Te Mania Angus Director Hamish McFarlane recently featured in the Marcus Oldham Graduate Magazine (MOCOSA).
December 2023.
Te Mania Angus proudly supports opportunities for young people wanting to study at Marcus Oldham, offering a $20,000 scholarship to a first-year Bachelor of Business agriculture or agribusiness student each year.
The gift that keeps on giving.
A wedding present gifted almost a century ago, comprising five cows and a bull in New Zealand, was the foundation of Te Mania Angus.
Today, across the Tasman, the Australian Te Mania Angus herd comprises the most dominant gene pool in the Angus Australia Group Breedplan, with its genetics sought after from the US, UK, Europe, Kazakhstan, Russia, China and, back to where it all began, New Zealand.
Directors and brothers-in-law, Tom Gubbins and Hamish McFarlane, are justifiably proud of what has been achieved by the nuptial gift inspired by Amanda, Charlie and Tom’s Great Grandparents, back in 1928. In the early 1970’s, Andrew and Mary Gubbins were encouraged by Mary’s brother Frank Wilding to make the change from Hereford to Angus cattle. Since that time, the Te Mania Angus herd has been all about measuring performance and making genetic decisions based on the analysis of that data. Today, information is collected from before birth through to the carcase stage.
“Collecting a lot of data and turning it into information allows us to drive traits and efficiencies in line with where we see the industry heading. It’s a long-term approach. It allows us to select and breed from animals that are going to make incremental change and bring about improvement.
These improvements include reducing gestation length within the breed from 283 days to 280 and increasing weight gain, in round figures increasing about 40 kilograms of genetic gain per animal over the past 20 years.
Te Mania Angus have focused on marbling using feedback from the processing industry since well before the Breedplan EBV was developed in 1999. The Angus breed has become synonymous with high marbling, which is creating market opportunities and demand from all sectors of the supply chain. The breed average for intramuscular fat, otherwise known as marbling, was +0.9 in 2003 and in the last 20 years within our own herd the average for our 2022 born progeny has increased to +4.4 exponential growth in all of that.
When you are talking about genetics, it’s a case of using the best available genetics, building strong female herds, in order to advance. Te Mania Angus enjoys providing opportunities for young people wanting to study at Marcus, offering a $20,000 scholarship to a first-year Bachelor of Business agriculture or
agribusiness student each year.
“We want to help keen young people to be educated so they can succeed in an industry that is integral to the country, regarding food supply. It’s important for us to put something back into the industry that we’ve been part of. Marcus fits well with our values, it provides students the ability to be able to look at things in a very practical, analytical and authentic way. It also provides a strong network of friends and colleagues to share ideas and support with.”
To Te Mania Angus, the family ownership of their operation is important, as is the sharing of information with the wider community. With the next generation of both families becoming involved in Te Mania, the practical wedding present from so long ago is proving to be the gift that keeps on giving.
To find out more about the Te Mania Angus Scholarship go to: https://marcusoldham.vic.edu.au/scholarship/te-mania-angus
