Thursday 12th November. The land surrounding Pat and Virginia’s home is farmed by the Wilding family who run the Te Mania Angus stud. We were up early to be picked up by John Harrington, the farm’s General Manger and driving force behind the continual progression of the Te Mania herd. Te Mania was founded in 1928, and four generations of Wildings later, the stud has grown from four cows to 1070 registered females (cows and heifers). In 1971 a sister stud, Te Mania Australia was established by a close family member, and the Te Mania Angus stud, with 2600 fully performance recorded registered Angus females is probably the largest in Australasia.
The farm has an area of 5000 acres (⅔ owned, ⅓ leased) with land ranging from the wave breaking coast, to the rolling hills behind which went up to 500 feet above sea level. Rainfall is around 1000mm/annum, with irrigation possible on about 600 acres of the bottom ground. Three full time men and a student are employed with Tim Wilding, mainly working away from the farm developing the Te Mania brand and a fully integrated supply chain in conjunction with key processor and retailing partners.
The trip around the farm was inspirational from the quality of the pastures which are soil tested regularly to ensure that the phosphate, sulphur and pH levels are at their optimum, to the consistent quality of the cows and calves which were set stocked around the farm in groups of around 75 cows. John explained that the heifers undergo a synchronised mating program at around 13 to 14 months, and any animal that does not calve down at 2 years old is sent down the road. The same tight breeding policy is adopted for the cows and he currently had a couple of cows left to calve. Five or six had been assisted over the season and they would be culled as a matter of course.
The policy was to achieve a low calf birth weight, with a target weaning weight of 180Kg at four months old for the bull calves. Any male calves not getting near this target are castrated. The four hundred day target weight is 400 kg off grass. Beef genetics is certainly not one of my areas of expertise by any measure, and it was new to me that the scrotal size of a bull has a direct correlation to heifer puberty. The cattle are out all year round, but with a percentage of the farm put down to kale and whole crop silage each year to ensure a buffer feed if needed during a period grass shortage.
Health treatments are kept to a minimum, with drenches used rarely on heifers, (not on cows) and 10 in 1 vaccination with lepto and a lice pour on all the cattle. The farm veterinary surgeon visits the farm on a consultative basis once a month.
The bulls are sold either as yearlings (46 bulls @ 2800NZ$) or later at 22 months in the main stud sale. (113 bulls @ 6250NZ$) The Angus cattle I saw in Te Mania were of smaller stature than the ones I have seen in the UK but were ideally suited to the environment in which they are kept. John’S mission statement is ‘ to breed very sound, high fertile cattle with calving ease and high growth rate, and emphasis on carcass quality to assist our clients in meeting strict market specifications’ He was convinced that his current star bull Te Mania Infinity would do exactly this job and they would all be millionaires next year! John came over like many other beef and sheep breeders I have met, with a passion for his work and the balance of expert stockmanship and scientific knowledge to support his genetic improvement work on the Te Mania Angus breedline.
Next stop was the Christchurch A & P Show, two hours drive away from Conway Flat. We were to meet with Virginia’s sister, Sue Anderson at a petrol station for the entry and parking tickets. As soon as we got into the Show Ground one of the first people we met was David Morgan, husband to Sheila’s first cousin Janet! (Sheila has got 50+ first cousins so we are bound to meet one of them where ever we are in the world) They had emigrated as family a number of years ago to New Zealand and are running a large farming business just north of Christchurch. Arrangements were made to meet up with Janet, and the inevitable family reunion happened between the cousins while David gave me the lowdown on NZ farming from his perspective, having previously farmed in the highly regulated and subsidised UK environment. I soon gathered that New Zealand is not for the faint hearted if you wish to make your way up the farming ladder!
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the Show, talking with various companies and exhibitors. I had never seen a Merino sheep in all his woollen glory before, but what was striking was the number of sheep breeds present at the show in comparison to the Royal Welsh. Mr Gwynfor Richards would have had a much easier task of judging in Christchurch than he did with the 44 breeds present in the ring at Llanelwedd this Summer!!
