Bright future for a breeder
RIGHT down to the Hereford salt and pepper shakers on the kitchen table Herefords have always featured in Niamh Barnett’s life.
Niamh, 18, is the youngest member of the New Zealand Hereford Youth Breeders team competing at the World Hereford Conference in Central Otago in March and won the Young Fleece Judge of the Year title at the 2019 Royal Show.
“I’ve always been involved on the farm, right from when I was little.
“I guess there were no babysitters away out here,” she says.
“Herefords had always been dad’s passion and it obviously rubbed off on me.”
With her older brother James, 20, now a diesel mechanic in Dannevirke, the pair grew up with parents Phil and Lyn on the 1175ha farm, Te Mangahuia Station, at Akitio in Tararua District.
They have the Kaitoa Hereford Stud and Lyn has a new Charollais sheep stud.
Despite early knowledge of farming, Niamh says showing cattle in the Future Beef competition, which she started when she was still in primary school, opened her eyes to further opportunities with cattle.
“You learn so much and from different points of view, 100 per cent.
“It’s a youth focused event and there are always some industry legends there.
“Sometimes they were talking to us all and sometimes you can just go and have a yarn to them. It was so different from learning at school.”
With 2019 academic results having gone to plan Niamh is off to Lincoln University to do an agricultural science degree. It’s too early to say if she will end up farming.
“I do know I want a career in agriculture and I want it closely related to inside the front gate, maybe consultant or fert rep. I don’t know that I’m cut out for shepherding but I would like to keep the stud going.
“We have family history tied up in the stud and I do like cows. It’s pretty cool watching a calf grow up from selectively breeding its sire and mum and producing animals you’re proud of.”
Niamh founded her own Hereford stud in 2014 with the animals farmed by her father while she was away at boarding school and now university.
The founding cow is Limehills Buttercup and Niamh owns her calf, Te Rangitumau ABC, literally meaning After Buttercup.
The stud name goes back to Niamh’s great, great, great grandfather James Stuckey who imported a cow called Amethyst in 1882 to start the Te Rangitumau Hereford Stud north of Masterton.
James was a founding member of the NZ Hereford Association in 1896. His son Henry later started the Kaitoa Hereford Stud at Awariki, northeast of Dannevirke, which was, in turn, farmed by Henry’s son-in-law, John Barnett, then his son Richard. It was sold in 1976 to make the move to Akitio with Phil returning to the farm as a shepherd in 1996. It looks likely to extend to a sixth generation.
With dad in tow Niamh attended the Wanklyn family’s Woodlynd Polled Herefords dispersal sale in 2018.
“It was my first real look at EBVs,” Niamh says. “I sat down one-on-one with Roger (Wanklyn) looking through the catalogue and he helped me make decisions on what to go for.
Then we went to the sale and I bought eight cows. Dad did most of the bidding … with my money,” she adds.
“We bought a few calves as well and they have all been running with dad’s cattle ever since. I’m growing out my assets to pay for university and hopefully I’ll keep growing the numbers too while maximising dad’s free grazing. Last year was my first year of calves. I have two bull calves. I might sell them for more than dad’s bulls.”
“Let’s see your marketing plan,” Phil says.
Niamh’s original purchase money came from a Friesian calf her parents gave her for her 13th birthday. Arthur ended up living in the front paddock but resulted in the purchase of another six Friesian bulls.
The next decision, though, lies with the heifers and an AI or mating programme.
“The end goal is to have some cows I am really proud of and, ultimately, make money.”
“It is a business,” Phil agrees. Hence Niamh’s desire to find out more about the breed and the industry that has attracted her family’s interest for so many generations.
One good way to get a foot in the door and meet new people is entering competitions. She did well in smaller shows such as Dannevirke and Central Hawke’s Bay and was asked to represent the East Coast in the beef parading, dairy and fleece sections at the 2019 Royal Show hosted by the Hawke’s Bay A&P Society. She won the Royal Agricultural Society’s Young Fleece Judge of the Year title, much to her surprise and delight.
Before that she had done Teen Ag at Iona College, Future Beef and Future Sheep, where she was given an ambassador award with prize money aimed at extending her knowledge of the sheep industry.
