| 23 nzdairy DAIRY PEOPLE » David Wood Shorthorns Milking Shorthorns grazing at David Woods’ Northbrook Stud at Hiwinui. Granddaughter Ruby Trubshaw with a yearling (Hiwinui Honey-Bee) she had as a pet day calf last year. Young Shorthorn breeders ‘the future’ Kelly Deeks New Zealand Milking Shorthorn Association president David Wood sees a good future for New Zealand’s rst dairy breed, with the new generation of shorthorn breeders showing a high level of interest and enthusiasm as they progress the breed along with their studs. Shorthorns were the rst dairy cows to arrive in New Zealand, brought across to the Bay of Islands from New South Wales by Reverend Samuel Marsden in 1814. Their size and strength and submissive nature made them the ideal draught animal, and they helped to break in the country while providing good milk and excellent meat. Shorthorn herds were established by the early 1840s, and for a long time they were New Zealand’s most popular cattle breed. New milk management system • from page 22 Agricultural Contractors based in Geraldine Servicing Mid & South Canterbury including the Mackenzie Country Silage & Baling • Cultivation • Straw & Baleage • Fertiliser • Bulk & Livestock Cartage Proud to support David & Lynley Ecclestone of Melrose Farm 273 Main North Road, Geraldine 03 693 8553 or 021 365 511 admin@haydenmackenzie.co.nz @hmackenziecontracting While production is important David says the overall management plan is to focus on hitting the small levels of achievement across a number of factors. The herd is split into two mobs with one person undertaking the rst milking then swapping with another staff member who takes over the second herd. “It means one person isn’t stuck in the shed the whole time and its an ef cient way of working.” Cow condition, David says, is very pleasing and a new milking management system was introduced, as he explains. “We decided to only milk cows that come on stream after calving once a day for 10 days, to keep their condition up. We discovered that 10 days was too long so we have dropped this to 7 and it seems to be working well. We’ve just started mating and we should see an improvement in that as a result.” David says Mark and Devon have been wonderful to work with. “Mark has always been open to trying new things on the farm and the beauty of having three units is that he can try a new system on one and easily compare results.” P 06 323 0255 M 027 928 8630 W farmworxbikes.co.nz - On Farm Service - New and Used Sales - Fully Equipped Workshop Northbrook Wok Dam is Northbrook Wonder and Sire is Treeton Pingerly Northbrook Lacy Dam is Northbrook Nc Lucy and Sire is Oceanbrae Logics Plato Northbrook Open Dam is Northbrook Operetta and Sire is Northbrook Titan ET Milking Shorthorns are proud to be part of the New Zealand dairy industry for 200+ years 798 Reid Line East, RD11, Palmerston North Email: northbrook2016ltd@gmail.com Phone (David): 027 200 2726 Phone (Anja): 021 180 4931 Milking Shorthorns The focus on the milking shorthorn breed was established with the introduction of overseas milking genetics, and this led to the New Zealand Milking Shorthorn Association starting up in 1913. When Jerseys and Friesians arrived in the country, the popularity of the milking shorthorn started to fall down, and when AB started in the early 1950s, shorthorn farmers gave it a swerve. “We didn’t pick up AB as quickly as the other breeds did,” David says. “Shorthorn farmers were making a good lifestyle from what they were already doing, and many considered intervention in mating wasn’t the right thing to do.” This eventually led to a signi cant shrinking of the genetic pool for milking shorthorns. By the early 1970s, exotic breeds such as Charolais and Simmental were introduced and proved stiff competition, detracting further from the milking shorthorn as a dual purpose animal. “That took a lot of shorthorn cows out of circulation and out of the dairy industry. But these exotic breeds didn’t last. They couldn’t handle our country and our contour, it was too hard for them.” In the late 1970s, shorthorn breeders got to work on increasing the genetic pool, looking outwards to other red animal genetics such as Swedish and Norwegian reds, English, American, and Canadian shorthorns, and the Australian Illawarra. “These set the breed off again,” David says. “These animals are all closely related to what we’ve got, so they will perform in New Zealand and still keep your milking shorthorn characteristics. When we look around the animals parading at the shows and out in the paddocks today, they look like good milking shorthorn animals. I believe there are a lot of good genetics in New Zealand, but we’ve always got to be careful that we don’t go back to the era where we had a small genetic pool.” David is excited when he talks to young breeders about shorthorns, saying they are really interested in nding good genetics to mate their herds to. “I’ve been surprised with the number of young people who are not just joining the association because their parents or their grandparents did, but because they are looking for information.If they nd something good they will use it, and that is quite promising.” David says these young breeders are the future of the breed. “At the association, we are planning a future for them, and the best way to do that is to go out and talk to them and bring their ideas through. I can see a good future out there with the young people that are in it.”
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