Page 40 - Capethorne Riverland Grassmere ebook

CAPETHORNE POLL
HEREFORDS

FOREWORD

Welcome to our annual combined bull sale, at Benmore.
During the last twelve months we have had a few changes to our
farming operation; our son Hamish, his wife Aleisha and their two
girls have come home to join us in partnership. We have also
taken over the lease of an adjoining 300 ha block, which has
given us a bit more scale.

Once again, we are experiencing a very dry autumn, which is
challenging all our stock, but we are very pleased with the way
our cattle are coping.

This year’s group of sale bulls have had to come through autumn
with very little grass, but with our policy of selecting for good early
growth, they have still grown out very well. They were wintered in
one mob of 75 until the spring, when we selected the top third to
take through the summer, from here our sale bulls are selected.
The rest are sold as yearlings, mainly to dairy farmers. This
policy suits our environment well as we usually experience dry
summers.
This year’s sale bulls include the first progeny of Koanui Captain
6081, who is in the top 5% of the breed for all the selection
indexes and also Grassmere Gallant 244 who has bred well for
us.
The cattle are run in conjunction with our commercial ewe flock
and exposed to the challenges of the environment on our 820
hectares of downs and hill country.
Our breeding aim is to have structurally sound, fertile,
functional, easy-doing cows whilst continually improving genetic
performance.
To achieve this, we select sires with balanced EBV’s, strong
maternal traits, good early growth, with moderate birth and
mature cow weights.
All heifers are mated as yearlings and any dry cows or heifers are
culled.

We welcome inspection of our herd at anytime and look forward
to catching up with you at this year’s sale.
Greg and Debbie Chamberlain
Hamish and Aleisha

38 Riverlands, Capethorne, Grassmere Combined Bull Sale 2021