“I had been to the Australian National Youth Heifer Expo the year before so I used the money to go to the Sydney Show as well as going back to the Expo with the NZ Hereford Youth Breeders team. The best thing about those trips was meeting people, meeting Australian Hereford breeders. In Australia showing is
their life but here it is more of a sideline or a hobby. I’m excited to meet other people who like cows, essentially, growing my network and seeing how other people do things. I’m not sure how else I would have met so many other like-minded people in a different country … and I did and it was all through cows. Pretty unreal.”
For now Niamh’s attention has turned to the Young Breeders competition at the World Hereford Conference. She’s practising her clipping and improving her general knowledge, two of her sections of responsibility in her team. She’s also helping her parents on the farm.
The farm is 1175ha with a 40ha finishing block at Dannevirke, next door to a 75ha block leased from Phil’s parents. The business winters 10,500 to 11,000 stock units, about 60:40 sheep to cattle with a move to more 50:50 for labour reasons.
There are 3500 composite ewes and 1000 hoggets (mated in lamb) as well as Lyn’s Charollais stud ewes, which get treated like everything else, Phil says.
There are 100 purebred Hereford cows plus Niamh’s nine and 300 commercial cows.
“They are mixed breed but they do have a whiteface base. Some are put over Herefords and others over Gelbvieh and Shorthorn for hybrid vigour. We buy a dairy client’s yearling heifers as well, sometimes mating them and sometimes using them in an embryo transfer programme.”
About 90 per cent of the progeny are sold off Te Mangahuia directly or move to the finishing block.
“We also trade animals sometimes as the market and conditions allow. It’s a good way of benchmarking our breeding programme against other farms’ progeny.
“Verification is through Beef Eating Quality from Silver Fern Farms or we sent a line of 25 steers to Alliance the other week for the first time for their handpicked beef programme and had a pretty good strike rate.
“The different variations were interesting but worth doing. That’s a form of benchmarking that I enjoy.
“I’ve found working with most meat companies they are engaged and it’s a win-win for everyone if we know what the markets require. I have had the benefit of seeing the carcasses on the line at both SFF and through Hereford Prime processors as well — that’s a really powerful opportunity.” The farm has 11ha of fodder beet — the Barnetts were early adopters of the crop five years ago after buying a precision drill in partnership with a local contractor.
“For feed efficiency, yield and contented stock I find it extremely hard to beat. Initially it was on the irrigated alluvial river flats, which had some benefits, but for the past two years we have been trying it on more rolling hill country, with success. We’re getting an understanding of its limitations and opportunities.”
The irrigated flats are now planted with an annual or summer chicory-clover mix in a bid to use both the flats and the water more in summer.
The farm has 40ha of pines planted pre-1989 with three lots already harvested. Another 200ha is planned.
“We have done a Sustainable Land Use Initiative plan identifying low-performing paddocks and those with waterways so we can target those areas and enhance the environment.”
About 90 per cent of their boundary with the Akitio River is fenced.
As well as previously being NZ Herefords president Phil was also Beef Expo chairman for two years. He has done governance courses through Farmlands and SFF and a Know Your Cooperative course through Alliance.
“They were great networking experiences and gave me a better understanding of the nuances within the industry and pressures that are evident. They were powerful. We had access to management, senior management, directors and independent directors and we were able to tap into their knowledge and experience to get practical insights into the cooperatives and the challenges and constraints they face,” he says.
“I like getting my hands dirty physically but networking and governance is good for your brain. I have met so many people from so many different spheres of NZ and globally and I enjoy that.
“Like Niamh I have been fortunate to travel and meet a lot of breeders in Australia and North America. None of it is about winning prizes and ribbons. It is about meeting people and understanding different perspectives.”
The adventure will continue in 2020. Phil is chairman of the team organising the World Hereford Conference. He has been on the Hereford Council for 10 years and will retire at the next annual meeting.
“Life is about getting the appropriate balance — working hard and playing hard. For me, with Herefords, it has been about giving back. I have had so many opportunities given to me throughout the world. It’s about enhancing agriculture, enhancing NZ’s reputation. We have a lot to showcase whether it be in farm technology or farm management systems, breeding programmes, grass development. We should be showcasing our products to the world,” he says.
“The Hereford family is a pretty cool family although I know I’m biased. The opportunities are there. It’s up to Niamh to take them up. The world is her oyster. It’s up to her to drive it.”