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Kate Tickles Report

Supplied by Australian Angus Youth

Hi Everyone! I’m on my Angus Youth New Zealand Exchange trip, and it is going very well (I’ve managed to adapt to the freezing weather over here – I got a rude shock early on with making the transition from Qld to NZ!)

I’ve spent a little over two weeks here so far, and I’ve got two weeks left, so this is my half way update.

Upon arriving (my first overseas trip!) in Wellington I soon learnt what Customs is. Having to declare that yes, I was carrying boots that had been on a farm in the past 30 days seemed something simple to do. It wasn’t until that they asked to inspect them that I realised what I was in for. They discovered that my lace up work boots with soles completely covered in small and very detailed grip/tread weren’t cleaned satisfactorily! So here I was, as soon as I arrived in a new country, on my first overseas trip, hastily scraping away at the dried manure and mud in the bottom of my boots with a little tiny pick! Luckily my connecting flight was a couple of hours away so I could spare the 30 minutes it took me!

I flew to Palmerston North (south part of the North Island), and was picked up by Brooke Mullooly, the Charolais breed manager and Future Beef (all breeds youth organisation) coordinator. That night I was treated to my first “Angus Pure” steak, which is the equivalent of our CAAB.

I had a quick stay with Michelle & Alan Dalziell, Atahua Angus, Fielding. I had the chance to look through some of their sold sale bulls, but not their cowherd. The reason for this is that they were away “grazing”. This means on agistment. There are many farms over here that are in drought. Not the Australia type of desert drought, but the NZ winter drought. Although the paddocks look green, there is simply no bulk or quantity of grass because the rain didn’t come early enough (eg. In the Autumn) and although they’re getting winter rain now, it’s not doing any good because it’s simply to cold for any grass to grow. Michelle is from Australia so it was a great place to stay first to ease me into my trip.

The next day travelled five hours up to Gisborne (halfway up the east coast) with Alan and some other breeders for the Gisborne Angus Bull Sale Week. Over 3 days I attended 4 of the 6 bull sales in the area (Kaharau, Turihaua, Combined Vendor Sale, Turiroa). These sales were all quite strong, averaging between $4500-$6000 each sale, topping in the $20000’s several times, with extremely high clearance rates.

I stayed with Angela and Hamish Williams, Turihaua (pronounced Two-Ri-How), which is the oldest Angus stud in Australasia. They celebrated 100 years last year. It is an amazing property of 5000 acres, and joins the ocean. They run 18 000 stock units (sheep and cattle). It is magnificent country and I was surprised at the quality of it, being so extremely coastal. The Williams’ are great people, wonderful hosts (Angela has 9 acres of gardens and over 700 roses!). I helped wash and brand their sale bulls, and spent the morning of the sale making sandwiches (!) and then met a lot of people through handing out supplementary sale sheets. Their cattle seem to be quite moderate framed and their point of difference is that their bulls are bred in the hills, for the hills. Very sound cattle that definitely and obviously have a place in the industry here.

Three days later I moved on down to Grant and Sue Crawshaw, Kenhardt Angus, Nuhaka. They have three kids, all keen on the beef industry and involved with Angus Youth/Future Beef (which is quite new over here).

After a few days and a trip back to Turihaua (to have some time to recover from the severe flu I had picked up) I arrived at my next destination, Viv and Will McFarlane, Waiteranui Angus, Hastings. Once again all their breeders were away grazing. Will is a very smart farmer, and this stud has been around since 1914. The McFarlanes are very focused on monitoring and optimising the beef production, from a pasture point of view. Although there is little/no fertilizer used, Will farms his less steep paddocks very intensively, with a full on cell grazing system to maximise weight gains and manage pasture effectively. It was very interesting to see first hand. Because he has stopped using fertilizer he does not use drench or mineral supplements on his stock. He says he’s saved $3000 a year on animal health products because the mineral composition of the soil hasn’t been interfered with, and he simply doesn’t have the nutrient deficiency in his stock as in the past. This concept is beyond my ability to explain in full detail, but is definitely something I’ll be following up to learn more about from him in the future.

Next I went to Richard and Vicky Rowe, Merchiston Angus, Marton. Richard is the President of NZ Angus. It was here I found the best bull (in my opinion) I’ve seen so far over here. A homebred bull with his dam’s side pure NZ. I’m looking into exporting semen in him back to Australia, for use in particular in my own stud. All the cows were away grazing, but I had the chance to inspect his in-calf heifers, weaner heifers and weaner bulls. I was very impressed. I also went through his sold sale bulls, waiting for delivery to their purchasers. It was one of the best line-ups of sale bulls I’ve seen yet over here. So consistent with so much grunt in them, and all featuring those important constitution traits only the real cattlemen never lose sight of. Another attraction here was the homestead. It is the oldest and largest family owned home in NZ! 14 000 square feet with four stories (including a bell tower!). It features native NZ timber extensively throughout and was built in the early 1900s. It is used for functions and is listed as a heritage building. It really is impressive and interesting to see!

Today I attended and contributed to a Future Beef meeting, which is the newly developed all breeds youth organisation. It was quite interesting listening to their progress. I felt so grateful that I have the opportunity to be involved with Angus Youth in Australia. It made me realise that in Australia Angus Youth offers such a high level of everything, in such a professional manner. I think it’s because we’ve been running for a while, and it has been this time combined with good management that has been able to perfect the organisation. We also have the foresight and ability to make new things happen and change old things so that they’re better for everyone.

