Couple caught in breeder backlash

Allan and Mary McKenzie at their 'Limousin North' stand at the Northland Field Days. Photo / Mike Barrington

Cattle bellow to scare off intruders, express suffering and confusion or to communicate with their herd.

The sound they make is called mooing in English and meuhing in French.

And after a "little spat" at a North Island Limousin Breeders Inc (NILB) meeting some of the French cattle fanciers were meuhing in distress over Allan and Mary McKenzie's "Limousin North" stand at the Northland Field Days at Dargaville last week.

The McKenzies ran a stand at the field days last year which attracted little attention. During a NILB meeting at Maungakaramea early last week the group decided the 2014 stand had not provided good value for money and would not be financially supported this year.

The McKenzies had then announced they would use the field days stand to promote their own Caberfeidh Limousin Stud at Wellsford.

Other northern breeders baulked over the couple's plans to call the display "Limousin North," claiming it inferred the stand represented NILB.

Fears were also expressed about the McKenzies intending to use a catalogue at the field days containing what one critic called "disgraceful" photographs of stock sold to the Wellsford stud.

NILB president Peta Lean, from the Kivlean Limousin Stud at Cambridge, described the wrangle over the field days stand as a "little spat" among members.

She said some members considered the name "Limousin North" incorrectly gave the impression the McKenzies represented northern studs other than their own.

Unconfirmed minutes of the Maungakaramea meeting recorded a recommendation for the stand to carry the name "Caberfeidh Stud" rather than "Limousin North, " she said.

A NILB member who asked not to be identified, said Northland Field Days officials had declined a request they had made for the stand name to be changed to "Caberfeidh" and the programme for the three-day show at Dargaville listed the stand as "Limousin North".

However, when The Land went to the field days on Friday the name "Caberfeidh" was prominently displayed and there was no sign of "Limousin North" or of the catalogue containing the stock photographs which had drawn objections.

Mr McKenzie, 75, said "Limousin North" was the name of his website and of no other entity.

He had been farming beef since 1961, was a former president of the NILB, had been president and secretary of Limousin NZ and was happy with what he was doing "trying to promote Limousin cattle".

Mr McKenzie chuckled as he described how he had recovered from cancer about three years ago and he suspected some of his critics would have been glad if he had died.