Brahman blood used in Mackenzie herd

Press, Volume CXI, Issue 32720, 24 September 1971, Page 13

Brahman blood used in Mackenzie herd

On the 35,000-acre Haldon station in the Mackenzie Country they are looking for the best beef breed cow to run on snow tussock country and in the process in the current cattle breeding season they inseminated some 80 cows of the Hereford, Friesian and Friesian* Hereford cross breeds with Brahman semen from Australia.

These crossbred calves are now being bom and by late last week there were four on the property. On Haldon it has already been found that the Friesian - Hereford and Friesian females are much superior to the straight Hereford on the basis of the weaning weights of their progeny. Mr J. L S. Innes, who is closely associated with the cattle work on the station, says that in the last season, where Friesian, Hereford and Friesian-Hereford cows were mated with Angus and Friesian bulls, at weaning the calves of the Friesian - Herefords were about 1001 b heavier than those from the pure Herefords. The following are details of the actual results: Cow Bull Weang. Wgt. Lb Friesian Friesian 552 Hereford Friesian 510 Hereford Angus 503 Fries-Heref. Angus 620 It was also found on the station in 1969 where cows were wintered on a bare maintenance ration—they were running on country being cleaned up prior to topdressing that the Friesian cows actually lost less weight than the Herefords. There have, however, been reports from at least one other South Canterbury property of Friesians finding the going difficult under intensive summer drought conditions, but in the light of their experience Haldon are proposing to mate a considerable number of their commercial cows—in fact all of those that are not going into a herd aimed at upgrading the Hereford breed—to the Friesian to produce the crossbred heifer. Friesian cows that have just been milking and also calves of the breed bom to high growth rate bulls have been brought on to Haldon from dairying properties, and in particular one town milk supply property at Springston. To the picture the Innesses are now adding the Brahman so that they will have BrahmanFriesian, Brahman-Here-ford and BrahmanFrieslan - Hereford cross cows to compare with the Hereford, Friesian, Friesian-Hereford and the Angus-Hereford. The Brahman caught the eye of Mr James Innes when he recently visited Australia. In using blood of the breed in their herd the Innesses are looking for resistance to bloat, heat

tolerance and also possibly more effective use of high fibre low protein feed. They are also interested in the sort of boost that they can get to, a Characteristic like milking ability from the hybrid vigour in the' Brahman cross as the Brahman breed is far removed from widely used British breeds. Nevertheless an eye will be kept on a possible fertility problem 'with the Brahman crosses. Up to late last week four Brahman cross calves had been bom and at that stage three were males and one female, with the latter, however, being a member of a twin birth with a male so that it is unlikely to be fertile. There was a wide range of colours in the calves. Where, an aged Friesian cow had dropped a crossbred calf it. was a speckled caramel brown and white. The twin cglves bom to a three-year-old Friesian cow were black with white chests and one had a touch of white on its tail. The fourth calf of out a Mriesian-Hereford cross cow was a chocolate brown, and white. The-calves had long and floppy ears, the traditional hump of the Brahman, which is so noticeable and characteristic of the breed in later life, was not obvious in these calves but it could be felt to be there when the calves were closely examined, they were very leggy and in one a large dewlap was also observed., In the trials to determine the most suitable cow for running tinder tussock conditions' Mr James Innes says that they have in mind using as the top cross a Hereford or Simmental and possibly a high growth rate Friesian. They have on the property a Friesian bull which weighed between 1000 and 11201 b at a year old. They plan to measure the growth rate of the progeny of the various breeds of cows and also possibly to do some carcase analysis on them. Mr James Innes says that while it looks as though the Friesian-Hereford cow will take a lot of beating, the Brahman-Hereford could be a ragged type of beast and the Braham-Friesian-Hereford crass could also be a useful animal.

Haldon is also the site of a scheme to improve or upgrade the Hereford breed. A private company called Gene Fool, Ltd, has been established to supervise this operation. In this enterprise 80 cows from the station and also 39 cows from 12

other properties have gone into a nucleus herd which will be known as the testing herd. These cattle will be mated in the next season

with progeny tested Australian and New Zealand bulls by artificial insemination and it is also probable that a station bull and a bull from Mr R. S. A. Chaffey, of Marlborough, will be naturally mated with cattle in this herd. More cattle from contributing herds will come into this herd annually and while

at the same time there will be a culling programme it is expected to soon reach a strength of at least 500. In the testing herd the cows will be performance tested and compared with each other for a period of about two years and at that stage the company will acquire about 20 per cent of the top females for inclusion in what will be known as the company herd. Payment will be made by way of shares in the company and a cash bonus depending on the cow’s ranking in the herd. A really top growth rate young bull, that is also structurally sound, may also be acquired for use in the nucleus herd. Bulls bred in the company herd will be offered for sale initially to breeders in the Gene Pool organisation on a roster system with first preference being given to those with cows in the company herd, then to those in the testing herd and finally to those associated with the organisation or with cows in regional herds, with in all cases preference being given to those having made the greatest contribution of genetic merit to the herds on the basis of the ratings of their animals. > Breeders who have cattle in the testing herd will be charged a grazing and management fee which covers the cost of having a cow in the herd for a year and her immediate progeny up to 15 months, and includes mating. It is also proposed to use cull cows from the nucleus herd in a Simmental breeding scheme. This season Friesian and Hereford-Friesian cows are being used to multiple suckle calves on Haldon. About three days after calving a cow is brought in to the yard, the calf removed and the cow shut up for 24 hours, after which she is given an injection in the vagina with Lugol’s iodine which gives her the impression that she is calving again. At this stage her calf and another one or two calves are put with her, depending on her likely milking ability, and after another 12 to 24 hours they are all put out on to a small paddock for two or three days and then into a larger paddock to run with a mob of about 10 cows and their calves. This season it is planned to keep the Friesian and crossbred cows separate to enable a study to be made of the ability of the crossbred cows to multiple suckle.