At the moment I’m at Lindsay and Maria Johnstone, Ranui Angus, Wanganui. Tomorrow will be my first chance to check out things outside, as I only arrived here tonight. I’ll be interested to see the cattle that are related to Ranui All Black, who sired the dam of a cow I have in my stud back home. I hear we’re also shearing this week, which will be something different and exciting for me!

This weekend I will apparently be shown what NZ has to offer “socially” as Brooke Mullooly is taking me to the rugby, a Young Farmers function and then into Palmerston North for the night.

I’ll give another update when I get home, but so far it’s been such an amazing trip. It’s really been a great opportunity to broaden my horizons, have my eyes opened to the beef industry on an international level, appreciate the strengths of the industry in Australia and also realise were there may be room for change or improvement for the future.

A massive highlight for me has been the people. These wonderful, down to earth Angus breeders just love to talk cattle with me. I’ve become a part of every family I’ve stayed with, and always regret leaving each place at the end of my few days with them. I’ve gotten to know some great people. I’ll be keeping in touch with all of them, and no doubt they’ll be of great help to me in the industry. And who knows, maybe I’ll be in a position where I can help their kids or grandchildren in the industry later down the track!

I’ll definitely be back here at some stage and will catch up again with everyone who has been kind enough to have me to stay.

Thank you so much to Angus Youth for offering me this great opportunity. I’ve just outlined a few points below.

Keep in touch, Kate.

The main things I’ve noticed about the NZ Angus industry…

• American Genetics not as popular – There hasn’t been the quantity of USA bulls used over here as in Australia. There are many herds that have a little bit somewhere in the pedigrees, but there are also breeders who are deadest against American genetics. Instead they’ve continued to use the NZ genetics that are suited to their environment and country over here, and cattle that their clients want.
• EBVs – This is a hard topic for me to grasp over here. From what I can see there is a huge difference in opinion and acceptance of EBVs among seedstock breeders here. They have the same Breedplan system as us in Australia (same averages etc), but do not have some of our traits (I don’t know if this is just the studs I’ve been to, or the whole breed). I guess the main area where I’ve noticed this is the fertility EBVs. I haven’t seen many (if any) bull sale catalogues that include Calving Ease Direct & Daughters, Gestation Length, Scrotal Size, Days to Calving and a few other traits. I would say in general, there is not the focus on EBVs as there is in Australia, and not the accuracies that we have either. They don’t have our $Indexes, obviously because the target markets are different.
• IMF – No one here chases marbling like we do in Australia! They simply do not have the feedlot industry. There is one feedlot in the whole country, and that is in the South Island. Producers do not see a reason to be worried about IMF, when there is no recognition or premium paid for it commercially. Because they don’t chase this, they are able to maintain and focus on other important constitutional traits in their herds. In this area I think that they are ahead of Australia.
• Yearling Bull Sales – Many Angus studs have yearling bull sales, because there is such a great market to target these bulls to dairies and to other beef producers to use over heifers.
• Land Prices – Like Australia, agriculture here is getting harder and harder to justify financially. Land is unbelievably expensive. Although it is generally good quality, fertile and productive land, and it can be farmed quite intensively, I’m not sure how beef production compares economically with other forms of agriculture…(see below)
• Other agricultural industries – Many beef producers also farm sheep, because of the terrain of the land. The sheep compliment the cattle operation and vice versa. It is another industry to spread risk as well. Although, yesterday I was told by a farmer that it costs him $48 to produce a lamb, and at the moment he’s only getting paid $50 for them. Where’s the profit in that?! Apparently the dairy industry is going very well here. The land is so suited to this industry, and there is such a demand for the product. A lot of beef farmers are now changing to dairy in search of greater returns. The dairy industry also has a big market with dairy bulls. These bulls are sold, grass-fed and processed, to fulfill the demand for very lean red meat. The deer industry is quite significant over here, but there is not the return in it of late as there has been in the past. From what I hear it is a fluctuating market that is very easily affected by supply and demand. I tried venison the other night, shot on a farm I was staying at. It is quite similar to beef (but beef is better). Someone said that NZ'ers like it more than beef? I don't know. There is another money making industry that I’ve discovered over here…$90 a kg is very good pocket money for a teenager with a bit of get up and go....
• Possums – Although possums are endangered in Australia, they are considered a major pest over here. There is an estimated minimum of 17 MILLION possums in NZ. They do huge damage to the environment by eating all the leaves of all the trees! The trees then simply die. Farmers are left with no option than to kill them, although the population will never be controlled. I’ve been on possum rampages several times over here, which have included spotlighting and shooting at night as well as checking traps of a morning. Possum fur is worth $90 a kilo! (About 20 possums to a kilo of fur) There is an art to “plucking” a possum. Firstly it must be freshly “deceased”. This is when the muscles let go of the hair. It is optimum to pluck a possum within 5 minutes of it dropping from the tree. You simply and easily pull the fur from the skin. It cannot be cold; the fur doesn’t come out then. This has been an interesting and eye opening (and scary-have you heard the noise a possum makes? A horrible hissing scream! Not very comforting in the dark!) experience for me and it was a bit of fun with the kids my age at the places where I stayed. It took me a while to understand this concept, but I guess it’s just the same as us trying to explain to a tourist why we shoot roos.

PS. The Maori names are quite a challenge to pronounce! I'd be lying in saying that no one has laughed at my attempts to pronounce town or stud names!