| 15 RURAL PEOPLE » Auahi Charolais Bumper cow sale attracting interest The on-farm sale will include 120 cows, including two and three year old in-calf heifers plus three stud sires. Karen Phelps After 40 years breeding John Henderson admits he is attached to his cows. But with an eye to the future he is about to put up nearly all of Auahi Charolais’ cows for sale. On April 11 he will hold an on farm sale where around 120 cows including two and three year old in-calf heifers, plus three stud sires, will be offered to the market. The move has been prompted by the loss of a lease block that was used to run the stud and not being able to nd any other land in the vicinity to purchase. John also admits slowing down would be nice but he will hold onto his yearlings in case he nds another farm and decides to build up the stud again. Along with keeping a few cows John will offer semen sales from Sandown – a spectacular bull he purchased from Silverstream Charolais in Canterbury last year for $50,000. “When I saw Sandown I knew he was exceptional and I just had to buy him,” says John. “He should produce calves with short gestation, low birth weight and homozygous polled.” The two year olds offered for sale and half of the three year olds are in-calf to Sandown. John says the sale catalogue will come out mid March and anyone can come and see the sale animals. On the day of the sale the cow and calves they have reared this year will be available to view. John and brother Perry and Perry’s wife Kate are in partnership on three dairy farms in Otorohanga milking around 850 cows. Perry’s son Michael is a sharemilker on one of the dairy units. They are also in a partnership with John and Perry’s brother Stuart on the family farm in Piopio, 140ha that is half in deer and the other half used to carry Charolais bulls and younger heifers. The stud is named after the road this farm is on. The brothers started Auahi Charolais back in 1981 when they had just bought their rst farm Ever since they were kids they had had passion for Charolais. A cow and two heifers were purchased at a dispersal sale and the brothers used AI in the early years, sourcing the best genetics they could and gradually built the stud up, also buying at other dispersal sales when the opportunity arose. Their Charolais are generally used by farmers to cross over Hereford Friesians and one dairy farmer buys up to ten bulls off the stud each year, keeping them one to two years as he doesn’t want the animals to get too big to go over his dairy cows, and rears a lot of progeny, taking them through to 18-20 months. The general breeding traits that Auahi offers farmers is polled (out of 100 odd calves last year only around 10% were horned), calving ease (last year they didn’t have to assist any of the two years olds during calving with 100% live calves), quick maturing cattle and good temperament. John says that one of the stud’s best achievements in all the years was selling one of its own bulls to Silverstream Charolais last year. 100Cows includingHeifers (VIC) 42 years Breeding 11thApril 2023 First StageDispersal Sale
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