BULLETINSPRING 2013

SILVERSTREAM CHAROLAIS

the

Fisher Family2105 Chch Akaroa RdRD2, Christchurch 7672

Ph: 03 329 0994Mob: 027 251 4791

Welcome to our spring edition of the Bulletin. This year has flown by and it did

not seem that long ago it was our

bull sale. This year we celebrated our 25th Annual Sale and it was a successful o

ne. Our average was down a bit on

last year but we sold more bulls to more people and welcomed a lot of new buy

ers. Next year we will see the first

of our Hereford bulls being sold.

Shortly after the bull sale we got one of the wettest spells ever thrown at us.

This was exacerbated by a very high

lake that should have been released when we were given the weather warnings.

We had friends that had water lapping

at their doorsteps which they had never seen before. Fortunately our house is s

ituated in a nice dry spot but the

water did give us a bit of grief down on the farm. We believe the harvested fo

dder beet was our saviour during this

time. We managed to get stock out of wet paddocks into drier areas or on trac

ks. The stock were fed harvested

fodder beet and they actually put on condition during this time. We managed t

o get through this time extremely

well and then Anna and I left for our trip to France and Canada. Anna has cove

red our trip in the newsletter. We

had a really great time and met some really great people on our travels. Since

being back we have had numerous

inquiries about our genetics from the places we visited. From this trip we deci

ded to sell the Canadian semen rights

of Evolution. This will go to auction at ‘Agribition’ on the 14th November Cana

dian time.

We finished calving a fortnight ago now so calved 240 cows over a 7 week perio

d. The calves are doing well, the

cows are in great order and it is good to see a lot of them have cycled already.

We have another awesome line of

60 odd Evolution calves. He is a bull that continues to amaze us in the way he

is breeding. We believe he has taken

things to a new level here at Silverstream. After sorting the cows into their m

ating mobs last weekend we found

that there was not one Evolution calf that wasn’t an impressive animal.

We calved down 50 odd Hereford cows this spring and are really pleased with t

he quality of the calves and how well

they are doing. Seeing as our Hereford herd was growing we decided we better

get a bull for them so we purchased

‘Gay Olympus’ from the Maungahina stud in Masterton. He is a big deep bull w

ith plenty of meat and bone on him.

We are really pleased with him and how he is going on.

We are still continuing with the fodder beet trials and have added a couple of a

rticles to update you on what is

happening on that front. We really enjoy looking into new ways of improving be

ef cattle efficiency and are really

pleased with the results we are getting. We believe that fodder beet holds grea

t potential for finishing and wintering

beef cattle.Well there is no rest for the wicked. W

e have 200 hectares out for cropping that is undergoing tractor work as we

speak and of course Christchurch Show is next week and Anna has a team of 10

going. Fortunately she has acquired

an Aussie groom and young Rowan Sandford to help her. This year with her sta

ff I may not be required but I

suppose you always need someone to drink the beer and handout the pamphlets

.

Wishing you all the best over the summer months and hope to see some of you

next week,

Kind regardsBrent & Anna and Bruce & Maureen Fis

her.

SILVERSTREAM EVOLUTION E168

13 month progeny sired by Evolution

He just keeps on

getting better!

FLYING THE KIWI FLAG IN FRANCE AND CANADAOUR OVERSEAS CHAROLAIS EXPERIENCE By Anna Fisher

Earlier this year I decided it was time for me to finally travel overseas and see the world. So on July the 11th I left New Zealand to go to my first destination Amsterdam with my best friend and her parents. It was only a short 2 day visit and then we all went down to Portugal where we spend 5 days in Lisbon and 3 days in Porto. Both these cities were very old with cobbled streets and some beautiful old architecture. There were many sites to see and things to do. The Portuguese were very friendly and both places had a laid back fun atmosphere. After 10 days of being a tourist I was really happy with my experiences but felt I had seen enough old buildings and one street started to look the same as the next so I was ready to move on to the next part of my trip.

