Breeding Principles

Here at Ngakouka Herefords we work on the belief that ‘the cows work for us, we don’t work for the cows’. Apart from mating in the first two cycles and calving, the cows have sheep under or in front of them all year. This way we find out the true cow performers and this consequently makes culling easier. All heifers are joined as yearlings. Dry heifers and cows across the herd are culled at pregnancy testing. This breeding policy has been in place since starting the stud in 2000. Our cows are subjected to the same pressures expected of any commercial cattle.

Cattle Selection and EBV traits

Bruce places a large emphasis on the cattle’s structural conformation, soft skins and hair types, and heavy muscled back ends.  These traits, we believe, produce easy doing and fleshy cattle.  Our sire selection is based on this type of animal.  The dam line of a potential sire is assessed on fertility then EBVs are considered once the visual appraisal has been ticked off.  The EBV traits that are looked at seriously are: milk, fats, and scrotum size.  These three traits have a large influence on other EBVs, so by selecting these three we get the direct benefit of the rest.

Our cattle are commercially tested on ‘Mironui’ and will perform very well anywhere they are placed.  Our farm has only 15% of 500 effective ha wheel tractor country, hence the cattle are well conditioned to hill country.  They will shift.