Set in the damp, misty hill country of Pahiatua in the Manawatu, Totaranui has been breeding stud stock for nearly a century.
Tally Jackson and Daimien Reynolds came to the operation in 2006, leaving their corporate jobs in Wellington and moving back to Tally’s home farm, where her parents John and the late Mary Anne Jackson were still farming.
“John ran things the traditional way, with beautiful big Romneys, set stock grazing with moderate lambing percentages,” says Daimien.
His focus was not on commercial stock performance, but developing a significant agri-business. He excelled at developing farms and to this day, has a great love for stud stock.
After a two year apprenticeship under John, they decided they needed to gain finishing experience so took up an opportunity to manage the home block at Brownrigg Agriculture where they learnt to use FARMAX, as well as contemporary rotational grazing techniques.
“We came back in 2012 and really started investing in fertiliser, fencing and our sheep genetics to lift the stoking rates and get the lambing percentage up.”
At this time the operation was home to Angus, Dorset Down and Romney studs.
“The Romney stud was your typical dual purpose animal with a big focus on wool and type. They had wool on the backs of their tongues these sheep, but when the number of lambs became more important, we decided to drop the Romney stud and just focus on the Angus and Dorset Down.”
There’s ample room for the large scale operation, which is spread over three properties — 860ha (effective) on Totaranui in Pahiatua, 1530ha on Puke Te in Masterton and 380ha on Waipori in Makuri.
The Dorset Down flock of 300 ewes is on Puke Te, and has been running for just over twenty years. Of the rams born each year, 75% are sold to regular clients who are mostly either local or from Taihape. They’re well known for excellent growth and for picking prime at weaning.
“Our Dorsets are tougher than most because we run them with the commercial ewes in a mob of 2,000. If they can’t handle it they die or they’re culled, so they’re naturally selected out of the programme. The survivors are tougher for it.”
The main commercial flock of 11,000 Romneys was first crossed with TEFRom, then Coopworth, and is spread across all three properties. They’re currently experimenting with Kelso-Coopworth cross rams in the mob on Totaranui.
“Our lambing percentages are now 130-140% across the three properties so the cross breeding has been great for the number of lambs born, but to bring in more size and growth we’ve added the Kelso.”
Everything at Puke Te in Masterton is terminal so Dorset Down rams are used there, with replacement ewes bought in from Totaranui and Waipori as needed.
The lambs are processed by Alliance, with prime weaning weights targeting 18kg CW. Winter finishing targets are slightly heavier—19kg for the females and 21kg for the males.
“We find the Dorset tend get to heavier weights without grading fat.”
Puke Te also grazes 1300 mixed trade cattle, bought by agents through the saleyards or in the paddock. It’s good finishing country and Manager Andrew Florence gets 800 away prime every year, averaging 310kg CW.
Since 2013, the weighted average of meat and wool production per hectare has shifted from 193kg to over 250kg, a testament to the changes applied within the operation. Totaranui produces close to 300kg per hectare, given the wetter summer environment.
The trade cattle at Puke Te are a small part of the overall cattle operation, with another 200 trade Angus heifers/steers farmed at Waipori. Half of these are finished each year and processed through Alliance at an average of 330kg CW, grading into the AngusPure and Handpicked programmes and achieving premiums of up to $1 per/kg on the kill sheets.
Undoubtedly the main cattle operation is the Angus stud, with 466 females and 150 bulls. It’s no easy life for the Totaranui cow. She spends the hard winter months behind the ewes, cleaning up the pastures.
“I strongly believe that our stud operation must emulate that of a commercial farmer’s, so in winter the sheep always go first. I probably push them a bit hard as they get a bit light but once they come in for calving they’re on the upward plane from there.”
The cows stay behind the ewes until early July, three weeks before calving in early August – two and a half months off the grass curve.
Cows are never given a second chance. They must calve and rear their calf as a two year old and get back in calf every year thereafter.
While docility and structure are paramount, Daimien believes they should be a given as he won’t breed from an unsound animal. Fertility is bred into the herd, so to speak, as they’ve mated all the yearling heifers for over 30 years.
“A lot of traditional farmers and studs won’t mate their heifers. The fact that we mate every single one and retain only what rears a calf is a real point of difference for our fertility.”
Profitability seems to be Daimien’s bottom line and the Angus bloodlines grow fast, have high yield and marbling, and consequently perform well for clients.
Totaranui run two separate stud cow herds; one to generate high value two year old bulls and the other to generate low birth weight yearling bulls. The yearling bulls and their dams are not second class citizens, being bred specifically for heifer mating in the beef and dairy markets.
“We sold 40 bulls at the two year old sale in June and we’re offering 105 yearling bulls in September.”
The difference between the breeding objective of the two herds is pretty simple — mixed age versus heifer mating.
The yearling bulls are low birth weight bulls with an average birth weight (BW) EBV of 1.8, which set against the Australasian average of 4.1, puts the herd in the top 10% of the breed in the Trans-Tasman Cattle Evaluation (TACE).
“I’m always looking for curve benders, with good calving ease but also strong growth, however ultimately the most important thing with heifer mating is to get a live calf and a live heifer, with everything else as a bonus. This is especially relevant for dairy farmers who get an extra 15% growth with hybrid vigour.”
The two year old bull programme aims to fill the catalogue with bulls that achieve the coveted A+ endorsement from AngusPure NZ. To achieve an A+ a bull must be => +$140 for the AngusPRO index, and must be => +2.0 for IMF EBV.