The day finished with us being guests of the Perendale Sheep Society at an after Show barbecue. It was a great event where we met Tim Anderson, brother to Virginia who is the owner of the Mt Guardian Perendale Sheep Stud. By the end of the evening we had three farm walks sorted, and hosted accommodation all the way down to Invercargill!
The farm has an area of 5000 acres (⅔ owned, ⅓ leased) with land ranging from the wave breaking coast, to the rolling hills behind which went up to 500 feet above sea level. Rainfall is around 1000mm/annum, with irrigation possible on about 600 acres of the bottom ground. Three full time men and a student are employed with Tim Wilding, mainly working away from the farm developing the Te Mania brand and a fully integrated supply chain in conjunction with key processor and retailing partners.
The trip around the farm was inspirational from the quality of the pastures which are soil tested regularly to ensure that the phosphate, sulphur and pH levels are at their optimum, to the consistent quality of the cows and calves which were set stocked around the farm in groups of around 75 cows. John explained that the heifers undergo a synchronised mating program at around 13 to 14 months, and any animal that does not calve down at 2 years old is sent down the road. The same tight breeding policy is adopted for the cows and he currently had a couple of cows left to calve. Five or six had been assisted over the season and they would be culled as a matter of course.
The policy was to achieve a low calf birth weight, with a target weaning weight of 180Kg at four months old for the bull calves. Any male calves not getting near this target are castrated. The four hundred day target weight is 400 kg off grass. Beef genetics is certainly not one of my areas of expertise by any measure, and it was new to me that the scrotal size of a bull has a direct correlation to heifer puberty. The cattle are out all year round, but with a percentage of the farm put down to kale and whole crop silage each year to ensure a buffer feed if needed during a period grass shortage.
Health treatments are kept to a minimum, with drenches used rarely on heifers, (not on cows) and 10 in 1 vaccination with lepto and a lice pour on all the cattle. The farm veterinary surgeon visits the farm on a consultative basis once a month.
The bulls are sold either as yearlings (46 bulls @ 2800NZ$) or later at 22 months in the main stud sale. (113 bulls @ 6250NZ$) The Angus cattle I saw in Te Mania were of smaller stature than the ones I have seen in the UK but were ideally suited to the environment in which they are kept. John’S mission statement is ‘ to breed very sound, high fertile cattle with calving ease and high growth rate, and emphasis on carcass quality to assist our clients in meeting strict market specifications’ He was convinced that his current star bull Te Mania Infinity would do exactly this job and they would all be millionaires next year! John came over like many other beef and sheep breeders I have met, with a passion for his work and the balance of expert stockmanship and scientific knowledge to support his genetic improvement work on the Te Mania Angus breedline.
Next stop was the Christchurch A & P Show, two hours drive away from Conway Flat. We were to meet with Virginia’s sister, Sue Anderson at a petrol station for the entry and parking tickets. As soon as we got into the Show Ground one of the first people we met was David Morgan, husband to Sheila’s first cousin Janet! (Sheila has got 50+ first cousins so we are bound to meet one of them where ever we are in the world) They had emigrated as family a number of years ago to New Zealand and are running a large farming business just north of Christchurch. Arrangements were made to meet up with Janet, and the inevitable family reunion happened between the cousins while David gave me the lowdown on NZ farming from his perspective, having previously farmed in the highly regulated and subsidised UK environment. I soon gathered that New Zealand is not for the faint hearted if you wish to make your way up the farming ladder!
The rest of the day was spent wandering around the Show, talking with various companies and exhibitors. I had never seen a Merino sheep in all his woollen glory before, but what was striking was the number of sheep breeds present at the show in comparison to the Royal Welsh. Mr Gwynfor Richards would have had a much easier task of judging in Christchurch than he did with the 44 breeds present in the ring at Llanelwedd this Summer!!
The day finished with us being guests of the Perendale Sheep Society at an after Show barbecue. It was a great event where we met Tim Anderson, brother to Virginia who is the owner of the Mt Guardian Perendale Sheep Stud. By the end of the evening we had three farm walks sorted, and hosted accommodation all the way down to Invercargill!
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