Newcomers On Beef Cattle Scene

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31143, 20 August 1966, Page 8

Newcomers On Beef Cattle Scene

In the last few days the first C'harolais cross calves have been bom in the South Island. They have been boro on the Centrewood property of Mr J. M. Sutherland near Waimate to Aberdeen Angus and Friesian heifers.

Mr Sutherland, a beef cattle breeder, looks on his use of Charolias blood in the form of semen imported from Britain as essentially experimental. Much has been said and written about the superiority of the Charolais. one of the oldest French breeds of beef cattle, and its crosses, over traditional beef breeds and beef breed crosses in growth rate and in production of lean meat, and Mr Sutherland sees no reason why the Charolais and its crosses should not perform as well in New Zealand as in overseas countries, but he says that he will be the first to admit its deficiencies if it does not come up to these expectations. The Waimate breeder’s interest in the Charolais developed last year when he was overseas ih search of beef cattle. He was surprised to find in the home of one traditional breed of beef cattle the progeny of these cattle being weaned and then grown out on cows of a good milking dairy breed. In central France, where the famous French white breed are most numerous, he was surprised to find people from all over the world assembled there —all interested in the breed. “I like their big carcases, their weight gain and the fact that they produce a high proportion of lean meat to fat,” he said.

Tests carried out in the Argentine and quoted by Dr. D. Jobst, of the British Milk Marketing Board, had. for instance, shown that in comparison with British beef breed crosses, Charolais crosses with those breeds grew a great deal faster and were much heavier at specific ages, and the Charolais crosses also produced a higher proportion of high value cuts, more lean meat, and more lean and less fat in the eye muscle than in the case of the pure British breeds. When a consignment of Charolais cross cattle reached Smithfield market while Mr Sutherland was in Britain they were taken up so readily that although he rose early to see them they had gone by the time he reached the market. Mr Sutherland found that the only way of getting blood of the breed into New Zealand was through the import of semen and his supply of semen came into the country last year with that imported by the Department of Agriculture for experimental purposes.

Mr Sutherland had 10 Aberdeen Angus heifers and five Friesian heifers, which were purchased for him from Mr E. J. Stalker, of Greenpark, inseminated at Lincoln College. As a result all of the Friesians and nine of the 10 Aberdeen Angus were got in calf.

The first Charolais cross calf was born on the property on Thursday evening of last week. It was a heifer calf out of an Aberdeen Angus heifer. It weighed 871 b. According to an inquiry made at Lincoln College this week the average birth-weight of male and female Aberdeen Angus calves is about 651 b, on the

basis of, probably, American figures, but it is not thought that New Zealand calves of the breed should vary much from these figures. A second heifer calf, this time from a Friesian heifer, was born, to use Mr Sutherland’s words, “at half time in the match between the Maoris and the Lions” last Saturday. It weighed 931 b. Again on the basis of Lincoln College information, the average weight of a heifer calf from a Friesian two-year-old heifer is about 781 b and for a bull calf from a Friesian of the same age 851 b.

Because he wanted to be absolutely sure of saving these calves, Mr Sutherland had both removed from their mothers in operations performed by veterinarians of the Waimate Veterinary Club, but Mr Sutherland said that Mr A. Familton, senior veterinarian of the club, who performed the first of the operations, said that the Friesian could have had her own calf. The calf out of the Friesian heifer was pure white, like the Charolais breed, but that out of the Aberdeen Angus was buff or fawn, but Mr Sutherland expects that it may become cream in colour in due course. A third calf was born on Thursday. A heifer calf out of one of the Friesians it

weighed 1031 b. This calf was born with some assistance, but no caesarian operation in this case. It was darker in colour than the calf out of the other Friesian.

Mr Sutherland hopes, by continuing to use semen from Charolais bulls on crossbred females, he will eventually reach the stage in the fourth generation where he has the equivalent, of purebred Charolais cattle. In this process he hopes to follow the procedure laid down by the British Charolais Cattle Society in upgrading to Charolais status. This provides for acceptance of females into a supplementary register of the British Charolais Herd Book subject to certain conditions as to weight of dams and breed characteristics and use of full Charolais pedigree sires at all stages. The system provides initially for entry into the supplementary register of the British Charolais Herd Book of class A or foundation animals of a good beef type and showing marked signs of Charolais type out of a recognised beef or dual purpose breed by registered Charolais pedigree sires. The next stage is the admission of class B females out of registered class A stock, which shall have attained a weight of 9cwt at the age of 18 months, again by a fully pedigree Charolais sire. The same procedure applies for the admission of class C females and in this case the dam must have reached a weight of 9 J cwt at 18 months. Females out of class C cattle may subsequently gain admission as full pedigree cattle.

With his first crossbred heifers being mated at two vears of age. Mr Sutherland

f emphasised that the procedure would be long term. He will work with the Charolais Freisian cross and Charolais Aberdeen Angus cross females in the same way, hoping with the Friesian background in combination with the Charolais to produce a Charolais strain of outstanding milking ability. From birth to mating at two years all crossbred calves will be weighed every two weeks. It was possible, he said, that provision might be made for registration of overseas cattle in the Herd Book of the British Charolais Cattle Society, but if the breed proved of value in New Zealand it was of course likely that a society and herd book would eventually be established here. Mr Sutherland has been impressed with a system adopted by the Canadian Charolais Society. There breeders combine to purchase property and run all their bulls for sale together under identical feeding and environmental conditions, so that precise information is available to buyers about their growth rates etc. In the meantime he also hopes to use the first cross bull calves over his run cattle, and mating the resultant heifers with second crossbull calves as a result of further use of Charolais semen, and so on, he aims at moving towards Charolais characteristics in the run herd also. Mr Sutherland has been advised that Charolais semen for use next season has been cleared for export to him. He is unporting 125 ampoules of Charolais semen, carried in liquid nitrogen, from British Semen Exports Ltd., a joint venture between breed societies in Britain and artificial breeding authorities.

The demand for Charolais semen in Britain had increased so greatly—he understood it had gone up by about 26 times betw'een 1964 and 1965 and there were only 36 bulls of the breed in the country—that the cost of an ampoule to serve one cow had gone up from £1 last year to £4 this year. By the time that he got it out and used it on his farm at Waimate he expected that the cost per ampoule, including transport and

insemination, would probably work out at about £lO. Mr Sutherland said that the safeguards that were taken with the semen would appear to ensure that there was no chance of disease being introduced in this way. It was held in Britain for at least a month after it had been taken and it could only be imported into New Zealand if there was no diesease within 100 miles of the point of taking at the time of taking and in the following month. When it arrived in New Zealand it went into the Awahuri arti-

ficial breeding centre under quarantine for a further period In the case of the next consignment of semen he would be receiving he had been advised that it had been taken two months and longer before the recent outbreak of trouble in Britain and a long way from the trouble area. This semen of course comes from artificial breeding centres where cattle are under constant veterinary supervision and through which there is no traffic in cattle.