The main purpose of the trip was to go and look at the Charolais cattle in France and look at new potential genetics to bring back into N.Z. So on July 22nd I flew into Paris where I met up with a weary Brent with very swollen feet who had just arrived from N.Z (I had bought him some pressure socks for DVT but he had instead mixed them up with a pair of ankle socks from the Warehouse!?). We spent a day round Paris which was very hot and the traffic and people were very hectic. The following day we took a train south to Dijon where we rented a car. When you turn down a GPS and insurance offered by the rental car company you feel regretful when you find yourself lost driving the wrong way down a tram track an hour later! Dijon is where we met up with Sebastian and Simon who were to be our tour guides for the next 24 hours. Both these guys worked for a semen company called ‘Genes Diffusion’ This Company has over 200,000 registered Charolais cows which 2,000 are classed as their elite herd. From these Elite cows the top 70 odd bulls are selected and put together in a bull trial unit. From this the best 15 are selected and carry on to be in a progeny test. It gives you such great confidence when selecting a bull as they are working with such large numbers of cattle and have very accurate data on each bull as a result of extensive progeny testing of their sons and daughters.

We were very fortunate to have these two great people show us around. Sebastian spoke excellent English and Simon wasn’t too bad at it either which was fortunate as Brent and I only bothered to learn ‘hello’, goodbye’ and ‘thank you’ but nevertheless we spoke these words a lot which they really appreciated. Every farm we visited the people were super friendly. We would sit round a table with them and have a beer, and all we could do was say hello and smile but we could tell they were so pleased we had come to visit them. We also had Sebastian to interpret. Because we are in the same industry we did not find the language barrier too much of an issue in the field as we just used a bit of sign language to describe types of cattle and we could talk names in pedigrees.Over 2 days we visited 5 farms. Brent and I were very impressed with the French cattle. They had a bit of size, volume and frame without being too coarse to look at. They were structurally very good and had good feet and udders. The cattle we saw were in very good condition and even saw a mob of cows whose calves averaged over 500kg. The French in recent times have concentrated on having more functional, fertile females who calve down easily. They are also focusing more on the polled cattle with 10% of their herd now being polled. The French cows were truly a pleasure to see. We saw outstanding females sired by Pinay, Suedois, Jumper, Sidney and Magenta. The Jumper cattle were a favourite of mine. He is very old bull who has done a tremendous job over there.

We were sad to say goodbye to Sebastian and Simon they were such great people who we have kept in touch with since being back. We took a quick visit to the Charolais museum in Charolles and then continued our drive to southern France which proved to be very fractious. We took the toll motorway and at every toll we either managed to get into the wrong lane, not have a ticket or not have the right payment method and on top of that everything seemed to be at a very hectic pace. The speed limit was 130km/hr but that was only an indication because at 140km/hr we were still in the slow lane!

Charolais heifers seek shade on a hot day near Autun, France.

A beautiful 18 month heifer we saw on a porperty near Autun. She is sired by French bull Tinor.

The French countryside was very beautiful. The country was rolling hills with hedges and little French villages only a couple of miles apart. In France there is virtually no cross-breeding. Irrespective of breeds most are straightbred and when you go into regions the cattle are all the same breed. We saw Charolais all over central France. They were as numerous as dairy cattle in the Waikato and in the rolling hills with the stunning landscapes they were quite a site to see. Once we got to southern France we stayed in Nice for a night but did catch the train Monaco for a quick look around. This place was a real eye opener as there is so much wealth in this country The super yachts were amazing and everyone drove Bentleys, Ferraris, McLaren’s and Lamborghinis. There was no Hyundai dealership there!

