12 | Broadwood Charolais celebrates 40 years The Semenoffs originally ran a mixture of Angus, Hereford and dairy cross cattle and used an Angus bull to service these. Karen Phelps RURAL PEOPLE » Broadwood Charolais GLENROSSIE Beef Shorthorn and Santa Gertrudis Stud www.glenrossie.co.nz All Glenrossie bulls are guaranteed. Glenrossie bulls are TB status C10 and have all been tested and vaccinated for BVD. We aim to breed quality beef bulls with structural soundness, conformation and muscle. We want our cattle to be easy to handle, good doers that yield high amounts of good quality beef. These are the values we strive for when breeding bulls for our commercial beef producers. GET IN TOUCHWITH US! 09 4340 987 Fred: 027 4340 987 Tracy: 027 543 1045 contact@glenrossie.co.nz Glenrossie, 405 Ody Road, R D 4, Whangarei 0174 · Livestock · Logs · Water · Readymix Concrete · General Cartage 09 406 0087 | mangonuihaulage.co.nz Rising 2yr Certified Charolais bulls available Enquiries and Inspection Welcomed Please contact: Wayne and Gay Semenoff, Broadwood, Northland ph: 09 4095522 email: semenoff@outlook.co.nz Rising 2yr Certified Charolais bulls available Enquiries and Inspection Welcomed Please contact: Wayne nd Gay Semenoff, Broadwood, orthland ph: 027 272 5491 | email: semenoff@outlook.co.nz Broadwood Charolais will mark 40 years of breeding Charolais in the Far North this year. The occasion will be marked at the on farm annual sale on the 28 May. Stud owners Wayne and Gay Semenoff both came from farming backgrounds but it was not until 1980 that they entered farming purchasing their 135ha total, 125ha effective farm at Broadwood near Kaitaia. Although Wayne grew up in the area on a dairy farm he spent most of his early years working for the Bay of Islands Co-operative Dairy Company, managing the trading and merchandise departments, while Gay was a teacher. The Semenoffs originally ran a mixture of Angus, Hereford and dairy cross cattle and used an Angus bull to service these cows. It was in 1984 a friend lent them a 15/16 Charolais bull that they had finished using. The Semenoffs ran him with their herd. That selling season, 1985, they walked 28 Charolais calves the five kilometres to the Broadwood Sale Yards. Their pen of Charolais Steers topped the sale at $485 with the heifers fetching $410. “We were ecstatic,” remembers Wayne. “The calves looked wonderful and received nothing but adulation from the many spectators present.” Convinced that Charolais being colour dominant would standardise their herd they set out to source purebred bulls. Their first purebred registered Charolais bull was bought from Simca Hills and was used over the cross bred cows. Dave and Jan Mein influenced them of the benefits of belonging to the Charolais Society and they decided to start their own purebred herd of Charolais. So in 1987 they bought four purebred heifers and two in calf purebred Charolais cows at a reduction sale of Ian Taylor and John Coleman. This was the start of their Charolais herd and Coleman Farms Bernina purchased at that sale has been the nucleus of a very fertile family group within the herd. They say that becoming members of the N.Z. Charolais Cattle Society, with annual meetings being held alternately in the North and South Islands, enabled them to get a good look at the other members’ cattle and farming styles providing an insight into the bulls they had for sale. In 2010 Wayne was elected President of this society, which he served until 2015. During this time and subsequent years they travelled to three world conferences in Canada, Hungary and the United Kingdom also attending technical conferences. While a few tourist sites were visited, says Gay, more time was spent visiting farms and talking to farmers. “These were valuable experiences which have reinforced our breeding programme,” she says. Over the years they have learned a number of things are vital in establishing a good stud: a defined and accredited genetic identification system or pedigree, accurate and timely measurement of traits, good genetic links between many herds in different environments but under similar management and a credible and accurate breeding value system. “Our society exists to ensure these requirements are met and any registered bull will be backed by known pedigree and breeding value,” says Gay. At the stud’s 2024 sale on the 28 May the Semenoffs will offer some of the best genetic recorded bulls ranked by the NZ Charolais Society and welcome visitors at any time to view the animals.
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