| 7 “I don’t like a small Jersey, so I look for stature and capacity. You need bulls that will throw good size calves.” Annual sale is a real family affair Josh and Charlie feeding some of next year’s bulls. This years sale bulls. Richard Loader The Burmeister’s annual Lockhart Jersey Stud yearling bull sale held on the second Monday in September, is a real family affair with everyone taking a part in the event which is attended by dairy farmers throughout coastal Taranaki. Ben Burmeister, who owns the stud and the 90-acre support block in partnership with his parents Murray and Joy, says he get pretty nervous an hour before the sale commences. “I’ve never actually watched the sale, I’m always out the back sorting the bulls out. My father keeps the bulls in their mobs and lets them out of the ring, my mother does the catering, I have an uncle on the BBQ and my boys are handing out food all the time. It’s always a good day. We normally have about forty people there. Some people just come to get off farm. As farmers we get pretty isolated during spring and the sale is one of the first days where you get out and see your neighbour. “ The Lockhart Jersey Stud was founded by Ben’s Great-Grandfather, Albert, in the ‘30s or ‘40s on a small farm in the Manawatu. The stud was sold in the ‘50s to finance the dairy farm in Taranaki, and many of the cows were bought by Albert’s brother who had a windfall at the local races. In the ‘60s Albert was able buy the granddaughters of the herd bought at the disbursal sale, and continued on with the stud. “I’m the fourth generation to be caretaker of the stud. I enjoy that legacy, but there’s also the responsibility of keeping it going. I have always been good at breeding cows, and that comes naturally to our family. We’ve always been Jersey breeders.” Ben uses LIC and CRV for genetics, but also gets a bull from overseas for genetic diversity, and has used a Danish bull the last couple of years. He says polled bulls are becoming popular from an animal welfare perspective, and are also quite diverse in their genetics. “We breed for fertility, production, and size,” says Ben. “I don’t like a small Jersey, so I look for stature and capacity. You need bulls that will throw good size calves. With bull calves, the main thing is to get them up to size, because if they’re too small they can’t serve the heifers. We aim to have the bulls up to 300kg live weight by the 20th of August when they are yearlings. We make sure that we produce high BW bulls. A lot of dairy farmers are using high BW yearling bulls over their heifers so that the progeny can be reared as replacements heifers, and avoid the bobby truck.” RURAL PEOPLE » Ben Burmeister - Lockhart Jersey Stud ˫̳˫˫ ͇͍ ͎͎͎ ͈͈͌͐ ̫ ̫ The partnership derives 70% of its total income from the annual bull sale, and Ben says takes about 45 minutes to sell seventy bulls - about a year’s worth of work put into an hour. “This year there will be about 65 yearlings and four two-year-olds on offer. Last year’s sale was our best ever, so we are looking forward to this year’s. The sale will be held on the support block which is in the locality of Warea, towards Cape Egmont.”
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