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Summitcrest Update

Reports from the 2007 Summitcrest Youth Scholorship Winner

Craig Davie-Martin was chosen as the 2007 Summitcrest Scholar, Craig is from Tuakau and has his own fledgling Angus Stud. He sees the Scholarship as an excellent way of gaining knowledge about American genetics and using this knowledge on his return to New Zealand.

Summitcrest Stories - Posted 5th February, 2007

My previous employer used to have a saying that “nothing happens without a deadline”. How true that has been for the last two months. With deadlines for sales, performance measuring dates, semen test dates there seems to have been little time for anything else other than looking at cattle, working with cattle and some time traveling to look at and work with other peoples cattle.

In my last newsletter, I have to admit that I cast some doubt as to the accuracy of a certain ground hogs ability to predict the coming of spring. Since then, the small strange looking little creature has proven to be correct for the timing of spring almost to the day. What happened in between the prediction and the actual coming of spring was another story.

In the weeks between his prediction and spring we had some horrible weather including some more snow, a blizzard or two, freezing temperatures and some rain on top just to get us all muddy. The locals I have talked to, say that this would have been the worst winter for probably the last 20 years. For a soft North Islander, all I can say is that it has been very friggin cold. With visible snow on the ground for almost 70 days without a thaw, the ice which accumulated was very deep and very slick. Moving any animals had to be done carefully in slowly in case they slipped, fell and hurt themselves.

In such a winter, this years calves have had a pretty rough time of it. In all honesty they probably all thought “what the heck have I been born into”? With the cold weather that prevailed, despite all of our precautions a very large portion of the calves have lost the tips of their ears, with some just having little stubs remaining. Also with the cold weather, the cows were pumping more blood just to stay warm, this in turn meant that the fetuses were receiving more nutrients and consequently the birth weights on this years calf crop are about 6-8 pounds heavier than last year.

In the last week of February, we did have some fine weather that thawed some of the snow and ice. This created a lot of mud, which was fine and bearable, but it did leave a little surface flooding. However on the Friday night, we also received a two inch thunder storm. With the ground frozen and already saturated there was nowhere for the water to go except pond and flood. This was the time that I took the photos of the tractor in the middle of the lakes. The 300 acre area around Jeff’s house had a minimum of a foot and half of water over it, including the county road. The ranch area which has a huge collection area had a flood over about 1000 acres which washed away fences, destroyed farm tracks and scoured out dam walls. Feeding out and getting around to check calves was very difficult. Then if that wasn’t bad enough, about 3oclock that afternoon, the weather turned again and we had a blizzard by 5pm. This combination of everything did see us lose some freshly born calves along with some older ones already out in the pastures. My Swazi bib-over trousers came in very handy, wading around in the flood waters to rescue calves and to open gates to new pastures.

While all of these events were going on, other events still had to go on including getting ready for the two Summitcrest sales, attending other sales in the area and some out of the area and fitting in a little time to attend an AI course to learn how to artificially breed cows.

Visiting some of the other prominent studs here in the States is a major feature of the Summitcrest Scholarship. With some herds it is merely a case of attending their sales and seeing the animals they are putting forward to the public as an example of their respective breeding programs. Most of the breeders whom I have approached to visit their herds at more length have been very welcoming, offering accommodation and keen to discuss their breeding philosophies well into the night. They are keen to learn how NZ and Australians view our operations and in turn how we see the American production systems. Since arriving in the States between attending bull sales and visiting herds, I would estimate that I would have seen almost 2500 bulls and visited so far about 14 different studs or their sales. This wouldn’t include the multi-vendor sales I have been to.

One thing between these visits is that very few breeders see the path for the future of cattle in general or Angus specifically in the same way. In fact some of the breeders are quite antagonistic in their appraisal of other herds and have little appreciation of the goals other herds have for themselves. With myself as a non-American, and therefore not direct competition, many of these breeders are very open in their self-appraisal of their own herds and express their philosophies, breeding targets and ideals possibly more, than if they were talking to a fellow American breeder. I am learning a lot from these conversations, from small structural indicators to a new approach in thinking towards some ideals.