From France we went to New York. For those of you who have not been you certainly need to put this on your bucket list. It is a truly an amazing city that is so vibrant and exciting. We spent a short two days there but managed to go to Central Park, the Museum of Natural History, Wall Street and 9/11, go up the Empire State Building, see Times Square, walk the High Line and see a Broadway show. It is a place that is easy to get round, has so many famous sites and plenty to do. For a couple of people that don’t get excited by cities we both loved this place and can’t wait to go back sometime but would definitely need a week there.

After we departed New York we flew into Canada where we spent 6 days travelling to different studs from Winnipeg through to Calgary. Canada is a huge place with perhaps not the most exciting scenery where we travelled, unless you like looking at fields of canola and oil rigs but we really did enjoy our travels there and the hospitality we received. Studs we visited included, HTA Charolais, TRI-N Charolais, Pleasant Dawn Charolais,

Wilgenbusch Charolais, McTavish Charolais, Vikse Charolais, Sparrow Farms and Harvie Ranches.

18 month heifers at Tri-N Charolais of the Nykoliation Family in Manitoba, Canada.

The cattle in Canada perhaps didn’t have the volume, bone and power of the French cattle but the breeders over there have to be praised for the functionality of their cows. All these places had such lovely females. They were very pleasing to look at as they were sound and very feminine. The cows had superb udders and their ability to rear a good calf was outstanding. The cattle within and across the herds were very even. They were moderate framed cattle with an easy doing ability. We were also lucky enough to see calves by Silverstream Performer at Tri- N and Pleasant Dawn. We also saw ‘TRI-N Prefix’ at the Vikse’s who was the Performer son who sold for $37,000 last year. Canada was a lot easier to navigate ourselves round then France as everything is on a grid format and it’s a little bit exciting when you actually go round a corner. The size and scale of Canada is mindboggling. Most of what we saw was cropping with no fences and no trees and the land was dead flat. During our travels we spent a night in Regina with Helge and Candace By. We had a really pleasant night with Helge and Candace and they toured us around their town the following day. Regina is where Agribition is held and it is a really beautiful town with huge parks and a lake. As we travelled across Alberta the country started to become more scenic and we spent our last night in Banff in the Rocky Mountains. Before we could get home we had to fly from Calgary to Dallas and then a 16 hour flight to Brisbane. After what seemed like a very rushed trip all around the world it was nice to spend time with our Aussie mates at Brisbane show.

After 32 days and 17 flights we were both really glad to be home. It was a very rewarding trip and we loved our experiences but we also believe in comparison to where we had been New Zealand is a pretty amazing country too. We met so many great people on our trip, we believe we did a good job promoting our herd and New Zealand Charolais in both Canada and France and hopefully we will see some of these people come to N.Z soon!

Brent in Monaco thinking beef prices will have to improve before he can afford one of these babys!

Anna in Times Square, New York City. Half a million people cross through this intersection every day and it costs a whopping $10,000 a day to advertise on one of it’s billboards.

Cows and calves at Sparrow Farms near Saskatchewan, Canada.

Fox Glacier on the West Coast of the South Island would be one of the best parts of New Zealand. It is a truly beautiful and untouched part of the world. As you head south to Fox on the main highway you get your fair serving of mountains, lakes, native bush and coastline. The scenery would be some of the most unique and breathtaking in New Zealand and even perhaps the world. On the way down you also notice a lot of nice farming country that would have been cleared from the bush years ago. If you look hard you can see the farms go miles back into the big valleys. In Fox Glacier the atmosphere is pretty relaxed and so are the people. The ‘Coasters’ are extremely friendly and love it when others visit. Wayne and Maggie Williams have lived on the Coast all their lives and are no exception to this.

