Tapawera Charolais breeders Stuart and Jo Bryant have recently bought a new stud bull from Jamie and Anne Sutherland's Centrewood Stud. Centrewood is 40 minutes north of Dunedin inland at Waimate, and is New Zealand's longest established Charolais breeder with over 36 years experience with the breed, with Jamie's father being responsible for importing the breed into New Zealand in 1966.
Lot 6 is the top bull of this year's crop and was bought for $9,500, as Stuart explained. "He's by a french sire called Impair, and he's got very good figures for birth weight, 200, 400 and 600 day growth, and a full french bull himself. We are just hoping he will add a bit more thickness and growth into our cattle, and retain our full french lines."
"Where could we go to get good stud bulls? We thought we couldn't go any further back than the oldest, most experienced breeder in New Zealand, with a similar climate to ours and similar philosophy too. He (Jamie Sutherland) performance records with Colorado state university and has similar breeding objectives to us, and sells bulls to commercial clients in a similar area around Waimate."
Stuart has also been co-opted onto the Charolais society for one year, and is looking forward to working with the Charolais breed in that role. There has been a small split in the Charolais society over performance recording. Some councilors have resigned after some breeders, particularly in the North Island, wished to record performance using the Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) in Armidale, NSW Australia, which is the predominant genetic evaluation service in New Zealand. As opposed to obtaining EBVs through the Colorado State University Center for Genetic Evaluation of Livestock (CSUCGEL), as they do presently.
