Spring is in full swing, and October has kept the Te Mania Angus team busy with cattle joining and feed preparation.
At Merrang in Mortlake, we are running a combination of fixed-time, heat-detection and natural matings across a herd of 1400 stud cows. This includes an analysis of post-partum aneastrus on one of our first calving mobs. Activity monitoring ear tags are used to alert the team when first-calvers are naturally having their first heat after calving. The data will be analysed for heritability and variation to enhance the value of fertility traits.
Over at Brolga in Warncoort, spring joining has kicked off with our embryo transfer program across 160 cows, utilising a combination of IVF and MOET embryos. It’s a key part of our breeding strategy, where lower-performing cows from the stud nucleus are utilised as recipients of elite transferred embryos to elevate genetic gain further.
Merrang has had 59.5mm this month, bringing us to 408mm YTD as we round out October.
Brolga has had 50mm in October and a YTD total of 435mm.
Silage work is also powering ahead at Merrang and Brolga. Merrang is cutting pit silage, while Brolga is baling from a surplus of annual and perennial pastures. Targeting reserves of 1800 and 1000 dry tonnes at Merrang and Brolga, respectively, these reserves will help cover summer energy deficits and support young weaners with quality nutrition early next year.
At Te Mania Angus’ satellite herd, Nenagh, owned and operated by James and Emily McCormack, some much-needed rainfall occurred over the weekend at the property outside of Mansfield, Victoria. Joining is also underway with 500 Te Mania recipients utilising MOET embryo transfers from 50 donors, also managed at Nenagh.
At Andrew Irvine’s property, Bay of Islands, near Peterborough, Victoria, round one of joining is complete, involving a fixed time program of 800 Te Mania Angus Heifers. These heifers will go through a second round of heat detection as well as natural follow with Te Mania paddock sires. After preg-testing in January, these heifers will head back to Merrang, where they will calve down and be re-joined as first calvers. The Bay of Islands has had a sensational 100mm for October after what has been a very dry 12 months.
Plenty is happening on the farms, and plenty more to come as the season rolls on.