The Williams family have been in Fox Glacier from the beginning. Wayne’s great- grandfather was one of the first settlers in Fox in the 1890’s. They moved in from Gillespies Beach where gold mining took place. Wayne’s great-grandfather had a large family of 4 boys and 5 girls. The original farm was divided between all of the boys. One of the boys was Lawrence (Lawn), Wayne’s grandfather. Wayne’s father ‘Reeve’ bought the farm of Lawn in the 1960’s as he had three sisters. In 1975 Wayne left boarding school to come home and help his father on the farm. He has pretty much been there ever since apart from a couple of winters back in the early 80’s where he went to Australia and worked on sugar cane properties. He also did a small stint working as ground crew for deer hunters in Haast.Maggie was a born and bred ‘Coaster’ as well. Her family were sheep and beef farmers from Whataroa just north of Fox. Maggie plays a big part in the farm and you will often find Maggie feeding out through the winters. She is basically Wayne’s ‘right hand man’ or ‘little lady’ as Wayne refers to her. Wayne and Maggie have 4 children who are all grown up now. Johnny is the eldest and is shearing in South Australia. Emma is currently working for Jane Jenkins at ‘Floridale Angus’, Ben has been on a digger in the gold mines in Kumara and is due spend a couple of months back at home. He has also done a year working here at Silverstream. The youngest

Laura is over in Dysart in Queensland and earlier this year gave Wayne and Maggie their first grandchild Riley.Although Wayne and Maggie sell some of the best Charolais cross calves around they are actually Hereford patriots. They have an 80 strong herd of stud horned Hereford cows which Lawn established back in the 1940’s under the ‘Bluedale’ prefix. When Lawn retired and moved to Rangiora he took only half the herd with him. Reeve retained the rest and then bought some later on when his father dispersed. Reeve established what is now ‘Glacier Herefords’. With Herefords now being established at Silverstream we have had a close affiliation with the William’s and their Herefords. Two years ago we started a relationship where we took Wayne’s top two yearling bulls and took them to the local shows for him. We would use one over our females and then take them to ‘Beef Expo’ to be sold. The first year was a huge success as ‘Glacier Top 367’ won the prestigious ‘Champion of Champions’ title and went on to sell for $14,000. We have just had our second crop of calves by Glacier bulls and they are looking really promising. The Williams property is 580ha and including leases covers 850ha. A couple of kilometres down ‘Cook Flat Road’ in Fox Glacier you would find the Williams property on both sides of you. It is beautiful flat land where the grass is always green. Overlooking the property is a spectacular site. On a clear day you get an amazing view of Mount Cook and the Fox Glacier itself. This site among other activities brings a lot of tourists to Fox Glacier and Franz Josef which is only 15 minutes away.

Fox Glacier Township and the William’s property is a hive of activity. When working in the William’s cattle yards you can hear little squeals and talking coming from above. These are tourists in parachutes who land on a strip that the William’s leases out to the local skydivers. This road also takes you to Lake Matheson and Gillespies Beach so can be very busy with campervans and tourists. The road is also Wayne’s main stock lane.

CLIENT PROFILE: WAYNE & MAGGIE WILLIAMS

FOX GLACIER

The Williams Family. From left: Johnny, Emma, Wayne, Maggie, Ben and Laura.

“I can sit back at the weaner sale and feel proud of my Charolais calves”

An aerial shot of Fox Glacier and its township that Anna took while in a parachute during her skydive.

Between the farm and the coast is a big ‘river run’. This ‘river run’ is 2025ha which Wayne leases with Maurice Sullivan, Pe-ter Helford and Kevin Williams. These runs are not uncommon on the West Coast. They belong to the Department of Conser-vation (DOC). DOC allocates the number of cows that can be run on the block and they have to be tagged with a particular tag to identify them. Wayne has 200 commercial cows which run out there during the winter. In total the 4 farmers run over 500 cows on this block.

