DW - I found this article in one of my regular searches.  It helps explain how there may be communication issues even when there seems to be NO language barrier.  Read and enjoy!

Country-Wide Southern | Profile

Stock options and priorities

12-10-2009 | Not Specified


When Tony Plunkett took over the management of Awakino Station in 1996,
it was a traditional store stock operation with about 400 Hereford cows
and selling calves at the Hakataramea saleyards.

The calving was only 80% and the 42 heifers retained did not
allow for culling or keeping the average age down. The calving rate is
now 90-92%, 91% in 2007-2008.

In 1996, Awakino was running 5445 mixed-aged Corriedales lambing
75% and 1800 Merinos, 48%. Footrot was a major problem; thirty percent
of the Merinos were infected.

Only 1100 Corriedale ewe hoggets were kept.

Tony knew that to keep a flock of 6000 ewes going over a five-year span meant 1500 hoggets needed to be retained.

The low lambing percentage meant no culling had taken place so the
quality of the stock was slipping away and the average age of ewes was
lifting.

Last year Awakino's 4000 Romney ewes(Turanganui and Wairere
genetics) lambed 142% and the 1100 Merinos 91%. This was 1700 more
lambs than when he took over, plus 950 hinds are run on the same
country producing 880 weaner deer.

With the cattle they had to decide whether to move to a crossbred
to compete with the composites or stay with the Hereford. They chose
the latter option but knew they had to add value by improving the
genetics and selling the bulls to the dairy farmers.

They keep all the Hereford bulls entire and winter them. The top 30
yearlings are sold as sire bulls while another 40 middle-sized bulls
are sold to another farmer who takes them through to two-year-olds. The
bottom 100 are put out on the hills deer blocks.

"The bulls are a good drought-release valve."

He has the option of shutting them up when feed is short and then
go for compensatory growth on the irrigated land in the spring. As R2
the cattle take off and are up to 550-560kg liveweight by November.

The wintered R2 bulls were leased then later killed from the dairy
farms. This should have worked well with a $450/head premium from
leasing. With a $4/kg CW schedule last year the cattle would have
killed out at $1200/head the day they went to the dairy farm. When they
were eventually killed the schedule had dropped to $3.20/kg and the
station netted $950/head. But with the $450 added on, Awakino was still
$200/bull better off.

"What it did do was keep us in the market as a consistent supplier."

It fits with another Tony Plunkett philosophy - always have options: "If you've got options you can always change."

Heifer yearlings on the station go to a black bull and are sold as in-calf heifers.

Angus-cross steer calves are sold in the autumn and the heifers
retained. With the deer sold it allowed the steer calves to be kept and
sold late in spring.

Tony also prioritises stock. Last year he realised the bottom of
the weaner deer were not going to finish before Christmas so they were
taken off green feed and pad feed. The green feed went to twin ewes,
then to the top bull calves. Hoggets are well down the list since they
are not mated.

The ewes start lambing the first week of October and are weaned the
second week of January. The deer are weaned March 1. The R2 heifers are
weaned the first week of March and the mixed-aged cows the second week
of April.

"We've been trying to drag that forward as much as we can."

Because they got rid of the weaner deer earlier this year more feed
went into the cows and they were able to wean four weeks early: "It
made a huge difference."

The calves put on more weight and so did the cows before the
winter. The first calvers have always produced the best calves because
they been on grass all the way through.