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By Diane Bishop
Middlemarch farmer Ken Elliot is continuing a family tradition of breeding Red Poll stud cattle. But the emphasis has changed somewhat from his late father John Elliot’s day when the dual purpose cattle were farmed more for their milk than for their quality carcass attributes.
Numerically Red Poll cattle, which were imported into New Zealand from England in 1898, are one of the smaller breeds in the country with just 26 registered breeders nationwide.
Ken’s father formed the Garthmyl Red Poll stud in 1928 with purebred cows from the Dominion, Cray and School studs and purebred bulls from the Otahuna and Glen Eden studs.
“Dad wasn’t satisified with the milking cows that were around at the time so he got the Red Poll for its meat and milk,” he says of the medium-sized breed that evolved from a cross between a Norfolk Red and a Suffolk Dun in the early 1800s.
The Elliot’s originally milked about 30 Red Poll cows to supply the former Taieri and Peninsula Dairy Company in Dunedin until 1957 when they decided to produce a specialist beef herd with an emphasis on better fleshing animals while retaining fertility, milking ability and docility.
Six years later Ken took over the stud, which now comprises of 50 stud cows, 15 rising two-year-old heifers and several sire bulls.
He also farms 100 stud South Suffolk and FinTex (Finn-Texel) ewes as well as 1100 Romney cross and FinTex cross commercial ewes, 300 ewe hoggets, 60 sale Ram hoggets and 40 Friesian-Red Poll rising yearling steers and heifers on 205ha.
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More than half of the flat property is established with K-Line irrigation and these pastures have helped finish the stock at good weights.
Ken has set some basic parameters in which to achieve functional efficient cattle that survive and thrive in a harsh climate.
The cows, which are mated as yearling heifers, must be capable of producing a good quality calf each year to retain their place in the herd. “We aim to get 10 calves out of a cow over their lifetime.”
Ken focuses on carcass quality, in particular taste and tenderness, as this is being demanded by consumers and fetching a premium.
The flatter the rib bone the more tender the meat is and this also applies to the softness and silkiness of the skin, he says. “It’s a fallacy that you need a thick skin for a harsh environment.”
The cows are strip grazed on grass plus barley straw over the winter while the young stock are strip grazed on turnips or greenfeed and supplemented with hay.
The cows and yearling heifers are artificially inseminated for several weeks before they are mated to Red Poll bulls to calve in September and October.
Ken uses his own bulls in his mating programme as well as other sires and recently bought the semen rights to an Australian Red Poll bull for $18,500.
“I liked his balanced length and he’s got the soft skin and flat bone that I’m after. His mother is one of the best cows I’ve seen.”
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He says it’s often more cost-effective to buy semen than go to the extra expense of importing a bull.
Many of his clients are dairy farmers who have moved away from using Jersey bulls over their cows and heifers after their AI run, to using Red Poll bulls, as their progeny are sought-after by calf rearers.
Ken sells an equal number of yearling and two-year-old bulls for breeding, which includes selling one bull and semen straws at the annual National Red Poll bull sale. The surplus bulls are killed at 18 months before the second winter.
He buys back about 40 Red Poll Friesian cross heifer and steer calves from dairy farmers that he has supplied bulls to at 100kg and they are finished at 14 months for a specialised supermarket trade.
Ken selects his heifer replacements on structural soundness, dam history and docility. “They must also be from a cow that has weaned a good weight calf.”
He aims to have the heifer and bull calves at a minimum 240kg and 280kg respectively at weaning in April.
The cows are culled ruthlessly if their udders become pendulous which makes it difficult for the calf to feed. This can occur in young cows but is more common in cows that have had six or more calves.
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