The cows are weaned in April and turned out on the run and then mustered back in just before mating. The ‘muster’ is a big event and usually takes a couple of weeks to complete. Wayne says the cows tend to stick in their mobs which makes it easier in the big sort up. The cows have to be brought over a river so they only like to deal with small mobs of 40-60 at a time otherwise they can break away at the crossing. The final muster is carried out in a helicopter to get the last few out of the gorse and swamp area. Wayne says the temperament of the cattle over the years has improved dramatically. Wayne’s first muster was back in 1975 when he came home as a teen-ager. Back then if the cows broke down the river towards the river mouth you could not stop them and it would be difficult to get them back. Wayne, Kevin, Peter and Maurice have all worked on the temperament and it has made the job easier every year. He also believes the way they are handled makes a difference as nowadays they are mustered with motorbikes and helicopters and the use of horses has been phased out.

They also don’t use dogs. Wayne hates using dogs on cows with young calves so this helps keep the cows more settled. The job is made easier if the river isn’t too high but after big rains like this year the river can get high. If the river is high the calves will swim but it is hard on the very young ones. The calves never drown and rarely get swept down the river but if they do they can get pretty exhausted. Wayne recalls a time when his brother was helping in the helicopter and they tied calves to the chopper and dropped them over in the grass on the other side to save them the struggle of the swim across.

After the muster the cows are sorted into their mating mobs and stay on the home farm till weaning. The 200 commercial cows consist mainly of straight Herefords but there are a few black cows he bought off a local farmer who converted to dairying. Of the 200 cows only 40 of the very best are put back to the Hereford bull. Wayne doesn’t want to waste timebreeding replacement females from unworthy cows. 30 odd heifers are mated to an Angus bull and the rest are put to the Charolais.

Although he is a Hereford man at heart he can only see benefits of using a Charolais terminal sire. He says ‘I love the Charolais cross calves and while the money for them is good I won’t change’. There is roughly 120-130 Charolais cross calves and they are sold in the weaner fair at Whataroa in April. The William’s calves are usually at the top end of the sale. Last year’s calves averaged $690/hd at an average weight of 310kg. The top pen of steers made $840/head but were weighing over 350kg. The top heifers weighing 339kg made $710. Admittedly this year’s prices were back a bit on last year. A local farmer who is also a great client of ours, Jim Ferguson usually picks up 90% of the Williams calves. He takes them through and does an extremely good job of finishing them. They will be killed before the second winter at huge carcass weights. Wayne thinks his calves look pretty good. He says ‘I can sit back at the weaner sale and feel proud of my Charolais calves’. Wayne use to keep his top 10 steers and would have them killed by October.

“I love the Charolais cross calves and while the money is good for them I won’t change”

The ‘run muster’.

The cows and calves swimming accross the river in the run muster.

The William’s charolais calves just before the weaner fair at Whataroa.

Wayne takes the straight bred and Angus calves through to the spring and sells them in November in the Haast sale. Last year these steers average around 470kg. Young stock seem to do pretty well on the coast. The average rainfall in Fox is around 5000mm (5 metres!) annually and the spring is when most of it falls. There are good top soils on the property but with shingle underneath so fortunately the property is very free draining. The winter is relatively dry and the temperatures range between -1 and 10oC so is a pretty easy climate on young stock. Wayne’s says they can get a bit of a false spring and then get a heap of rain. When the rain does start to fall and doesn’t stop the stock do get sick of it and stop growing for a bit. Alongside the cattle the property also runs 400 Perendale ewes, 230 hinds and 100 velveting stags. The deer are Warnham and Woburn. A Wapiti stag runs with half the red hinds and their offspring are sold in May as weaners at about 85+kg. The other half of the hinds run with a Warnham or Woburn stag. The female progeny are kept for replacements while the best of the males are kept for velveting.

Wayne believes he has been coming to Silverstream for over 10 years now to buy Charolais bulls. He doesn’t muck around and usually gets bulls from the top end of the sale. He likes bulls that have plenty of bone, carcass and a good thick coat. He can see the direct result in his calves. He says’ I like to see plenty of muscle, meat and bone in the little buggers’.

One of the William’s stags with Fox Glacier in the backdrop.

