26 | MEAT & WOOL » Kaiwara Angus Buyers came from Gisborne and Queenstown Hugh de Lacy Farmers were feeling the pain of a dry autumn and winter when North Canterbury’s Kaiwara Angus held its most recent bull sale, in June of last year, but prices held up surprisingly well and buyers came from as far afield as Gisborne and Queenstown. Otherwise dominated by Canterbury farmers who have long patronised the Johns family’s Kaiwara line of Angus, the sale saw the disposal of 23 of the 25 bulls on offer for a top price of $13,500 and an average of $7000. “That was a pretty positive result given the extended dry period that lasted through to November and hit a lot of farmers in the pocket quite hard,” Kaiwara studmaster George Johns says. “We were running out of feed and had to send the cattle away for grazing. “Of course we’ve had a great year in Canterbury since November, and everything looks green where it’s normally burnt-looking this time of the year.” The next Kaiwara Angus sale will be on the second Friday in June, and the stud expects to be offering a further 25 bulls for sale. “There’s been a lot of interest in the Kay Jays Angus bull we bought in 2022 for $23,000, and this year we’ll be offering his first progeny for sale,” George says. Also of particular interest this year will be the first progeny from Kaiwara’s 2023 purchase of a highly promising bull from the Kenhardt Angus Stud in southern Hawke’s Bay. “He’s what we’ve always looked for in our Kaiwara bulls: a good easy-fleshing sire that moves freely on the hills, deep and wide at the pins, and with a good arse-end,” George says. “We paid $22,000 for him, and he’s an easygoing meaty type that we’ve mated him to 110 R1s and pregnancy scanning showed we got only two dries, with the calving spread over just 40 days – he’s been a busy boy. “The cattle have just come back from grazing away since last spring.” • LIVESTOCK CARTAGE • GENERAL FREIGHT • BULK & FERTILISER 99 Ward Rd, Cheviot 7310 03 319 8644 | 0276 776 787 The sale saw the disposal of 23 of the 25 bulls on offer for a top price of $13,500 and an average of $7000. The Johns family properties in North Canterbury include a dairy farm milking 1100 cows, while over the past couple of years the Corriedale sheep running with the beef cattle have been replaced by wool-shedding Wiltshires. “That’s a change that’s definitely been worth it,” George says. “At the price of having no wool income, but no shearing costs either, we’ve got sheep that produce excellent lambs – this year’s crop averaged $155 – from terminal sires. “We switched to Wiltshires just a couple of years ago because of the poor wool prices, and last year our confidence in the breed led to us buying in a further 250 ewes from Dannevirke in the North Island, bringing our total Wilshire flock up to 1000. “They’ve been mated and a lot of them are out grazing, a hangover from the dry when we didn’t have enough grass to keep them at home. “We’ve started scanning, and after two mobs, totalling 110 ewes, we’ve had just two dries, which says a lot for the maternal traits of the Wiltshire.”
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