By Gianina Schwanecke of RNZ
Dean McHardy may be seeing more than three decades’ worth of work starting to pay off.
For the past 35 years, he’s been the general manager at Tangihau Station – a 6500ha sheep and beef farm west of Gisborne – and
Inside Tangihau Angus: How 35 years of breeding built a record-setting stud
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Tangihau Angus hopes these yearling bulls might set another record come next year's sale. Photo / RNZ
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Then, at this year’s sale in June, it took the record for the highest priced bull in New Zealand across all breeds with Lot 16, which sold for $161,000.
Tangihau Angus was founded in 1949 as a result of the difficulty they had in sourcing bulls that suited Tangihau’s specific terrain and climate.
Last year’s top bull was sold to Keith Higgins, of Oregon Angus in Masterton.
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Before that, the record had been held for more than 30 years by a bull that sold for $155,000 in 1992.
Tangihau Angus also had the highest bull sale average in New Zealand for the season at $24,880, and it also sold a charity bull for $16,000 that helped raise funds for a new bus for the local school, Rere School.
When McHardy started, there were 65 stud cows.
It’s now calving 240.
Next year marks the sixth on-farm sale.
Previously, it had run combined sales in Gisborne.
“Of course, there’s five other breeders who got five other lots of bulls that they can all hear and smell and upset them at times, so it’s perfect here.”
Running them at the station also means less transport stress for the stock and allows potential buyers to see where the animals have been raised.
From the station peak at an elevation of about 650m above sea level, McHardy explained the farm was steep and meant the bulls had to be “good on the ground”.
Calves are born on the flats and after a few days, are walked up to the hill country where they are reared.
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“We get snow up here, and so we can go from snow to drought,” McHardy said.
“Snow in the winter doesn’t sort of stay for long, but it does snow.
“You can see why we need to breed cattle with positive fats.
“They’ve got to carry their own hay barn with them here.
“We can’t feed out. It’s too steep. We can’t get tractors or anything out around here.”
McHardy said it was a “slow process” breeding better cattle, having been selecting for the right qualities for 30 of his 35 years as manager.
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It can take several years of selective breeding to achieve results for a specific trait – be that colour, backlines or feet type.
He’ll focus on fixing one before turning to other qualities.
His focus has been on breeding to the “middle of the road” rather than chasing extreme EBV (estimated breeding value) traits.
He wants “big-barrelled” bulls – “just good, functional cattle”.
“The structural soundness, the depth that we’ve been bringing.
“The nature – nice and quiet. I think it all helps and [they’re] very good meat value.”
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It was these qualities that other stud breeders and commercial buyers wanted to introduce into their own herds, McHardy said.
He hopes to sell up to 70 bulls next year – up from 48 this year.
And of course, he’s hoping to see more records set.
With the yearling bulls already weighing about half a tonne, he was quietly hopeful it would be a good sale day come June.
“They’re coming along well. They’re right up with last year.”
- RNZ
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