Friday, March 29, 2024

Dairy farmer invests in Belgian Blue

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A Canterbury farmer is no longer feeling blue about calving as she now uses a beef breed that is easier all round. Anne Boswell reports.
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Canterbury woman Debbie Geddes considers herself a dairy farmer through and through but the opportunity to dabble in beef – thanks to some outstanding genetics – has left her excited about her future with the Belgian Blue breed.

Milking 700 Holstein Friesian cows on a 275-hectare family farm at Willowby, south of Ashburton, Geddes was searching for an alternative to the traditional breeds she tailed her herd with.

“Generally, I crossed the tail-enders with beefies, usually Hereford, but I had a bad season with them two years ago where I was pulling calves constantly,” Geddes says.

“I’ve used Samen for my genetics for 15 years now, and both the ease of calving and short gestation traits of their Belgian Blue genetics really appealed to me.”

In the 2018/19 season, Geddes artificially inseminated her late calvers with Belgian Blue straws; 60 Belgian Blue calves produced as a result.

“Calving went really well,” she recalled. 

“The Belgian Blue were robust, strong calves of a good size, and did not require pulling out.

“They were on their feet quickly, and on the feeder drinking with no problems.”

Geddes says after the first week, the calves were doing so well that they were comfortable dropping to once-a-day feeding.

“I had staff saying that they would happily calve 1000 of the Belgian Blue calves because they were so easy,” she says.

Geddes sold 12 of the original 60 Belgian Blue calves at 100kg, but kept 48 to finish, which are now 10 months old.

“I’m a dairy farmer through and through, but I’ve so enjoyed having the Belgian Blue calves,” she says. 

“I was going to on-sell them all at 100kg but now that I understand the breed a bit more, I can see that they are going to grow out a lot quicker than other breeds do. 

“It will be viable for me to carry them through to finishing at 16 months old.

“They are so big already. You can see the double muscle on their bums.”

Although navigating the beef market is not something Geddes ever expected to do, she enjoyed the experience so much she repeated the exercise last season, using the Belgian Blue across her later-calving cows to bring their calving forward and get more days in milk.

At the beginning of August 2020, Geddes had three new Belgian Blue calves on the ground already.

“The calves are just awesome,” Geddes explained.

 “They are nuggety, solid little calves with a lovely nature and no calving issues.”

“I’m planning to keep turning them over like this in the future. They are so easy to handle, and they look after themselves.

“They grow well on basic feed, and because they are grown out in 16 months, I don’t have to carry them through a second winter.”

Geddes says although she hasn’t taken her finished animals to market yet, she is optimistic about the returns.

“I’ve been told that with the double muscle they are heavier in meat and muscle, are lighter boned and yield better than other beef animals,” she says.

“Of the 12 I sold in the first year, the comments I’ve had are that they are easy calves to rear and have grown really quickly compared to other beef breeds they raised.”

Geddes admits she was a little sceptical when considering the Belgian Blue genetics because it sounded “too good to be true.”

“But now, having lived it, I can say they were 100% right; the calves are everything I was told they would be,” she says.

And although the Belgian Blue have met the criteria Geddes was looking for in terms of ease of calving and short gestation, they have also fulfilled a personal aspiration of Geddes’.

“My parents used to breed Charolais cattle on the side when I was a child, and I wanted to find my own breed that I could rear in the background and foster a passion for,” she says.

“I wanted to explore a breed that was different to the most common breeds on the market, something to grow and enjoy for myself.

“The Belgian Blue does all that, and more.”

 

Belgian Blue cattle behind Hospice fundraiser

 

Samen and Hospice South Canterbury have teamed up in a unique opportunity to raise vital funds to support palliative care patients and their families.

Hospice South Canterbury marketing and events manager Jeanna Munro says the two organisations will support farmers to breed, rear and finish Belgian Blue calves.

Samen will donate Belgian Blue straws to interested farmers, who donate one calf produced from the straws back to Hospice.

Once the animals are finished, the proceeds of the sale of the animals will be returned to Hospice to help run its valuable service.

Munro says she became interested in the potential opportunity after a meeting with a group of local farmers produced some excellent fundraising ideas, which was followed by Munro reading an article about Belgian Blue breeder Lockwood Smith.

“It is something just a little bit different to traditional Hospice fundraisers,” she says.

Although the project is in its early stages, Munro says the potential is huge.

“We’ll be starting with around 50 calves, but we see the project growing over time,” she says.

“We’d like to support farmers in rearing and finishing the calves by finding sponsors for feed, milk or grazing.

“We want farmers to enjoy the process and consider doing it again next year, not feel burdened with costs and responsibility.

“We’d like the project to feel like a partnership between farmers and Hospice.”

Munro says Samen has been “absolutely fantastic.”

“They have been incredibly helpful and have jumped on board, boots and all.”

“It is such an exciting opportunity for Hospice to work alongside our rural community.”

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