24 | Consistency the aim at Okaka bull sale Pinebank P80. Susannah and Paul. Calf T245. Hugh de Lacy Creating moderate-sized Angus cattle with better body structure and muscularity is one of the main drives for Okaka Angus studmaster Paul Revell on the family’s 565ha farm among the Papanui Junction hills north of Taihape. “The shoulder area and girth are a particular area which seems to be neglected by many breeders, but to us it is an important part of the animal, especially in steep hill country,” Paul says. So far Paul has staged just two annual on-farm rising two-year-old bull sales, with the third scheduled for June 16, where he’ll again offer about 20 bulls. Though not long in the Angus stud market, Paul has averaged over $4000 from the sale of about two-thirds of his offering. “I’m very happy with that: we haven’t been round long enough to have a good number of established clients but the support for our sales has been very encouraging,” he says. Okaka’s foundation stock have mainly come from the Waitawheta, Meadowslea and Red Oak studs, with some cows picked up from the dispersal sales of Alpine, Springdale, Rangatira and Merchiston. Stud bulls that have or will make an impact have been purchased from Meadowslea, Kaharau, Pinebank, Resurgam and Kaylay. Of particular significance is the foraging ability of the Waitawheta cows and the rising 10-year-old Puke-Nui bull Big Boy and son Big Boy Junior – “good moderate, meaty bulls,” Paul says. Paul is aiming for a medium-sized animal that will perform consistently on the hills, with the accent being on consistency. “I like to see a good even line of animals in a herd rather than just having a couple of stand-outs RURAL PEOPLE » Okaka Angus or a ‘box of chocolates’, and they need to be good meaty animals that can cope with the conditions. “We are aiming for a uniform cow type with a target weight of between 550kg and 650kg,which should lead to less wastage in the offspring.” To this end Paul employs the Falkirk Index which looks at the meat to fat to bone ratios. The Okaka stud runs around 90 registered cows and 35 in-calf heifers, backed up by a second mob of 60 commercial cows, on an effective 540ha of which about 350ha is steep hill, 80ha easy hill and 100ha cultivatable moderate hill country – plus 8ha of fenced-off bush. The farm also carries 2500 Romney ewes and 700 hoggets. Okaka was one of the first farms to be established in the Taihape district, where Paul’s great-grandfather Thomas Revell settled in the early 1900s, and it’s been in the Revell family ever since. Paul and wife Susannah and the Revell family will be presented next year with their acceptance into the New Zealand Century Farm and Station Awards programme. The awards aim to preserve the work and stories of agricultural pioneers whose families still run their farms 100 years (Century Farm) or 150 years (Sesquicentennial Farm) later. Okaka Stud is also a supporter of the not-forprofit Otiwhiti Station Land-based Training School down the road in the Turakina Valley, giving work to second-year students. “I like to see a good even line of animals in a herd rather than just having a couple of stand-outs or a ‘box of chocolates’, and they need to be good meaty animals that can cope with the conditions.
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