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Kakahu Angus Stud - Breeding Philosophies
I
believe that cows in the high country should be of medium
build with strong structural soundness, active and with good
temperament. The only way to run cattle economically is to
have them to suit the conditions. I want them to live a long
time and produce good even calves every year without needing
any pampering. The same goes for sires. A big cow needs more
feed and in a bad year will suffer more that the medium one.
She will take longer to recover and will have less chance
of getting back in calf. Kakahu cows always bounce back in
the early spring after a hard winter. They get back in calf
and are fat by the mid summer. I believe if a commercial breeder
wants big calves, he is best to buy a different breed of bull
and cross breed"
As we sell predominately to the commercial cattleman, I decided
we had to put our beliefs into practice. So five years ago,
we drove our cows, all pregnancy tested in calf, over the
passes to Clayton Station. They now go there annually for
the winter. There they run in a mob of 800 to 1000 cows at
between 2 and 4000 feet. Any cow that fails to deliver a calf
and subsequently get back into calf that season is automatically
culled. Besides breeding a very hardy, fertile herd, we have
developed longevity as a very strong trait. We drove
our cows over the passes to Clayton Station. View
the video!!
As
a modern stud breeder, I am a strong believer in the tools
of Breedplan being used to help produce hidden qualities of
an animal. For instance, we want calves that are born easily
and go on to grow at the rate of knots. We mate our yearling
heifers and expect them to calve with ease to medium birth
weight bulls.
We rely on Breedplan to help select the animals with very
low Gestation Length, medium Birth Weights and high 200 and
400 Weights, always looking for high accuracies for the traits.
Any stud breeder must go with the times. We are breeding cattle
for the international meat market and as such must endeavour
to breed meat that suits the butchers, the supermarkets and
the table, or should I say, the people who eat the meat…
Our herd has been predominantly New Zealand for many years
however, in 1999 I realized that if Kakahu Angus was to produce
cattle to suit the modern requirements, the obvious thing
to do was to go where 300,000 head of Angus were registered
and recorded annually. After all, I wanted to combine a lot
of diverse traits and this could only be done from a large
population.
We put our sale catalogue online annually. The link to it will be added closer to the sale date. Look for it around April-May 2005
I hope you find our catalogue easy to find your way around. We try to give the most relevant data in a small space.
As a matter of interest, we have received some comments concerning the raw data we present. We do this for two reasons: one, because some clients feel comfortable with the information, and secondly, to show that we do actually weigh and measure everything possible. The calf per cow information is an indication of the fertility of the herd. (This year we put 127 yearling heifers to the bull and 12 were dry.)
Our buyers are using EBV's more and more, as is evident by the price structure of last year's sale. I place huge importance on the carcase data as I see these as the most relevant measurements for the steer producer to provide the correct meat to the works.
For instance, in 2003, 2/3rds of the bulls offered are above the Angus average for EMA and only 20 bulls out of 90 are below the average for IMF.
I am delighted that we are maintaining reasonable birth weights and in general, good moderate growth.
The other most important data I believe the stud breeder should be providing is the Mature Cow Weight. We have been weighing all cows at weaning and body scoring them for some years now. The commercial breeder wants low MCW cows which produce fast growing, meaty offspring. Then they will be able to make the job pay!
So, I hope this catalogue is an aid to you. I liken it to a road map. First, decide where you are heading, then plot the track you want to take. Use the bits of the map that will take you where you are heading. The main thing is to be sure where you are going otherwise it is easy to wander about lost.
I am totally committed to performance recording to enable the buyer to know exactly where he is going and to be able to plan his future breeding programme on a sound basis.
Having said all that - The cows left last week for Clayton Station - a South Island High Country run - where they will winter with the Orbell's commercial herd of 800 cows. I believe this is where the herd is compelled to maintains its hardiness and fertility. Cows are all pregnancy tested in calf before departure, and expected to wean a calf in the spring and get back into calf in spite of losing condition in the hard winter environment. Any that don't manage that are culled.
Congratulations to those who did so well at the calf sales. I had pleasing comments from many; one chap who had 1/3rd of his top pens out of 1st calving heifers and a very even line they were too - and he topped the sale. Great Ross!
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To summarize:
- We are selectively using American bulls of medium size with top carcase traits over our herd of NZ cows.
- We run our cattle under commercial conditions
- We cull for bad feet and for weak constitution
- We cull heavily for bad temperament
- We guarantee our bulls for soundness
and feet. Read more about our full backup
service.
Track Record - Our bulls are doing well in harder country, such as the Hawea, Wanaka, and Lees Valley, Danzey's Pass and Kurow.
View images of droving cows to Clayton Station. Click on an image number below
2 3 4 5 6
View images of cows at Clayton Station. Click on an image number below
2 3 4 5 6 Also...
Kakahu Angus - The active stud
We drove our cows over the passes to Clayton Station. View the video!!