An example of this, which I have, really only truly appreciated in the last few weeks is the reference to “Carcass” animals. Using the New Zealand interpretation, this would to most farmers mean a big butt profile and bulging muscle all over the animal. Having a “Carcass bull” over here, means a bull that will ultimately sire animals that score very high on the grid system, which may add a 15% premium to the carcass value by becoming more marketable to the public. The bull himself may not have the largest butt profile, may not look cosmetically attractive but if his cattle can kill favorably on the grid system, then he can become known as a carcass bull.

If one can see beyond the antagonistic comments though, most, if not all of the herds, have animals which are extremely attractive, perform well and which anyone would be proud to own if they could look beyond the stud prefix the animal carries. What I am observing in some of the herds is often how far into their bull catalogues, they can maintain a high standard of bulls before they start to get bulls with “strikes” against them. These strikes may include a slightly higher birth weight, slightly lower growth figures, a low scanning result or simply not been as cosmetically attractive to the public. Some herds maintain a very strong standard through out their catalogue while others have strike out bulls coming into the catalogue half way through the offering.

With contrasting views and ideals from many of the breeders, there is indeed a very wide selection of bulls on the market and without a doubt there is the opportunity to find a bull that can suit every body’s individual ideals. One thing that is interesting is how much more knowledgeable the commercial farmers are towards performance figures and EPDs. With more discerning customers many breeders have to opportunity to present cattle bred to their own ideals and consequently attracting buyers who agree with their philosophies. As a buyer, it is merely a case of looking and finding the breeder whose philosophies match your own.

An example of this is recently I visited a herd where I really liked one bull in particular and returned to the breeders’ sale to see who bought the bull and to see if semen would ever get to New Zealand, which would give me the opportunity to use him. At the same sale, were some breeders and semen buyers from New Zealand. They personally didn’t like the bull I did, and speaking to them later in the day felt that he may be of little use to the NZ system. It is examples like this, that confirm that variety and personal preferences are needed in the industry, to ensure that every one has the ability to breed to his or her ideals.

Some of these trips to various herds have given me the opportunity to see parts of the US which many tourists may never see. An example here is my trip to North Dakota to attend a bull sale. The only word to describe the road to the sale was vast. You come over one ridge to find a vista stretching for maybe 50 miles of gently rolling country. You drive to the horizon almost an hour later to find a similar vista opening out in front of you again. I only got a few hours into North Dakota but talking to the locals, that sort of thing happens for about another 500 miles clear into Canada. Coming from New Zealand, that sort of scope almost doesn’t exist or perhaps only on a very minor scale through the Canterbury plains. The Australian equivalent that comes to mind is the road from South Australia, through Broken Hill to central NSW.

Another amazing day was spent on a commercial property in an area known as the Nebraskan Sand hills. This part of the states is unique around the world, and involves giant sand dunes which stretch for an area measuring maybe 250 miles wide by 400 miles long and consists entirely of sand. I couldn’t help but think of the settlers when they came to that part of the world for the first time. I am sure that they would have been expecting to see the ocean just over the next ridge every time they came to the horizon. Growing up in such an environment would have been something, with my host telling me about inner-tubing down some of the hills on tractor tyres as kids and never having to worry about having a sand pit made for them by dad as the farm was just one giant sandpit. The farm carried about one cow/calf pair per 20 acres to avoid over grazing on the fragile soils. The farm ran 1200 breeding cows with a mixture of Red Angus and South Devon cattle, and their crosses.

As I still have a bit of news to cover, I shall end this letter here and look forward to sending Spring Is In The Air - Part II to you all soon.

Summitcrest Stories - Posted 5th February, 2007

Hello to everyone in nice warm surrounds,

I write this after watching the Indianapolis Colts defeat the Chicago Bears in American foot balls Super Bowl XLI (41). After watching a game hyped up for two weeks, and which takes 4 hours to finish a 60 minute game, I have come to the personal conclusion that American football is one of the most over rated sports in the world. One of the commentators even raised my ire just a little by suggesting that the NFL was the biggest team prize in world sport. I may suggest that some in South America and Europe may have some problems with that statement when compared to the Soccer World cup.

