Our Farmers Telling Their Stories
The future of dairy beef integration
Rt Hon Sir Lockwood Smith is commonly known for his long serving career in Parliament, and more recently his position as the High Commissioner of New Zealand to the United Kingdom (2013 – 2017). Throughout Smiths political career he has always had another passion, that of breeding highly efficient beef cattle. Last week we visited Smith to hear his story and find out why he thinks the Short Gestation Belgian Blue are the future of dairy beef integration.
More Farmer Stories
Red Cattle Are Profitable Cattle | Phil Garrett
Phil Garrett from Rushbrook Farm is based in the Leeston District Canterbury. Having been in the dairy industry for the last 67 years it is safe to say that Phil has had a tonne of experience with many cattle breeds as well as running both pasture and barn based dairy systems. Phil enjoys seeing different breeds in the herd and has always had a focus on polled genetics.
VikingJersey Success | Paul Henshaw
Three Way Cross and Dairy Beef | Kent and Anna Spittle
Future-proofing the family farm | Sophia Hunt
Sophia Hunt after years of study has returned to the family farm near Kihikihi in the Waikato region. Working alongside family, Sophia has a few new ideas on how to future proof the family farm and create the future of efficiency including the easy sale of high genetic merit cattle, introducing Polled genetics and creating a second income stream with Samen NZ’s structurally correct Short Gestation Belgian Blue.
The Value of International Genetics | Dean Malcolm
Over the years of selling cattle in New Zealand, Dean Malcolm has seen growing sales results based on good International genetics.
Kirsty and Owen Hannah
Kirsty and Owen Hannah need a good strong cow with good feet, longevity and udders and with Samen NZ has found exactly what they need with both dairy genetic and dairy beef genetics(Short Gestation Belgian Blue). The Belgian Blues are now in demand!
VikingJersey Success | Josh Sneddon
“My family has been using VikingJerseys for roughly 30 years, it gives us the outcross genetics we need in our herd, we nd the VikingJerseys have their health traits so well recorded what the data says they are going to do, they do. We need the VikingJersey work incredibly well in the New Zealand pasture-based systems.”
– Josh Sneddon
Three Leaf Farm | Three Way Cross Transition.
When Hayden Ferriman travelled and worked on dairy farms in Denmark for his OE, he got to see the VikingRed cows up close and personal.
This is when the VikingRed breed caught Hayden’s eye and after speaking with local farmers, thought it would be the perfect solution for New Zealand’s crossbred cows.
Hear more about Hayden’s decision to introduce the VikingReds as the third breed in the Three Way Cross breeding program to improve his herds profitability.
Josh & Phillipa Stainton’s Short Gestation Belgian Blue Experience
There is money to be made. Short Gestation Belgian Blue.
Josh and Phillipa Stainton have used Short Gestation Belgian Blue supplied by Samen NZ to tighten their calving season and are seeing amazing results. Josh explains that last year he had 80 Short Gestation Belgian Blue animals and they were coming “Consistently two and a half to three weeks early”.
Together they have forged a great relationship with Beef Rearers Gary and Joy Donaldson who live some three hours away on the West Coast and are now taking on the Short Gestation Belgian Blue animals in a big way.
Adrian and Pauline Ball
Pauline and Adrian Ball farm in the Waikato region. With a keen eye on the Dairy Beef Integration of their farm they set off on a journey to develop their dairy system into one that is optimised to increase profits while reducing the environmental impact. This led Pauline and Adrian to winning the Gordon Stevenson Trophy and a tour of the world to explore other systems and their dairy beef integration programs.
They found all over the world that no matter where they were the ultimate dairy beef solution was the Short Gestation Belgian Blue.
Bishopdale | Rikus Scheepers
“I think you would struggle to find a better line up of bulls for pasture-based systems”
To find out how ABS genetics shape up here in New Zealand we visited Rikus Scheepers near Ashburton in the South Island to find out why he believes ABS genetics are the superior choice for New Zealand dairy farms.
Richard Waugh Three Way Cross for Seven Years
Richard Waugh tells us about his experience using Viking Reds in the Three Way Cross Genetics Programme to optimises the performance of his crossbred herd in the Waikato over the last seven years.
Gary & Joy Donaldsons SGL Belgian Blue Story.
Gary & Joy Donaldson live near Westport in the West Coast. They rear & finish 220 beef animals each year. After getting their hands on a handful of our Short Gestation Belgian Blue animals they have made the decision to only rear our Short Gestation Belgian Blue.
Fortunatly we have helped build a relationship between the Donalson’s and Josh & Phillipa Stainton. Gary and Joy will now be able to get all of their animals happily from one source and enjoy the bonus of our Short Gestation Belgian Blues rapid growth rates!
Steve Ireland, Jersey NZ Collaboration Video.
Steve & Nina Ireland are inspirational New Zealand dairy farmers.
We teamed up with Jersey NZ & caught up with Steve to take a look at the Lynbrook farm and share their story, how they are using dairy beef solutions in their Jersey herd and found out a little more about the Lynbrook farm and Lynbrook Registered Jerseys.
Josh Philps Three Way Cross Herd.
While in Australia we got to visit Josh and his fantastic Three Way Cross herd.
Craig Rowe BPI Unlocks Outcross Potential
Craig Rowe tells us about his farm, his breeding philosophy and some of the bulls we have breed with Craigs Herd to produce two young Maire Balisto Sons.
Southern Stations Wagyu
An interview about what beef finishers experience are with Southern Stations Red Wagyu.
BelgianBlue Crossbreeds
With shorter gestation, easy calving, superior growth rates, and a huge uptake the specially breed Short Gestation Belgian Blues are already paving a more efficient future for New Zealand dairy farmers.
Peter Larson Interview
We teamed up with Jersey NZ & Viking Genetics to go through an Interview of Peter Larson the Senior Breeding Manager of VikingJersey and requested questions from the public.
Simon Belton
We visited Kendall and Simon Belton to find out about their system 5 dairy operation that is using colour coding, dairy genetics and a dairy beef integration program using the Samen NZ Black Hereford & Short Gestation Belgian Blue to reduce waste and increase their profitability.