Believer in traditional beef breeds

Press, 18 August 1978, Page 10

Believer in traditional beef breeds

Mr lan Parks, who has a year-round business in fattening and supplying cattie for export and to the Dunedin retail trade, is a great believer in eye appraisal.

He told a cattlemen's field day at Orari Gorge station last week that eye appraisal was most important because of the differences in price between the various weights and grades of beef. Mr Parks related how about 1950 he purchased a property at Owaka, known as “The Whisp," and began developing it with particular emphasis on cattle. Now farmed by his two sons, it is this winter supporting 2100 to 2200 cattle including 600 Angus and Hereford breeding cows. In addition there is a flock of 9000 ewes. Fifteen years ago Mr Parks bought 400 acres at East Taieri, 300 of them being on the flats. It is very high producing grass country, with an estimated capacity of two bullocks an acre in summer. It is the final link in the Parks enterprise, which aims to breed, grow and fatten its own stock. Mr Parks explained how the calves, on weaning, were wintered on hay and turnips, then run out on the hills until they t were two years of age. The next move was to bring them down to Taieri for fattening. Mr Parks is a staunch

advocate of the traditional breeds, the Angus and the Hereford, but he gives the Angus-cross top billing because of the preference butchers have shown for it. His buyers, he said, did not come on the place; they simply telephoned, stipulating the weights and number of cattle to be sent in. "They say the quality is always good; what better confidence can a buyer have.’’ Mr Parks recalled how he once attended a meeting in Balclutha called to discuss the production of dairy beef. “It was obvious that those running the evening felt that unless you were crossing you were producing something too fat and overdone for the export trade.” Late in the evening he was asked for his opinion, and he replied that rather than go in for dairy beef, or try new crosses with foreign breeds, farmers would be better advised to use the breeds which have stood to us best for 100 years.

“The Angus and Hereford have been our best cattle, and in another 100 years they will still be our best,” Mr Parks said. Mr Parks said he was a great believer in eye appraisal because of the various weight ranges and grades for beef. The trend in export was for a heavier carcase, and to get them to that weight they must be allowed to grow.

"You don’t want them fat all the time.”

On his property Mr Parks aims to take his bullocks to the 320 kg weight range. As far as Angus cattle were concerned that was fairly heavy. But he cited one drafting of 55 Angus bullocks which weighed out at 342 kg. Fifty-two of them graded Prime 1, the other three being G’s. Last year he had an Angus steer, aged 32 months, weigh out at 511 kg (11251 b and a three-year-old steer 592 kg (13031 b The first might not have been a Pl, but he would have expected the other to have made top grading had it gone for export. The breeding herd at Owaka had comprised mainly Angus and Hereford cows, but more recently his sons bred up an initial group of 60 Angus-cross. They were very pleased with them. Put back to the Angus or Hereford bull, these cows produced a very good class of calf. “Anyone breeding calves for sale on weaning can do a lot worse than use the Angus-cross cow.” Mr Parks would not express a preference for either breed of bull when mating back over the firstcross cow, except that the Hereford gave the progeny a dash of white on the shoulder, and this made them most attractive. Because of the numbers of stock now being bred on “The Whisp,” Mr Parks no longer buys in large numbers of store bullocks. However, he retains a strong interest in the

Molesworth steers of which he has been one of the biggest individual buyers. His best tally at one of these annual sales was 220; the average alone that year was more than $lBO a head. Of bought-in cattle, Mr

Parks rates the Molesworth steers as among the best. “Our butchers love them. The Molesworth cattle spend their lives growing, then they fatten quickly, and they are good quality.” Expanding on the prefer-

ence shown by butchers for the Angus-cross beast, Mr Parks said it was probably because of their overall evenness of carcase. But he, himself, saw little difference between good quality Angus and Hereford bullocks.