In a consumer society, the Super Bowl appears to be simply the opportunity to sell fast food, beer and big screen TV’s. I heard on the radio last week that 40% of all big screen TV’s sold in the US for the year are sold in the two weeks leading up to the Super Bowl. Supermarkets advertise that they have special tables or racks with all the Super Bowl essentials you will ever need namely chips, dips, pizzas and Doritos (corn chips). Maybe the best part of the Super Bowl experience are the ads’ where there are awards for the best ad’s premiered during the bowl. Some of these are just dirt funny with my personal favorite, two chimpanzees at the zoo planning how to rob the beer delivery guy during his weekly delivery, but ultimately getting distracted by an attractive zoo-goer with a camera.

From a weather point of view, the weather has stayed cold and has got a little colder since I have been here. We have had one day above freezing in the last 3 weeks with Friday night the coldest I have ever been. Imagine a temperature as cold as -20 degrees Celsius (I didn’t know gauges went that low) then add a 15 knot wind to give an effective air temperature of -35 degrees Celsius or -40 Fahrenheit. On a night like that, if calves do not have a protective hood over their head within 2 minutes or are in a barn out of the wind, their ears are frozen near solid with frost bite and may never come right. There is also a very real danger of having their feet frostbitten and maybe never walking properly. My Swazi Windriver jacket has been awesome in keeping the wind out and the warmth in.

Night checks with that sort of temperatures are essential, with hourly sweeps of the calving lots, with calves tagged at birth so that cows do not swap calves as there may be any thing up to 30 calves born in a day. All calves are weighed within 6 hours of birth and given vitamin shots at the same time. The next morning they are hauled via quad or trailer to their pasture groups. With nearly a foot of snow on the ground all groups have to be fed a hard ration consisting of hay, prairie silage and maize silage, with care having to be taken that calved groups do not get overfed as this can make cows produce milk too rich for the young calves to handle, with scours occurring as a result.

There are some cattlemen in NZ that see the US production systems as been too soft on cattle but after seeing first hand the conditions that the cows have to perform under, I have to say that on the whole the conditions are as difficult as NZ but with a different range of challenges and solutions that have to be provided. Yes, the cows are supplemented, but when you may not see grass for 3 months of the year as it is under snow or ice, there is no alternative.

One big plus with the Summitcrest operation in general but in particular the Nebraska ranch is the scale of the cow herd. With some bulls having over 150 progeny due in a calving season, you are really able to pick up common points within a calf crop. Freeze branding heifers in my first week saw us work almost 400 head of yearling females through the yards and allowed me to see lines of sires on a large scale nearly impossible within the NZ cattle system. Also hormone implanting 300 feedlot steers in the same first week, allowed me to gain an insight into Summitcrest's commitment to carcass testing and the work required to achieve meaningful results. The coming week will see us ultrasound nearly 250 bulls for fat, Rib eye size and IMF for the upcoming sale along with semen quality testing all of the bulls to ensure that all the boys are swimming in the right direction.

The bull sale season is just warming up here with “Spring” sales starting recently. Attending one studs sale about a week ago who has had some bulls on semen in the past few years allowed me to see the current crop of bulls and can give a good insight to what the stud is doing. With a couple of bulls sold to Semen companies, it is feasible that some of these bulls will reach NZ in the next 18 months or so. This coming Friday should see me driving about 11 hours north to North Dakota to see a stud that sells 600 bulls and 200 females and who is becoming quite a force in the US stud scene.

Some light comic relief today saw me attend the local shotgun club day to shoot clay targets. With seven stations mimicking hunting scenarios including running rabbits, quartering pheasants and high teal, my shot gun skills (or lack there of) were exposed to the cold light of a Nebraskan winter day. My successful shots were accompanied by “he’s getting the hang of this” while the slightly more plentiful misses had helpful advice such as “lead a bit more” or “bit high”, “bit low there” or the forever feel good slogan “you’ll get it next time”. All in all, I think that the local wildlife should be pretty safe.

Speaking of wildlife, after been reared on a cartoon diet of “Wylie E Coyote and the Road runner” while growing up, I have had the chance to see first hand some Coyotes. Unlike the cartoon though, they do not have revolving legs and luckily for us do not come equipped with dynamite or anvils. Over here they are seen as vermin in much the same way foxes are regarded in Australia or possums are in NZ. Hearing 10 or 20 howling at night is an interesting experience but they are usually not tolerated especially around the calving lots as there is some risk to young calves.

