whole event and it is no small coincidence that some Canadian Genetics may find there way to New Zealand this season! There is only one way to describe these 2 days – awesome and spectacular, a truly remarkable spectacle with so many beautiful cattle in the one place for this memorable event.
Well done to the exhibitors too, many had hauled cattle for thousands of miles to be here. The final night for farewells and thank you was held at Spruce Meadow. This was a great finale to an excellent event, Auction of paintings, speeches from all countries and many gifts, Indian dancers, music and dancing and farewells to the many new people that everyone had met.
Finally Tim Brittain as Chairman of our World Forum 2013 Committee presented and invited all present to come to New Zealand in 2013 and witness our country “where nature works her magic”. Following the completion of the Forum there was a post forum tour and sadly only a 24 people went on this - 8 of them Kiwis.
We had 4 days looking around an area South and South East of Calgary, seeing Dinosaurs at the Royal Tyrell Museum, being privileged enough to visit an Hutterite Farming Colony, also the Canadian Forces Base at Suffield, The Pahl family ranch, Fort Walsh, Tunnels of Chicago, Craik National Park, Will-Bar Farms, The Genserve Laboratories at the University of Saskatoon and finally a dinner trip to conclude the tour on the Saskatoon River.
On our travels we stayed overnight in places like Moose Jaw, Saskatoon, Medicine Hat and on the last night celebrated a great tour with farewells before all going our separate ways the next morning.
Rob Wylie.
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