Whilst it is interesting to see another range of phenotypes which are performing in a different climate,I think what we are trying to illustrate is what does an animal have to look like to be able to perform efficiently on grass only. This does include grass in hay, baleage or silage form in winter, but not grain, lucerne, compound feed of any form in any season, or finishing on specially grown cereal type crops!
I believe that NZ is one of the few climates and countries where it is possible to both breed and fatten beef entirely on grass all year round. Whilst there are many European breeds like Simmentals and Charolais used as terminal sires, the majority of the breeding cows are British breeds like Angus, Hereford and South Devon and a few Murray Greys and various crosses, some with the dairy industry Holsteins and Jerseys as the popular black/white face cow which is the result of Hereford over Holstein.
Not only are the commercial breeding cows outside all year round, many up on fairly hard hill country areas with little supplemntary winter feed apart from hay, but their offspring, either by a European terminal or British breed sire their calves are often fattened on lower quality land as well. They are sold as weaners to be finished for the Local Trade Beef (for NZ consumption) before their second winter 18-20months, or run through to three year olds and heavier weights which are often the European sired animals which take longer to mature and are more lean. Because the home market is quite small, Population slightly over 4 million, then the outlet for domestic consumption is quite a bit less than for the export market which tend to be from the larger framed, later maturing types.
Interestingly there is no colour bias here. There may even be a slight bias against black, in case it has too much Jersey in it! Most finishers will sell direct to a Processing works, so buyers are not interested in what colour hide, only how heavy and how well they will kill out.
Weaner (7 to 9 month) cattle are sold for finishing, based on breed, rather than colour and their ability to suit the end market eg white faced and British bred for the 20 month finishing weights 280 to 320kgs carcase weights (617 to 705lbs) and the European crosses for the heavier 3 year old market. There are probably only a couple of feed lots that specialise in beef for export markets in Korea and Japan.
Here is an illusration of a typical MG from birth to processing age. She is the 2007 calf from the silver cow pictured in my earlier post. Showed a lot of promise and was shown as a yearling a couple of times (no grain!) but failed to get in calf in the allotted time so was sent direct to the processing works, actually as an entry in a nationwide contents called Steak of Origin. Bascially a contest to find tender steak-she wasn't in the top 100, despite having 8/8 GeneSTARs for tenderness and 2/8 for marbling and 5/8 for Feed efficiency-but she did it all on grass! She went 291.5kgs (642lbs) carcase weight on 17 March 09, age 19 months and was 532kgs live (1173lbs) Her full sister is calving for the third time this season.
Birth 20 Aug 07 weight 45kgs 99lbs
About 5 months old
16 months
Yes, she is wearing a halter, prior to going to the local show, but not in calf, she was turned into money 2 months later!
