Arrived Home

I have arrived home and this will probably be my final blog. I don't think I will keep up with writing a blog now I'm home. I hope you enjoyed reading my blog as much as I have enjoyed my travels.
I now have the job of trawling through my notes and all the literature I gathered to write the final report.

Feedlot visit

The visit to a feedlot today was certainly an eye opener for a number of reasons. Firstly just to see this number of cattle all in one place. But also to see the efficiency of the system and to see how healthy and content the animals looked. They said the animals health is determined by the high quality animals bought in and the environment. There are four different systems, varying in the time they are there from 90 days to 250 days and finishing from around 600kg to 800kg. They are predominantly Angus supplying the Japanese market. They are all weighed as they come in and allocated to one of the four programmes and fed accordingly. They are all inspected twice a day. When they are checked they are also risen onto their feet. If there are any signs of ill thrift they have a hospital system where they are observed and temperatures taken. If they are treated with antibiotics they are taken out of the system. All animals are antibiotic and hormone growth promoter free. They calculate when they are ready to go by the weight when they came in and their feed intakes. Overall a very efficient system.  

Second Ashburton farm visit

The second farm I visited in the Ashburton area is probably my first farm visit that gave cattle a high priority. It has 300 in calf Hereford cattle and 4,500 ewes, 1,200 hoggets. Two thirds of the sheep are Romney's, and the other third are Romneys crossed with a Texel cross East Friesian ram (1/2 Romney, 1/4 texel, 1/4 East Friesian).  About 400 replacements are selected from these crossbreds and a cheviot ram is used on these crossbred hoggets. The 800 Romney replacements are not mated. A Suffolk ram is also used on the 1,500 crossbred ewes. They scan at 173%, and start lambing on 20th September. Only 1.2 per cent of their ewe flock are dry. Ewes are fed nearly all grass all winter. Silage and baylage is made for emergencies (dry autumn or heavy prolonged snow fall). Two tooth ewes are on swedes for a couple of months. They are shorn before going on the swedes in late June/July. All ewes are shorn twice a year January and pre lambing. They finish around 85% of lambs (6,000). 1,200-1,500 at weaning. Lambs are weaned between 95 and 100 days. The ewes are weighed and condition scored 7 times each year, pre mating, at mating , ram removal, scanning, pre lambing, tailing and weaning.

The Hereford cattle are nearly all pedigrees and on breedplan. All yearlings are mated to calf as two year olds. All barren heifers and cows are sold. Cows with poor calf or bad calving is also culled. Most animals are sold as bulls or finished. Some surplus in calf heifers are sold. The bulls are sold at 2 year olds on farm. They would start out with maybe around 130 bull calves. They would take around 110-120 through the first winter. Then in October they would do a cull and reduce to 60. The surplus 50-60 would be sold as yearling bulls to dairy farmers. They would then do the next cull in the autumn and sell 40 bulls on farm. Most of the bull clients are hill country farmers. They aim for fertile medium framed animals.

The mixed age ewes are run in a mob of about 2,800 in the winter. Twins are set stocked over lambing. Singles are not, they are in mobs of 600 then they shed out unlambed ewes every couple days and move to other fields.  From January to mating, the ewes are divided into mobs according to their BCS - light medium and heavy and are fed accordingly. This is done to try and have the ewes condition as close together as possible at mating and ensures the ewes reach their weight goal of 70kg when they go to the ram. The hogget flock is mated at 47kg and lambed around October 10, three weeks after the adult ewes.

Grassland improvement is done through planting brassicas, 10ha is planted to swedes each year, then kale the next year and new pasture the third year. However the bulk of the pastures are up to 30 or 40 years old.

Farm visits Ashburton

The first farm I visited consisted of 30,000 stock units made up with deer (around 5,000), sheep (12,000) and cattle (600). They have very different weather here to just a little further south and the landscape appears very green. They did say this is the best growing season they have had and they are still restructuring the flock  after the drought in 2009/2010. They culled a lot of hoggets that year. The ewes are mostly Coopworth ewes scanning at 170%. They are tupped in April/May and moved regularly through tupping up to June. Then they are moved onto swedes and kale up to 6 weeks before lambing. Singles may stay on brassicas up to 1 weeks before lambing. The multiples are set stocked for lambing at 9-12 ewes per hectare. Singles are not set stocked, at lambing they are then shed off daily. This gives them the option to move them depending on weather and grass availability. This year they have also purchased some store lambs (1,500) in late December/early January to control the grass.
The deer herd consists of 3,500 english red hinds, 1,400 stags and 30-50 sires. There are 300-500 in the velvet herd. Half the hinds are put to an elk cross as they finish better. The deer fawn November/December on high ground and are sold between 10-18 months. Some may go at 8 months. 
Cattle mostly consists of dry dairy animals or store cattle. Both cattle and sheep graze deer paddocks. Deer are browsers and both cattle and sheep are used to control grass/clean up the paddock. I was surprised to see dogs being used to move the deer.
They make silage (grass silage and oats and peas) to feed all animals over the winter. The deer get the better quality oats and peas. Swedes and kale is also grown for all species. Sometimes they will have 800 hinds on brassica crops.

