Otago Daily Times By Shawn McAvinue
An East Otago stud that has been breeding Hereford cattle for more than 30 years is changing tack to include another herd, coloured black.
Stoneburn Herefords offered 26 bulls at its 11th annual on-farm sale, near Palmerston.
Of those on offer, 24 sold for an average of $7647, including a top price of $14,000 to Davy Greer, of the Maniototo.
Stud owner Andy Denham said the average price was higher than last year.
He and his children, son Campbell and daughter Liz, who both worked on the farm, were “very happy” with the sale result.
For the past 11 years, the Waimara Angus stud in Waikouaiti had held its bull sale back to back with his.
Waimara Angus stud had moved to Western Southland so he decided to launch an Angus stud of his own at Stoneburn.
“We are quite excited about that,” Denham told a strong bench of bidders before the start of the sale.
The move would allow his annual sale to continue to offer Hereford and Angus bulls.
To start the Angus stud, he had bought 35 Angus heifers and about 30 Angus cows.
Most of the cattle were from farms in the North Island, including Stokman Angus in Rotorua and Merchiston Angus in Marton.
Some of the Angus cattle were bought from Meadowslea in Fairlie.
Breeding bulls required “plenty of hard work and investment” but getting positive feedback from vendors made all that hard work worthwhile, Denham said.
“Every year we get told we’ve put up a good line of bulls.”
He vowed to retain a focus on genetically improving the Hereford herd as he established his Angus stud.
The best cross of any cattle breeds was Hereford and Angus because it provided “gutsy” cattle which could perform in the hill-country, Denham said.
“It doesn’t matter which way you do it, there’s hybrid vigour and growth. When breeding cattle for meat, it’s a jolly good cross.”
Stoneburn Hereford Stud
• Established in 1991.
• A 1440ha farm in Stoneburn, 20km west of Palmerston in East Otago.
• Nearly 300 stud cows and 65 heifer replacements.
• Farm also runs about 3000 Romney ewes and 1200 hoggets.