| 57 When he’s not busy in his day job as a full-time practicing anaesthetist at Dunedin Hospital Everd Strauss is busy coming up with ways to improve things on his farm 20 kilometres away in Mosgiel. Leafland Stud is now 1200 acres that the Strauss family have accumulated since they bought their first 100 acres 30 years ago, roughly a third of which they lease. It’s mostly steep country with some flat land they use for fattening. Their original three heifers have now become a herd of 200 Simmentals with this year around 215 calves on the ground. In fact the herd numbers are lower than they were a year ago, with a drop in numbers from 300 to 200 to make room for more sheep. Leafland Stud bought their first 50 Wiltshire ewes two years ago. Having incrementally increased the flock with 50 more each year, and by adding their female offspring to the mix, they now number 250 with plans to build the flock up to around 500. The sheep have been brought on farm to help with pasture management. “We’ve sprayed in the past but you can only spray at certain times of the year and it knocks out the grass and the clover if you’re not careful so now we prefer to use sheep,” says Everd. Having made the decision to use sheep to take care of the problem the economics of the situation mean there’s a target number set to maximise the payback from their inclusion in the farm system. While they don’t see themselves as a typical sheep and beef farm they recognise the benefits of running the sheep and cattle together. They specifically chose Wiltshires for their wool shedding traits, with plans to breed towards the Shire side of the breed. “The Shire sheep has no wool just hair. We’ve bought Wiltshire rams so far but we intend to buy Shire rams as they become more available. You don’t have to shear them, you don’t have to dag them before they go to the works and they’re big meaty sheep, “ says Everd. They’re very happy with their lambs so far with last season’s selling for around 22kgs- 25kgs carcasse weight. They sound like the perfect complement to their herd of Simmentals, a breed also Expanded from 100 to 1200 acres Leafland Simmentals bulls grazing. MEAT & WOOL » Leafland Simmentals known for its size, which Everd rates highly as a terminal sire. The bulls that aren’t sold are grown out on farm and sold straight to the works. Last year they had under 2yr-olds weighing in at over 450kgs carcasse weight and, although Simmental don’t have the sort of brand recognition that comes with the names Hereford or Angus, Everd is confident about the quality of their meat. Last year a Simmental steak won the blind tasting by top chefs to take out the Steak of Origin title in New Zealand. Their next on-farm bull sale in North Taieri is on Wednesday 24th May at 11am. This year as well as their other desirable attributes such as the docility bred into their animals over generations, and high EBV’s for eye muscle, tenderness and the like, they’ve added homozygous polled to their list of traits being DNA tested. “These days all buyers want polled animals, so Virginia Wright 11:00am WEDNESDAY 24TH MAY 2023 23rd annual on farm simmental bull sale ALL BULLS ARE DNA TESTED Based on the Taieri, we offer our valuable clients the following services: • Baling (net wrap & film-on-film) • Cultivation • Direct Drilling • Cartage • Hedge Cutting Your Local Representative is Rob Fowler 0274 730 845 WE’RE HERE TO HELP YOU TRADE. Rural Livestock helps you get the best outcome for your livestock trade. 0800 RURALL (787 255) | www.rurallivestock.co.nz Proudly supporting /HDŴDQG 6LPPHQWDOV we’ll be able to tell the buyers whether the bulls are horned, heterozygous polled or homozygous polled. Already 90% of our animals are polled,” says Everd. Having also recognised a niche market for black animals Everd has started breeding black Simmentals along with the more traditional red with white markings. This year about a quarter of the 20 bulls for sale will be black.
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