A visit to a fine wool flock

Driving up through the centre of the South Island I was amazed how dry it is and the transformation of land with irrigation made dairy farming possible in large parts of this area. However the farm I visited decided not to irrigate due to the cost. The farm I visited is 18,500 ha ranging from 500 to 2000 metres above sea level. Merinos are the only animals on the farm. There are 14,000 ewes, 8,000 hoggets, and 1,000 rams with a mean fibre diameter of 12.5 microns producing 80 tons of wool. The breeding programme has been in place for 30 years and has enabled them to screen 200,000 sheep for diameter, fleece weight and quality. All sheep in the flock are objectively measured for micron and clean fleece weight. Prior to shearing, micron and yield are measured by mid-side sampling of all animals as hogget’s. At shearing these results are used for classing the wool into lines of pre selected micron ranges (using the 9 way auto drafter). Fleeces are also weighed at this time to allow assessment to select superior animals. As well as using objectively measured data, these sheep undergo a rigorous visual assessment for structural soundness and wool quality prior to qualifying for the Elite and commercial flocks. The Elite Flock is used for breeding the stud rams that continue the unique process of producing superior ultra fine fibres. Rams are sold as four tooths to their client base at the annual auction in early January. The flock objectives are to produce maximum quantities and superior quality ultra fine Merino wool by reducing fibre diameter (micron), increasing clean fleece weight, reducing CV to reduce variability within the fleece and within the flock, producing and maintaining structurally sound and healthy animals, producing quality fibre.  The merinos lamb in October, then the lambs are marked end November/early December. They are currently being weaned and then they are shearing next week and they will go out to the high country. At tupping time (10th May) they come back down to the low country and are weekly moved. Most ewes cut a 4kg fleece. 3.7kg is the average fleece weight including the hoggets. What amused me most about the merinos is their social behaviour. Often seen in groups, lines or even circles. Helicopters are used for mustering sheep and most farm tasks on this farm.

A day at a Perendale and Cheviot stud farm

This 450 hectare farm is predominately a perendale flock (4,000 ewes) with a perendale stud and a cheviot stud and some finishing cattle also on the farm.

The Perendale stud is 550 ewes selling around 150 rams each year (just under half the male lambs). The Cheviot stud is just over 200 ewes selling around 75 rams each year. Rams are sold privately on farm with a few of the top performing rams sold at the Gore ram sale. The commercial Perendale Flock is put to the top ram hoggets from the stud every year and generally 500 + surplus ewe lambs are sold each year.

The ewe's lamb in September (155%) and the ewe lambs a few weeks later. They feel lambing ewe lambs is an essential tool for farm profitability and identifying top performers within the stud. They are set stocked for lambing. and no assistance is given. The stud flocks are tagged at marking to identify sire. At weaning (between Christmas and new year) the lambs are given a drench but not sorted. They are bought in a few weeks later and sorted according to sex and small and large ones are taken out. Lambs will be shorn in 3-4 weeks. Ewes are shorn every 6 months. They plant about 60ha of forage crops (Swedes and kale every year). However this year they have only planted 30ha so far as its been so dry and the crop is not establishing very well. The lack of rain is currently a big issue and worry in this area as its probably the driest its been for over 10 years.

Perendale and Cheviot ram sale and Perendale field day

Perendale

Experiencing a ram sale in NZ is a little different to one in Wales. Most rams are sold on farm and only the top performing rams go to this sale. They have to be in the top 20% and have a minimum fertility potential of 160%. All rams are individually penned at saleyard. Individual details were stapled on each pen, which included sire, dam and sire and dams, sire and dam, date of birth, 100 day weight, 200 day weight, fleece weight, single or twin (birth & rear rank), carcass measurements and any further comments such as CT scanned and FEC. The veterinary certificate is also shown on all pens. A vet has to check for testicular anomalies, under sized testicles, sheath abnormalities, mange, scrotal abscesses, lameness etc. There is also a panel from the society that goes round and checks them all the day before that they are true to type, sound on their feet etc. Each stud has one vote for the best ram in the Perendales. The perendale is a cross 

Cheviot

between a cheviot and romney and is now recognised as an official breed for over 50 years.Both the cheviots and the perendales had good sales mainly due to the fact that there were some Australians over purchasing quite a few.

After the sale I went to the perendale progeny test field day where they had lambs to view from each of the 9 sires used. The North island also carries out progeny testing and they use a link ram between the two groups. All lambs will be killed on the same day towards the end of February. As all lambs go the same day to get progeny information the abattoir agree not to penalise for over weight or over fat lambs as they realise the importance of the trial. Ultrasound scanning, CT scanning, viascan, pH fat colour all have a huge variation from top to bottom sire. They are also tested for taste and tenderness. Lambs from high performing ewes are 25 days quicker finishing. They aim to get the information to breeders before mating.  They have a selection committee of 5 people (1 independent and the rest perendale society members) to select the 9 best performing sires to test in the trial.