In-Calf female sale success

Strong Female sale endorses Angus Stud Breeding program

The 3rd Annual production sale of Meadowslea Stud Angus Females met with very solid demand from both Stud and Commercial buyers at the on- farm sale in Fairlie may 1st.

The Annual Draft 10 year old cows led the sale prices with the top 2 Old cows making $5000 each and both selling to Piko- Burn Angus of Tuatapere. The young R2 Stud heifers also sold very strongly with a top Price of $3300 to Wether Hills Angus of Dipton and an average of $2300 for the 40 heifers on offer.  All 93 Stud females sold to average $2200 with 25 selling for stud Transfer and the balance to commercial herds.

 Stud principal David Giddings said the sale success was a great endorsement of the Studs focus on fertility and maternal traits that drive all the profitability in any Beef herd. The 10 year old cows had proven they were the right type for the hill-country environment by producing a good early calf every year and staying in good condition through droughts, snowstorms and everything that nature could throw at them. “These old cows that had lasted the distance were all medium framed and deep bodied with only moderate growth figures but were all very strong in Rib fat covers. Clearly this is nature showing us what is the right balance of figures for this environment.”

 Meadowslea has focussed on breeding hill-country cattle that will thrive and perform in adverse conditions .The stud has selected for strong rib fat covers and have proven that these animals handle the harsh conditions much easier and produce at higher levels in a sustainable way.

David says selection for the last 25 years for easy doing cattle has led the stud in a different direction to most other Angus Studs in Australasia and resulted in Meadowslea having some of the highest Rib Fat EBV’s in the breed. Now science has recognised there is a direct link between increased rib fat covers and better fertility in both heifers and cows. This coupled with daughters of bulls that have bigger scrotal size results in heifers reaching puberty earlier and rebreeding earlier over their entire lifetime.

Meadowslea Studs two senior sires “Turihaua Crump” and “Meadowslea F540” have now over 120 of their daughters analysed on Breedplan.  The latest May group-breedplan figures just released have recognised how fertile their daughters are, by listing both bulls as Trait leaders for short Days to Calving (DTC), this means both sires are estimated to be in the top 1% of the breed for the ability of their daughters to get in calf early and rebreed early over their entire lifetime. This is the key to profitability in any beef herd.

Meadowslea F540 has also recently been evaluated in the Beef and Lamb NZ Beef progeny test Cohort 2. The trial mated 52 sires, from a number of different breeds, to 2200 beef cows and recorded progeny growth rates in a commercial environment at weaning, yearling, and 18mths of age. The steer progeny was then slaughtered and the carcasses evaluated for Muscle, Rib Fat, Yield and Marbling (IMF). David says Meadowslea F540 has performed considerably better than his EBV, s would suggest and he has out-performed Angus Breed trait leaders for both Growth and Carcass traits. He says he now expects F540’s Breedplan figures to improve yet again.

Meadowslea Angus has their annual bull sale on Friday June 21^st offering 76 Hill bred bulls, and their Bull Walk open day on Tuesday May 21st on farm State Hi Way 8 Fairlie.