Business Rural Winter 2021

54 | Stud’s bigger than Ben-Hur bull sale Kim Newth C attle farmers and breeders throughout New Zealand will be counting down the days to this year’s Te Mania Angus Yearling Bull Sale on June 23. An absolute bumper line-up of 183 top quality bulls is set to be presented at Te Mania’s on farm sales complex at Conway Flat in North Canterbury. This is a much bigger sale than last year, when 142 bulls were offered. Stud Manager Will Wilding hopes the larger sale offering will take some heat out of pricing while at the same time giving buyers more options. “In 2018, we hit a sale average of $11,300 and had a total clearance bar one, so quite a few clients missed out. Prices like that are not sustainable long term so we decided to try bringing the average down by putting up more quality bulls. Over the past three years, we have been working towards that goal by doing more embryo transfers and other things.” Last year’s sale, coming soon after the Covid lockdown, yielded another strong average of just over $10,000. “We’re expecting this year’s average to be lower than that but it’s hard to know for sure until sales day.” Leading up to this year’s sale, close to 300 bulls were independently assessed on structure by certi- fied beef class assessor, Bill Austin. Only the best make the cut for sales day. With dry conditions prevailing, Te Mania has been keeping cows out on the hills for longer and feeding out baleage earlier than is usual. “It is a challenge to present 100 bulls, let alone 180, but given we MEAT & WOOL » Te Mania Stud: Will Wilding have so many - and how dry it is here - we’re proud of how they are looking.” Te Mania has been in the Wilding family for generations. Running the farm alongside Will is his brother Sam, Te Mania’s agricultural manager. Their father Tim also remains active as part of the 1300ha family farm operation. Te Mania pioneered performance recording of beef cattle in New Zea- land and was the first Angus herd in the country to record on BREEDPLAN. It was also the first to weigh animals with scales to further boost objective, measurable data. Te Mania has long been focussed on sourcing the best possible proven sires from around the world and this will be evident once again this June, in both performance and phenotype. “We’ve got out first drop of bulls from Hoover Dam out of the US and he has a very good reputa- tion for breeding good females – good maternal qualities. We also have more from K154, whose progeny has been outstanding; 76% of his sons have made our catalogue over the past three years, averaging $13,000. As well, we have more from Te Mania Garth, out of our cousin stud in Australia. “We’re happy with the balance we’re getting in EBVs across the board – it will be hard for our clients to pick between the bulls on EBVs.” The sale catalogue, out on 1st June and available on Te Mania’s website and Facebook page, is the only catalogue in New Zealand also publishing in- dependent assessment of the bulls’ damsto ensure full transparency. Prospective buyers are welcome to take a look at what’s available before the sale and Will also encourages people to view cows at the same time so they get the full picture. Photos: Donor 14129 (top) and this year’s natural calf at the top of the Hawkswood range. Donor 14001 with her natural calf in 2018 during collection for the 2019 calf drop. Donor 14133 with her 2018 born heifer. Te Mania R2 heifers at home high above the Conway river. www.temania.co.nz Genetic Enquiries: Will Wilding 027 826 4015 Catalogue Enquiries: Sam Wilding - 027 442 1149 180 ANGUS BULLS WEDNESDAY 23RD JUNE 2021 BULL WALK 27TH MAY OR INSPECTION WELCOME ANY TIME 290 CONWAY FLAT ROAD, NORTH CANTERBURY