Also coming to do night checking can be slightly hazardous to the body work of the pick up as there are numerous mobs of Mule deer that can leap out of the side of the road in front of an unsuspecting Kiwi. Most so far have been does or young bucks, but there is one 10 pointer mule deer that is running around close to the calving barn, who may be on borrowed time come the spring.

Another big event that gets some media coverage this time of year is “Groundhog day” . Yes the movie is actually based on a real Groundhog named “Punksatony Phil” who lives in a specially constructed enclosure for the year and gets to come out once a year to predict the coming of spring. Apparently “Punksatony Phil the first” or PP-I as he’s also known could predict the coming of spring based on the cast of his shadow on the 2nd of February each year when the sun was in such a quarter of the sky. As one cynic put it though, whether this ability has been inherited by “Punksatony Phil the 11th” or PP-XI, when he is surrounded by four massive light towers beaming down a few million watts on him under the scrutiny of the worlds media, could test the old breeding program out just a little. Luckily for me, even with all of the celebrity pressures bearing down on little PP-XI, he has predicted an early spring this year. We’ll just have to wait and see if this high quality forecast bears out. (More about Ground Hog Day - Opens in new window)

Craig Davie-Martin 2007 Summitcrest Scholar

Summitcrest Stories – 9th Jan, 2007

The first thing that strikes you as you enter the States for the first time is the size and scale of everything. From the Airport terminal where there is a mini-subway from one terminal to the next, to the massive Rockie mountains that you fly over to get to Denver, Colarado, and through to the “pick-ups” that are the ranchers transport, otherwise known as Utes in NZ.   I asked in the first couple of days why the pick ups had to be so big, expecting an answer like “big distances - big trucks” or “big loads – big trucks”. Instead the response from a rather laid back individual was “So ya don’t have to take your hat off when you get in the sucker”.

The Western National Stock Show and Sale where I start my Summitcrest Experience is an event which has a 101 year history and a massive presence in the industry. With over 700 Angus entries and more than 2000 cattle entries the Denver stock show is simply massive. Divided into two sections, Hill and Yards, the Hill portion is showing as we know it in NZ with individual judging. In comparison the Yard section is the entry of carloads and pens (10 & 3 bulls respectively) submitted by breeders that are then judged as a group. Of the entries in this competition there were at least ten studs present that have contributed semen to the World Angus gene pool.

Although I had been warned, the weather has dealt me a huge curve ball. Weaning lambs in the high twenties the day I left home is a bit of a difference to the -17 degrees celcius days I have experienced over here in my first week. These temperatures mean that any liquid left exposed for more than 15 minutes freezes over, fizzy drink or “pop” cans included. It can also mean that the cattle, left outside during the night, might have up to half an inch of ice on them in the morning. It can also mean that a soft kiwi, can turn into a walking popsicle in a very short period of time. I owe a great deal to my Swazi Micro-Layer for keeping me, if not hot, at least comfortable in the conditions.

Following the show, driving to Nebraska to Summitcrest Angus for the first working leg of my Scholarship saw heavy snow, visibility down to 100 meters and icy roads. The arrival at Summitcrest’s Broken Bow operation has seen me wandering around in about a foot of snow and getting familiar with a basic run down of the farm. Also in my first day, I have received the use of a Ranger Pickup. My first question to Jeff (Summitcrest Host) when getting in, was “whats the secret to driving in snow”?  His response was simply “Plan in advance and don’t drive into ditch’s”.

The first week of my experience has already seen me receive many insights into the American phyche of breeding animals, from the show arena to considering some of the issues surrounding the beef industry from the American perspective. It has also introduced me to a side of American culture rarely shown in Tv and movies, that of the caring, and very courteous side of the country people.

If the next 6 months continue as the first week has, then the experience I gain over here will be a tremendous base for my future farming career. I would like to take this opportunity to thank some of the parties involved in this Scholarship, Summitcrest Farms (USA), the NZ Angus Youth Charitable Trust and Merial NZ for the opportunity to travel to America. I would also like to thank my personal sponsor, Swazi for supplying me with clothing well equipped to handle the conditions here in an American winter.

Till next month,

Craig Davie-Martin 2007 Summitcrest Scholar.