48 | MEAT & WOOL » Hereford Breeders Section Sons prepare to take over management Richard Loader A few years ago Robert and Mary-Anne Kane hosted a family reunion at their Southland property, Westholm Farm, and erected a sign that showed the start date of 1929, but no finish date. Robert says that provides something for his boys, Luke and Peter, to think about as they prepare to take over management of the farm that was established by their great-grandparents, David and Nellie Kane. “Our philosophy is that we never own the land, we just look after it and make it better for the next generation. We think having four generations on the land, covering almost one-hundred years is a phenomenal feat, but we travel the world going on Hereford conferences and visited a property in Sweden. This guy about my age got up and said he was the 16th generation of his family on the farm in Sweden. He could trace his family’s association on the land to about when America was discovered by Christopher Columbus. Now that is phenomenal.” Westholm Farm sits on SH90, south of Tapanui on the Pomahaka River, with about 4.8 kilometres of river boundary. The original farm encompassed 262 hectares and was on the west bank. Today the farm embraces 1000 hectares, with some of the additional land on the eastern bank. Farming operations include the Westholm Polled Hereford stud, and Mary-Anne’s Blue Mountain Angus Stud. The introduction of a dairy unit, milking 630 cross bred cows has added a valuable revenue stream, particularly with about 330 cross bred beef calves coming out of the dairy herd. “Every calf born on the farm is weighed at birth and all calves over 32Kgs at birth are reared. We want our cows to calve easily, but we also want to make sure the calf is big enough to grow on and be useful in the dairy beef industry. The best calves are retained right through to finishing, with the middle ones sold as stores. The bottom end leave the farm at four days old.” Describing himself as a passionate livestock farmer, Robert enjoys working with animals and breeding animals to make everyone’s life better going forward, and that means more productive animals. “We have to work with our cattle and we have to make sure our cattle are quiet. When we sell our bulls we want them to be quiet because people in the dairy industry are working with them daily. We regularly call our customers to ask how the bulls have gone, and the first response we gets is that they are quiet. Westholm is also the only Hereford stud in the South Island semen testing all yearling bulls. They have to pass a semen test before we sell them. The next biggest criteria is testicle circumference to make sure the bulls are fertile and that also follows through to the fertility of our 15 month old heifers.” Mary-Anne was raised on a Murray Grey stud and Robert bought her a heifer in 1998 which became the foundation of the Blue Mountain Angus stud. She now has about 40 cows, which are run alongside the Hereford cows. “The temperament between Hereford and Angus is night and day different,” says Robert. “At the moment you cannot compare EBV’s between Angus and Hereford, but within a couple of years there will be figures that can be compared across the breeds. That’s quite exciting. There will be some winners and losers, for sure. The big winner for the Hereford is the temperament and marketability when used in the dairy industry. At the moment we’re killing fifteen month Hereford Friesian steers and heifers at 250kgs.” This year’s on-farm bull sale will be held on the 12th of October when about 15 Angus and 35 Hereford yearlings will be on offer. “Last year we achieved the highest average price for any yearling bulls sale in the South Island. 03 688 7517 www.timarucanam.co.nz I’m looking forward to this year’s sale.” While there will be a changing of the guard at Westholm, Robert says he and Mary-Anne will only be four miles aways and so he is by no means handing the baton over entirely. “But I have just become the greenkeeper of the Tapanui Bowling Club, and bowls is a large part of my off-farm time.” “Our philosophy is that we never own the land, we just look after it and make it better for the next generation. We think having four generations on the land, covering almost one-hundred years is a phenomenal feat, but we travel the world going on Hereford conferences and visited a property in Sweden.”
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