Friday, March 29, 2024

Keeping it interesting

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A Northland farmer likes to mix things up and do things a bit differently to stay motivated. Tony Benny reports.
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A DESIRE to improve the fertility and longevity of his herd led Cameron Shepherd to trial the dual-purpose meat and dairy breed Fleckvieh alongside his pure-bred Friesian cows.

Shepherd milks 370 cows on the 160ha family farm at Wellsford and averages about 500kg MS/cow.

He says he’s always had an interest in different breeds including beef animals so when a rep from Samen told him about the Fleckvieh breed, he was keen to try them.

“There are a lot of trials around the world where they’ve crossed the Holstein Friesians with the Fleckvieh and it has huge benefits for the fertility of Friesians, their longevity and other health traits,” he says.

“The first year I got 80 straws of one Fleckvieh bull and I thought if I’m going to trial the breed, I need a decent group of heifers to trial it.

“I ended up with 28 heifer calves from the original 80 straws. That was really good going.”

“Those 28 heifers will calve in 2021 and I’m just waiting to see how they turn out really. I guess if they’re really successful as far as the milking goes, I’ll use more of them.”

The Fleckvieh of today was created in the 1870s when yellow-coloured Swiss Simmentals were crossed with red and white spotted Austrian Fleckvieh to create a medium-sized, robust breed suited to alpine grazing. 

The breed has now spread across Europe, South America, Australia and New Zealand.

“They’re used more for dairy than beef but they are genuinely dual-purpose. They have got similar characteristics as beef Simmental but with very good milking ability,” Shepherd says.

He’s more interested in their milking than their beef attributes, though he expects the bull calves will fetch the same good prices as his Friesian animals. They get a premium because there are no Jersey genetics in his herd, somethng beef finishers generally avoid. 

“I’m not anti-Jersey but if you’ve got a herd that hasn’t got Jersey, once you put it in there, all your beef calves have that Jersey influence and you get a lesser price for them,” he says.

“I get a premium for my calves and we’ve had no bobby calves in probably eight years now. I’ve always got a huge list of people who want my calves.”

Shepherd calves in autumn which he says suits the Northland climate. This year another 18 Fleckvieh calves were born and he hopes to have 100 of them by next year.

“We still have really good pasture growth rates in winter and especially so this last year, Shepherd says. 

“We’re basically guaranteed drought from January to April every year so even though we often calve in a drought, we’re usually just coming into grass again.”

Calving starts on March 8 and Shepherd has a winter milk contract with Fonterra.  

At mating, both Fleckvieh and Friesian semen is used.  

“I pick cows that are slightly weaker in the confirmation or need strengthening and I put them to the Fleckvieh to try to put in some of those health attributes and strengthen the cow’s frame up as well,” he explains.

“The more balanced type of dairy animals will go back to a Friesian bull.”

If the Fleckvieh-Friesian cross animals perform as well as he hopes, he’s considering going to a three-way cross in future, this time using Swedish Red semen.

“Swedish red’s another breed that Samen’s been pushing, another very good dairy breed, that’s probably a bit lighter. I guess without putting Jersey into your herd, if you don’t want that influence,” he says.

Shepherd says his interest in alternative breeds is a way of keeping dairy farming interesting for him. 

In the past, he’s used Simmentals over most of the cows that don’t go to a Friesian bull and has also tried Charolais, Belgian Blue and Limousin.

He does most of the breeding work himself to keep costs down.

“I buy a couple of really good bulls and then get my own AB taken off them and that reduces the price of your AB down to about $5 a straw,” he says.

“I’m quite interested in the breeding side so we do our own AI as well.

“To me it gets a little bit boring just seeing Jerseys and Friesians so that’s probably where I’ve looked at these other breeds as an interesting thing rather than a money thing.  “Sometimes you need something that’s a little bit different in farming just to get you out of bed.”

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