Business Rural Autumn 2021

| 41 Dairy farm purchase perfect fit for stud Virginia Wright T he Kakahu Angus stud had its first bull sale in 1956 - 65 years later the next one is scheduled for June 21st with 100 to 105 bulls in the sale and more to sell through to spring. Run by the Hargreaves family, Kakahu Farm can be found in South Canterbury, 10 minutes south of Geraldine. While traditionally it’s been a 1200 hectare sheep and beef farm, they’ve recently purchased a neighbouring 200 hectare dairy farm. As Tom Hargreaves explains, it was an oppor- tunity that fitted in with his plans for improvement, particularly with respect to their recip (reciprocal) cows. “We worked out that we could use the dairy cows as our recip herd, which means they’re giving us a high value Angus calf as well as giving milk,so there’s more than one string to their bow so to speak.” The Hargreaves started working with embryo technology five years ago. As the technology has continued to develop and improve, so has their use of it. “We’re flushing quite a few cows now,” says Tom. “Last year we put embryos in around 200 cows and there’s about a 50% strike rate, which gives us about 100 calves on the ground from around 20 to 25 of our top cows, so suddenly our top cows are having five or six calves a year so the genetic gain just skyrockets. It’s pretty exciting.” They look globally for the bulls they use, chosen for their very high genetic potential, and most come from the States and Australia as the Hargreaves prefer to source outside genetics to ensure the genetic gains they’re after. Their focus is performance and they’re careful not to single trait select and risk the gain of one trait at the MEAT & WOOL » Kakahu Angus / Rockley Angus • from page 40 CATTLE • SHEEP • PIGS • DEER 027 248 6396 ozbald50@gmail.com Rock Homekill Oz the Kiwi Homekill Guy Are proud to provide accountancy, tax and business advice services for Kakahu Angus 39 George Street, Timaru 7910 | PO Box 125, Timaru 7940 | Email: hcmail@hcpartners.co.nz Phone: 03 687 9222 | Website: www.hcpartners.co.nz Consultant: John Stark Partners: Duncan Brand | Paul Wol ff enbu � el | Craig Copland | Nick Krivan | Kalpesh Hari Communication key focus “We try to do budgeting and strategic planning together, working as a team with communication a key focus. “An employee on Rockley looks after the stock work, animal health and general farm maintenance, and we utilise a white board in our kitchen a lot and have smoko meetings with our staff member where we catch up with what is happening on the farm.” With three young children, Tim 11, Zac 8 and Emma 4, life is busy and achieving a work/life balance can be a work in progress and constant balancing act with other commitments. expense another. Also sitting in behind their decisions is an awareness of the growing industry of laboratory- produced synthetic “meat”, as Tom explains. “They can add whatever protein, meat colour, fat content they want and we have to compete with that,” he says, “and while we might think it sounds disgusting, it’s the children growing up or not yet born that we have to convince that grass fed, home-bred beef is the better option, and that’s not even starting on the environmental side of things!” Being part of the stud every aspect of an animal is important. “We look at the maternal side,” says Tom, “how the cow is structurally, as well as her fertility. Then we look at the growth and the car- cass qualities which are an important indicator of the consumer experience at the end of the line.” At Kakahu Stud they have a keen eye on the steak that ends up on someone’s plate and the fact that it needs to taste good. They’re proud of their purely grass-fed approach and it’s a key fac- tor in the genetics they’re breeding for. While things like intramuscular fat (IMF) can be enhanced by grain feeding, instead the Har- greaves look to enhance it through their genetics, then rely on their management to do the rest. It’s an approach that looks like paying off. “There are certain companies out there, for instance Alliance are joining up with Angus Pure, and they’re paying up to a dollar premium per kilo for the right kind of carcass. That’s got to have high IMF, low PH, the right meat colour, the right fat colour, and if they hit those targets it could add up to an extra 300 or 350 dollars per animal, so we’re really excited about that opportunity. The bottom line is a commercial cow has to have functionality but she’s also got to have profit- ability, she can’t just look good on the hill.” “We’re flushing quite a few cows now. Last year we put embryos in around 200 cows and there’s about a 50% strike rate, which gives us about 100 calves on the ground from around 20 to 25 of our top cows, so suddenly our top cows are having five or six calves a year so the genetic gain just skyrockets. It’s pretty exciting.” Kakahu Angus’ Tom Hargreaves says the development and use of embryo technology for genetic gain is exciting. The stud’s annual bull sale is scheduled for June 21 Proud to support Kakahu Angus Phone - 03 685 4880 Mobile - 027 280 4831 Rd 17, Fairlie 7987