16 | Dirk Sieling passionate about Red Devon After buying some polled Red Devon bulls a decade ago, Dirk really liked them. Russell Fredric The significance and history of Red Devon cattle may be largely unrecognised in New Zealand but for Dirk and Kathy Sieling it is, figuratively speaking, a black and white case. The couple have a diverse 710 hectare, 410 hectare effective property bordering Whitianga which milks 450 crossbreed dairy cows plus replacements as well as running Ohuka Red Devon Stud. The stud’s operation includes selling bulls to dairy farmers to create crossbred calves for the beef industry. After buying some polled Red Devon bulls a decade ago, Dirk really liked them and was attracted by their docility along with their overall traits. “Every dairy calf should be turned into a value stream, and one of the obvious ones is to grow them on for beef, and in order to do that you need quality beef. Red Devons are proven to produce top quality beef.” Ohuka Red Devons have had a bull, VJ Awhitu, in the Performance Beef Breeders dairy beef progeny trials in recent years which, with an intra muscular fat score of 5.4%, was ranked in the top four of all bulls entered for beef marbling. “That just shows that they are very good at producing top quality beef. They’ve got very good marbling and generally it’s good, tender beef. In terms of quality of beef, they would be very close to the Wagyu.” “They are an early maturing breed, so you can send them to the works about six months earlier than the more traditional beef breeds, and that means carrying them through one less winter which is a financial advantage. Combined with their medium size it means less pasture damage in the winters.” Another advantage for dairy farmers is the bulls are extremely docile and do not cause any problems in cow sheds or in yards, Dirk says. Ohuka Red Devon Stud carries 36 registered RURAL PEOPLE » Dirk Sieling • Full Recruitment Service • Hourly Support Services • Full employee life-cycle support • HR Compliance • Remunera�on Banding • Psychometric Assessments Contact us: 06 871 0450 recruitment@ruraldirec�ons.co.nz | www.ruraldirec�ons.co.nz • Employment Rela�ons Advice • Background Checks • HR Audits • Performance Reviews • Performance Management • Changes and Restructures Rural Direc�ons Recruitment & HR have extensive industry knowledge and close rela�onships with people across New Zealand’s food and fibre sector. As well as offering employers a wide range of HR services our recruitment team go the extra mile to connect great job seekers to the right job every �me. Services provided to the Food & Fibre Sector include: Recruitment & HR for New Zealand’s Food & Fibre Sector We’re ready to help Rural Direc�ons are New Zealand’s number one primary sector recruitment & HR solu�ons provider. Get in touch today and find out why. PROUD TO BE SUPPORTING DIRK SIELING breeding cows, 10 heifers, 20 young stock and four stud bulls which is a high ratio to ensure genetic diversity in the herd. In recent years the stud has used semen from Australia and England. “We continually scout around for different bloodlines. Every year we buy up to half a dozen good polled cows that have got unrelated bloodlines to our own stud, and that way we maintain genetic diversity and can usually offer fellow breeders bulls that we know are not closely related to their herd.” “For the surplus female stock we always have demand from other breeders, and as for the male stock, we keep all the bulls entire and then we retain a few of the best after following their growth for 18 months. “During the spring and summer we send bulls all over the country including the South Island.” Outside of the farm’s 410ha effective, most of the balance of the Sieling’s property is hill country with 100ha in pine trees and 160ha in native bush. Two blocks are under a QEII National Trust covenant, while an application for a three more blocks is in progress. The dairy platform has a 45 a side herringbone shed and has a 50/50 sharemilker, with Dirk and Kathy plus casual staff providing the balance of the labour.
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