Congratulations to Te Mania Angus client, Minnamurra Pastoral Company, winners of the Teys Certified Premium Black Angus champion pen award as well as eighth overall in the 2022 feedback trial.
“We have great success with the Te Mania bloodlines,” Mr Power said. “We have used them for over 20 years, and we will continue to use them.”
For Minnamurra the main reason for entering the trial was to be able to benchmark their cattle against the feedlot industry.
“We just take a cut of steers out of a big mob. I don’t go selecting them, we just weigh them off to make sure they fit,” Mr Power said.
“I want a cross-section of our cattle and I’m not out there to win prizes.
“Obviously it is great to win but the trial gives me an idea of what is under the skin.
“You can have an animal with beautiful confirmation and everything is dead right about him but you don’t know what is underneath and that’s what we are marketing.”
Mr Power said the trial is a great tool for comparison of animals – “you might get feedback on your own steers from other places, but what are they benchmarked against? And how can you tell if they are really good?”.
“That’s the great thing about these sort of trials.”
The trial aligns with the usual target market for Minnamurra, however this year steers were sold lighter than normal.
“We try to take them to 450kg, but with the prices being so good we sold at 300-350kg,” he said.
Mr Power said the competition emphasised that they were on the right track with the genetics.
“It showed us the genetic track we were following is working and it is consistent and that all the calves were uniform and hung evenly,” he said.
Extract above, read the full story in The Land here
