After 30 years of breeding Herefords Bayly has decided to disperse his cattle and replace one species with another as he focuses his attention on racehorses.
His dispersal sale on April 7 will comprise 40 head of breeding cows, heifers, calves and one stud bull from his Pahoia property.
He is following the passion his parents have for animal breeding and their interest in bloodstock that resulted in them owning the horse that claimed second spot in the 1982 Melbourne Cup and a couple of fifth places in other races.
Taking a leaf from his father’s breeding criteria that always sought to find balance in all the features that counted, Bayly has misgivings about how the modern Hereford animal is evolving, claiming some breeders are losing sight of that balance.
“However, I am concerned by this almost singular focus I am seeing on breed birth weight with some breeders trying to bring that down all the time in response to perceived dairy industry demands.
“For cattle it is a balance between all those characteristics that are deemed valuable – feet, bone structure, temperament, scrotal size, carcase and muscle.”
Bayly acknowledges he is going to draw flak from within breeding circles for his criticism but maintains with that singular focus the breed runs the risk of leaving itself short of stock capable of continuing to deliver in terms of sheer body mass and, ultimately, carcase weight.
He speaks from the perspective of someone known for breeding good, all-round animals that were prize-winners in the national Beef Expo.
He claimed the top prize for the champion led bull as recently as 2015, with Karamu Spartacus, and had a national champion in 1997.
High profile sires included Platform Quebec, identified at number eight in the Hereford Benchmark programme that recognises animals for their fertility and longevity.
“He provided us with 22 stud bulls over the years.”
Today’s base in Bay of Plenty is considerably downsized from Bayly’s original stud property at Maungatautari near Cambridge, where he had 130 breeding cows.
“I think in the 80s we had a medium sort of animal, which then had a lot of overseas genetics put into them, particularly from the United States. We used some of those genetics but always kept an eye on retaining a balance in the stock’s composition.”
His concern is today’s focus on lower birthweight EBV (estimated breeding value) figures to satisfy dairy clients’ need for smaller animals is resulting in a smaller pelvic area and passing that on to cows is the antithesis of easy-calving goals.
“I appreciate a lot of this is in response to the commercial reality of dairying demands but as a breeder the biggest consequence of this is you will get smaller female stock and that raises the question, ‘what do you do with them, what do you mate to them?’”
To try to address a sliding body weight trend is not easily done and will take several generations and years to reverse.
“The low birthweight focus is giving some inferior animals a way in and doing nothing for the breed’s overall value.”
Bayly says he has tried to stick to his knitting over the years.
His stud bull has a birthweight index of +5.1 putting him slightly above average on the birthweight scale but with calves of 35-36kg is “not extreme”.
He is calling on breeders to look closely at the subtleties of easy-calving animals, at the shoulder structure and head shape and doubts the birthweight index figure alone captures those subtleties.
The ex-beef councillor and Hereford Council member believes the breed has a good product in its Hereford Prime beef brand and plans for NZ beef to tell a provenance story are well overdue.
“It is something that has been kicked around over the years and there is no doubt there are health and taste strengths there we need to promote.”
But he is also urging Beef + Lamb NZ not to get complacent thinking the United States will always need our grass-fed beef to balance its grain fed product.
“There is always that risk they could source something similar from countries with far more scale that use grass, like Brazil or Argentina.”