FINDING EFFICIENCY WITH FODDER BEET

An update on our trial

In our last issue we talked about fodder beet and the trial that we were conducting with Lincoln University. The initial trial was aimed at weaning calves early and putting the calves onto good pasture and then fodder beet in April with the aim of being able to have export weight cattle ready at 13-14 months.The calves have just finished on the fodder beet crop on the 20th of October having started in the beginning of April. To our knowledge cattle have not been grazed on fodder beet for that length of time. They are now on high quality pasture and are still being fed harvested sugar beet. Amazingly after all that time on the crop they are still very keen to eat the beet even though they have ample grass. While our aim was to have these cattle at export weights by 13-14 months it would seem that we will be closer to 15-16 months.We are very happy with the results from our first attempt with fodder beet and we believe we have identified areas for improvement. The calves on the 20th of October averaged 410kg with the heaviest around 470kg (The calves began in mid Feb at an average weight of 210kg). They have achieved an average weight gain of 0.8kg per day. While that is pleasing we would like to think we can improve this with a few changes. However the key will be how well they do on spring pasture. I believe that because these cattle are so well forward and that they have been well set up in terms of their ability to consume large amounts of feed they should achieve extremely high growth rates over the next couple of months. This will give us a true cost benefit of the entire project. Spring grass is the cheapest and best feed available and over many years of recording weights in cattle we have we have seen spectacular growth rates of stock in the spring. The challenge is to have cattle forward enough to be able to take advantage of it. There is a lot to cover in one article on this subject so here are some key points that I think are important to consider. We are intending on carrying on the trial next year to see if we can improve on what we have learned.

Key points to consider from fodder beet calf trial

• There is no reason to fear fodder beet as long as you introduce the animals to the crop slowly and lift the ration slowly you won’t kill them through acidosis.• Cattle of all ages seem to love eating fodder beet• In cattle diets the limiting factor for growth is metabolisable energy (ME). Fodder beet has an exceptionally high ME but is a poor source of protein. Our observation is that to improve growth rates another protein source that is cost effective is required.• Wastage with fodder beet is very minimal. There is an exceptionally high utilisation from fodder beet even during wet periods which we experienced. The cattle will go back days later and eat what has been trampled and left.• The ability to carry a large number of stock on a small area and have them going forward is a huge advantage in a farming system.• Having grass available nearby in the spring would be a huge advantage. We believe that if we could increase the intake of grass in their diets from the beginning of September onwards would have had the cattle more forward and having them off the crop and on grass from late September with the ability to still feed them harvested fodder/sugar beet would be an advantage.• Anecdotally the cows that had their calves weaned in February from the Banks Peninsula properties that supplied the calves are in better condition than their counter-parts who had their calves weaned in April. This should improve the overall and subsequent performance of the cows.• The quality of the calves is important. In general the heavier calves at weaning have performed best in the trial.• The type of calf is important. The cattle off fodder beet are a lot further forward in terms of condition. Our observation which is yet to be proven is that the smaller framed type animal may struggle to get to export weights without being over fat. • Harvested fodder beet has proven to be an exceptional and cost effective supplementary feed for all our other stock classes. Young stock put on feed pad situations for short periods of time when it was extremely wet were fed harvested fodder beet and actually put on condition over this time.

FINDING EFFICIENCY WITH FODDER BEET

When beef is in short supply

One of the challenges for the beef industry is to supply cattle on a year round basis and to supply cattle that are of a high quality for the discerning markets. If we want to be properly paid we need to supply on a consistent basis. The winter months are a time when the meat companies struggle to procure quality beef cattle. To try and look at ways of meeting this difficult market we decided to run a trial finishing rising 2 steers on fodder beet as we had a surplus of fodder beet that the rising 1 steers would not need. The steers to be in the trial were a mob of 66 that were left over from a previous trial unrelated to fodder beet of 130 head. The top half of these steers were killed last season. The 66 steers were split into two different sub trials. One mob were break fed on the actual fodder beet crop while the other mob were behind a wire on a feed pad situation being fed harvested sugar beet. Both mobs received a supplement of hay.