“These are low to moderate birth weight bulls with good maternal traits, above average 600 day growth and excellent carcass. We’re looking to target the farmer who wants more than just another black bull, who understands the true benefits of technology and demands more than just a grazing tool to aid his sheep programme.”
The big shift towards improving carcase and eating quality happened in the early 1990s when John Jackson travelled to the USA on a bull scouting trip with AngusPure’s Guy Sargent and others. John was wholeheartedly behind Guy’s ethos of improving the marbling within grass fed beef in New Zealand, and set about searching for sires that would increase the IMF and EMA of the Totaranui herd.
Artificial insemination (AI) enables Daimien to utilise the newest, most progressive genetics available and both John and Daimien still travel to the USA and Australia each Autumn to ensure they can inspect the bulls they’re using in the herd.
“There are some really elite bulls here in New Zealand bred by our peers in the AngusPRO group, but there are more outliers with cross trait excellence found internationally.”
The mixed age cows are all put through two rounds of AI. The first is synchronised in the first week of November and the second is by heat detection. Some of the heifers are put through AI but Daimien finds it a very fickle business.
“Our early mating dates mean the success rates in the yearling heifers vary from 35 to 65%. If she misses with AI she drops back a cycle, which means there are a large number of heifers returning at the same time, so she could easily get missed by the bull. So by no fault of her own, a high merit heifer could get culled.”
This year Daimien plans to tail paint the high merit heifers and only those that have a natural cycle before AI will get a straw.
“We’ve been successful in providing the industry with bulls that will leave progeny with the predisposition to reach 300kg CW before the second winter and have consistent marble scores of twos, threes and fours.”
For this reason, the trade steers and heifers at Waipori are either surplus stud stock or purchased back from clients.
“We know they’ll grow and grade well, and it’s also really nice to do business with people you know.”
Waipori isn’t fast finishing country, with trade cattle being utilised as a cow over two winters, cleaning up behind the ewes in a straight grass programme. It’s hard country, with only 15ha suitable for the tractor.
Puke Te has mixed topography and an annual rainfall of just 750ml – half that of Waipori and Totaranui. While the cows are on the hills in a straight grass programme, the flats provide ample room for cropping.
The trade cattle are strip grazed 10ha of fodderbeet in winter and 60ha of kale is also planted annually.
“I find kale a really versatile crop so the ewes are often given the first grazing and then it’s fed to either trade lambs or trade cattle. Andrew and his team finished an additional 4,800 winter trade lambs on Puke Te in 2022 as we had a brilliant autumn and early winter.”
There’s 10ha of oats which while usually pegged for the trade cattle, sometimes heads in the direction of the later calving cows if feed is tight. The cropping is all done themselves, with the exception of the fodderbeet.
An additional 8ha of fodderbeet is planted on Totaranui for the young weaner stock.
“We do most of our cropping on the flats and have experimented with direct drilling kale into ex-plantain clover or Italian ground. That old base comes back underneath and holds really well into the spring if you graze the kale quite hard on the first grazing.”
Preserving the environment is a top priority for Daimien and Tally, as they see themselves as custodians of the land for the generations to come.
At Puke Te they’ve been planting Poplar poles for the last fifteen years and there’s a QEII Reserve on this farm and also Waipori. The rivers have been fenced, but in a manner that Daimien refers to as being quite high risk.
“To preserve the hectarage we’ve fenced below the ten year flood line, so you’ve got to hold onto your hat a bit now that those floods seem to be coming through every five years.”
There’s frustration from Daimien at paying $50,000 a year in river rates when the Regional Council’s policy is to not alter the gravel levels in the Ruamahanga River.
“It seems to be getting higher and wider every year.”
There’s been a Sustainable Land Use Initiative (SLUI) plan in action on Totaranui since 2016, used to ultimately steer them in the direction of farming in a sustainable manner with low erosion.
Fertiliser is not shied away from, with 20 units of Phosphorus p/ha going onto the hills every year and when economics allow, DAP is used to add nitrogen to the hill country, increasing stocking rates. Chicken manure is used on the flats to apply maintenance or capital P, achieving target Olsen P levels of 35 and pH of about 6.3.
“We have an annual fertiliser budget of about $250,000.”
Daimien admits they’ve had to pull back the stocking rate alot recently, on Totaranui especially, purely because of the price of DAP and nitrogen.
“We’ve been putting a lot of lime onto Totaranui and while the pH on Waipori and Puke Te has always been good, they’ll be due next. As fertiliser goes up in price we’ll focus more on lime.”
The numbers make the picture pretty clear, with a gross income of $4m, Daimien is generating $1550 /ha and has an EFS of $550 /ha.
As well as Daimien there are three other full time staff on Totaranui, four on Puke Te and one on Waipori. Tally does the office work, helping on farm when she can, and is also busy chasing after the couple’s three children – Lilly (15), Ricki (13) and Jacko (10), who are all heavily invested in the typical farm kid’s lifestyle.
“We have trouble finding good young staff at the moment so we find ourselves relying heavily on our loyal long term staff.”
With labour constraints and government compliance, combined with inflation and other rising costs, the Totaranui team are set about doing their best in a challenging farming climate.
“Totaranui is about keeping the business healthy for the next generations. Ideally we’d like to expand but at the size we are now, we’re just focusing on keeping a tidy ship.”