Friday, March 29, 2024

Steers a star turn

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Beef steers are the buffer in a Mid Canterbury dry stock operation which focuses on growing out young stock for both the dairy and beef industries. Andrew and Tania Wright were dairy farmers for 13 years – bucking the trend, they sold their dairy farm six years ago and bought Creekdale farm, a 280ha dry stock property in the shadow of Mt Hutt near Methven on the Canterbury Plains. While their focus is on growing out 800 R1 and 800 R2 dairy heifers for two local dairy farmers, they also buy between 200 and 300 (depending on the season) Angus calves which they finish for the Five Star Beef feedlot. Andrew and Tania apply the same well-honed pasture management skills they learnt as dairy farmers to their dry stock business, and the results are seen in growth rates and the quality of the stock that leaves their property.
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Andrew explains that the beef steers fit their system nicely. Unlike dairy heifers, they add flexibility because they can be sold should the normally summer safe climate turn against them.

“As my father always said: ‘If you buy good cattle, you can always sell good cattle’.”

These “good” cattle are sourced from local weaner fairs. Andrew tries to buy Angus steers at more than 250kg but again the weights are season dependant.

While the majority are bought from fairs, Andrew and Tania always buy a line from local hill country farmer Murray and Linda Harmer, as well as a line from Andy Scotland in Kurow because they always do well for them. In spring they buy another 90 well-grown steers from Kerry Boon in Cave.

These 90 arrive at a time when the couple want as many mouths as possible on board to control spring surpluses.

These spring-purchased yearlings only stay on the Wrights’ farm for a couple of months before going on to the Five Star feedlot.

Hard travelling 

Depending on the distance they have travelled, the autumn-purchased calves typically spend their first night at the Wrights in the yards before receiving animal health treatments.

They then spend their first few days in a sacrifice paddock. Since the calves have just been freshly weaned and trucked, yarded, and trucked again, they are given time to settle down – as Andrew says, they have been through a lot in a short time.

Once settled the calves graze ryegrass and clover pastures until they are run on to a swede crop from early June which Andrew says they do exceptionally well on.

Proud performance 

Andrew Wright describes their farm as being a piece of Southland in Canterbury – they receive an annual rainfall of 1200-1500mm, and being summer safe, they can grow swede crops yielding 15-16 tonnes drymatter (DM)/ha.

The swedes are supplemented with 1-1.5kg of baleage/head and this keeps the calves well-fed for six-to-eight weeks over winter at a total allocation of 6-7kg DM/head/day.

From late August the calves are back on to an autumn-saved pasture rotation which will take them through until September 25 when the spring flush kicks in.

Andrew believes the calves can be growing at 2.5-3kg/day over this spring period and this allows them to be finished to an average of 463kg liveweight from November when the first lot leave for Five Star.

The R2 dairy heifers leave the Wright’s farm in May, and the remaining 800 R1s winter on Andrew’s brother’s cropping farm.

The Wrights sold their dairy farm and bought a summersafe, dry stock property focusing on growing young stock.

Equally, they take pride in the beef steers they produce for Five Star, and are members of a group of suppliers who take part in a monitoring and measuring programme being run by Five Star.

This generates growth rate and carcase information for the suppliers, and allows them to see if any lines are performing better for them and how their growth rates compare to others in the group.

From a financial aspect, Five Star provides the suppliers a guide as to what they should be paying for calves in autumn, and subsequently gives them an indication of the returns they can expect.

But for Andrew and Tania, the beef cattle provide much needed flexibility in their farm business.

They can manipulate numbers according to the season and feed supply which is a luxury that dairy grazing does not afford.

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