Calf nursery set to produce strong beef

By Philippa Stevenson

A Waikato couple are showing supreme faith in the buffeted bull beef market by setting up one of the largest calf-rearing operations in New Zealand.

Karen and Rob McCredie aim to rear up to 5000 bull calves on a 120ha farm near Matamata by December.

Calfland is already home to more than 600 calves purchased since mid-March.

"Our product is liked out there," said Mr McCredie who has refined a successful system during some of the bleakest years for calf-rearing.

Since 1996, low prices for beef, mainly from the United States, have seen many farmers stop rearing calves because costs outstripped returns. Beef numbers, including dairy beef, fell by 14 per cent in the North Island between 1988 and last year.

Recent upward movement in beef prices have increased demand for stock but Mr McCredie was always confident his calves would find a ready market with bull beef finishers.

The key was to ensure calves were weaned and had good rumen development when they left the farm weighing 100kg at about 12 weeks old.

"No one wants calves which have had tender loving care but are still on milk. They don't have rumen development so they can't convert grass," he said.

The calves, bought when four-days-old, were given "as much as they could eat" of barley straw and meal to encourage rumen development, along with a daily allowance of fortified milk, from the moment they arrived at Calfland.

In an unusual move, the McCredies pump fresh milk from their own herd of 155 autumn calving cows straight from the dairy shed vat to two 78-teat, metered calf feeders. PCL Bloom calf milk replacer is added at the rate of 250g a two-litre calf ration before it leaves the vat.

The couple built the 22-aside herringbone milking plant in 1997 with the help of family and friends to keep costs down.

Mr McCredie said the investment has been worth it in a business in which "the sky is the limit" in calf numbers.

"We'll do 5000 calves with three people. It is not labour-intensive. It takes one hour, 40 minutes to feed 550 calves," he said.

Livestock agent Garry Remnant of Livestock Sales RHB said while many dairy farmers continued to rear calves in lots of around 20 "for a bit of money at Christmas", calf-rearing was increasingly becoming a professional operation.

"There is a huge demand for good, weaned calves. They go on to a farm and put on weight. The ones not properly weaned slip back," he said.

Wrightson Livestock manager Neil Lyons said there was presently a lot of interest in calves at the main sale centre for them at Tuakau. At the sale last week prices were as high as $140, but Mr Lyons said the autumn market was generally strong.