Before the mob was split they had grown 1.17kg/day over 35 days during the month of June. We felt that this was reasonable performance as during this time they had gone through the transition phase and the worst wet season our area had seen in 20 years. The issue we faced in this trial was the lack of protein in the diet of both mobs. The fodder beet bulb has very little protein and the hay was not providing them with their requirement. The steers on the crop initially performed better as they were receiving protein from the fodder beet leaf. After being overseas for a month we came home in mid August to discover the steers on the harvested sugar beet had not moved forward at all. We promptly changed them to a diet of ad lib harvested sugar beet and 4kgs of grass. The turnaround in these steers was spectacular and we killed the first of them in early October. They averaged 1.8kg/day over this time. While the weight gain in these cattle was pleasing what was most impressive was the thickness and finish in the cattle. This has reflected in the dressing out percentage. The Charolais cross lines that have been killed have ranged from 57-58.15% and the Angus have ranged between 54-56.1%. These results are exciting as the industry standard is 52%. For every 1% shift in dressing percentage of a 550kg steer is 5.5kg more carcass weight. A 52% dressing out on a 550kg steer is 286kg of carcass while at 58% it would be 319kg of carcass. These are some figures that are often overlooked when cattle are sold

on a cents per kilogram basis. The steers on the crop did not get the check like the other steers and grew at around 1.2kg/day. The first cattle that were killed came from this line. The average weight gain of the steers during the month of October was 2.3kg with some steers doing over 3kg/day.

We have been into the Belfast plant on two occasions to inspect the carcasses and see the grading of these steers. The carcasses showed an extremely good meat colour and a very white fat. We have also tasted the beef and were really pleased with it. What Silver Fern Farms are doing in terms with coming up with a grading system to guarantee a high quality eating experience is a huge step in the right direction. The Challenge to them is to use it to take beef to a new level. While a 25 cent premium for beef bred cattle that qualify for their reserve grade is commendable the reality is, due to competing land use the actual base needs to be far higher.Just over a month ago a ‘fodder beet field day’ was held here at Silverstream. It was really pleasing to see a number of people who were prepared to give growing fodder beet a go. We believe there is untapped potential with fodder beet as a winter finishing crop and as a high quality supplementary feed. Fodder beet is quite an old crop and has been around for years but it is not until now be are seeing the potential of the crop. It is unfortunate that there is little research in New Zealand on finishing beef cattle and from what we have seen there is huge amount of work that could be done in this area.

Harvesting the fodder beet and sugar beet.

The rising 2 steers grazing on the crop at the beginning of October.

David Walsh from Seed Force speaking at the field day.

BRENT & ANNA FISHER2105 CHRISTCHURCH AKAROA RDRD2, CHRISTCHURCH 7672www.silverstreamcharolais.co.nz

SILVERSTREAM CHAROLAIS

Pute Hank H101- One of our first Hereford bulls to be on offer next year.

Our new sire purchased from the Maungahina Stud of the McKenzie family in Masterton.

The Hereford herd is now well established at Silverstream. This year we successfully calved down 50 Hereford females and even bought our very first stud sire.

Our line up of Hereford bulls for next year are looking very promising.

DON’T FORGET OUR 1ST LOT OF HER

EFORDS

WILL BE ON OFFER AT OUR 2014 BUL

L SALE

This year we celebrated our 25th Annual Bull Sale! We had a great crowd present. Bruce and Maureen cut a cake and we recieved a speech of congratulations from our long time client and good friend Peter McDougall. Thank you to all those our came that day and supported our sale.

This year we sold 50 bulls for and average price of $5900.

The top price bull was lot 4 who sold to Pouriwai Charolais from Gisborne for $13,000.

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR BUYERS AND UNDERBIDDERS AT

OUR 2013 BULL SALE!