30 | When sport mirrors farming endeavour Kia Toa Charolais recently had its 20th annual on-farm bull sale with a full clearance of 27-head averaging $6000. Two herd sires chilling out. Dianna Malcolm Competitive shearing laid the foundation for everything that would follow for Paul and Claire Grainger – including their decision to pursue registered Charolais at the highest levels. The couple run sheep and beef on 600 hectares at Te Kuiti. There is a direct link between Paul shearing professionally at a national level for three decades and their farming ethos. Shearing taught Paul to work hard, how to win, and how to navigate defeat. He was the 1985 Golden Shears Champion, a 14-time Open Golden Shears finalist, a multiple New Zealand representative, and he ran three shearing gangs at the peak of his shearing career. It was all achieved during an intensely competitive era when sheep dominated New Zealand’s landscape. When his body started telling him it wasn’t as much fun being bent in half all day, Paul put down his professional shears and – together with Claire and their children, Rhys, Mark, Stacey and Hannah – they turned their attention to running Paul’s family property. Today they run 1500 Romney ewes, 120 Charolais beef breeding cows (under the Kia Toa prefix), and they buy and finish more than 400 weaners aged 16-18 months within a single winter. 20th Annual bull sale Kia Toa was established in 2003 – when they bought females from two stud dispersals, Inverallen and Kikorangi Charolais. Their first sire came from Don Organ’s Cotswold stud. More recently, they have used foundation stock from the well-known Canterbury studs – Hemingford and Silverstream. It’s a textbook example of what renowned Australian auctioneer Brian Leslie advises his buyers to do every day – “Buy the best, and breed ‘em better.” Kia Toa recently had its 20th annual on-farm bull RURAL PEOPLE » Kia Toa Charolais sale with a full clearance of 27-head that averaged $6000 in a tight year when some others struggled to achieved full clearances. The reason for Paul’s decision to pursue the higher end of beef genetics came down to missing the adrenalin rush that competition brings. It wasn’t enough to farm. He needed more, and Rhys was interested in the high-yielding and early-maturing European breed. “I didn’t want to just do the same things on the same date every year,” Paul said. “I missed the buzz of finals, and I wanted something that also involved our family. We felt like the Charolais was turning into a niche breed with a lot of pluses.” While registered cattle involved more money and more care – with Kia Toa paying $37,000 for one sire from Hemingford – Paul was determined to farm them commercially. Their property includes limestone outcrops and steep broken country. “The stud was never going to be a hobby,” Paul said. “It had to stand on its own two feet. If I was going to have hobbies, I would have had model aeroplanes it would have been a bloody sight cheaper.” They finish their weaners bought at the saleyards at an average 280-300kg carcass-weight using pasture (and some silage or haylage during the winter). Some yield up to 60%. They make no apologies for targeting those crossbred animals offered by their customers who have bought Kia Toa Charolais sires and offered the terminal crossbred progeny. Paul says weaners with Charolais blood running through their veins are easier finishing. “It’s fractionally dearer to buy those Charolaistype weaners, but you’re getting 10-15% more meat,” Paul said. “If you have an animal that weighs 600kg liveweight and they yield 57-59%, that’s roughly a 320kg carcass. If you have an animal that weighs 600kg which yields 50%, that’s only 300kg carcass-weight. At $6/kg that 20kg it is worth $120/ head to me. It makes sense to run the same-sized animal and get a higher yield.” Breeding goals They target temperament, performance, easier calving, and shorter gestation cattle in their Charolais breeding goals. They are also particular about weighing calves when they are born with Claire having no problem sending Paul back out into the rain to complete the mission. It’s something they think is important for full transparency within the pedigree market. “I don’t worry so much about the birth weight as much as the calving ease,” Paul said. “The work has been done to improve calving ease and I’ve only calved three cows in two years. We also pay close attention to feet, temperament, and general constitution. We break feed all the bulls to get them used to us, and we deliberately use that time working with them regularly to assess any potential temperament problems.” They choose not to sell any cull heifers or cows to buyers to protect the breed’s integrity and quality – despite repeated approaches. But Paul urges dairy and beef farmers to consider the value of using a faster-finishing Charolais sire over the lower end of their herds. “Most of us have a ‘B’ sheep mob that they use a terminal sire on. If more people did that with their ‘B’ cow mobs, I think there could be some real benefits. Those Charolais-cross weaners are so sought after,” he said. He does worry that with less pure Holstein blood in New Zealand’s dairy farms that even the added weight of Charolais bloodlines won’t be enough to stop some crossbred calves being harder finishing – because of the increasing influence of lighterframed Jerseys in the mix. It means buyers need to pay attention, and to buy from reputable sellers. “I think it will be an increasing problem within this bobby calf challenge that everyone is going to be facing. “We are in the weaner market as well as buyers, and as beef buyers we never used to have to look at the angles and shapes of cattle, but now we do because there is so much dairy influence. We used to have one grade for carcase weights. It was 196-320kg. Now, they are getting more specific and separating them into tighter weight ranges of 245kg-270kg and 270kg-320kg. “It worries me that New Zealand is losing our traditional real stockmen who had the ability to tell all this at a glance. I appreciate there is a place for computers and IT systems in farming, but I still think we need to be conscious of not losing our stockmanship within the numbers.” Luckily, Kia Toa’s next generation of stockmen is assured. Rhys (and wife Holly) farm a 526ha holding near Kia Toa, and Mark blends fulltime shearing with his own 280ha property which he runs with his wife, Briar. We provide professional quality advice and friendly service to dairy, drystock, forestry, horticulture and rural businesses throughout New Zealand. Bailey Ingham are proud to support the Grainger Family and congratulate them on their successful farming opera�on. 83 Kio Kio Station Rd, RD4, Otorohanga Ph: 07 873 1800 Mob: 029 833 0011 Email: johnclarkcontracting@xtra.co.nz
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