July 2022 NZHCS Newsletter

NEWSLETTER - JULY 2022

RUMINATING REMINDERS

JULY

• Order your Highland Semen ready for Spring mating

• Remember to post photos and comments on our Facebook page – New Zealand Highland Cattle Society

• Complete your late Herd Return! Detailed instructions are included in this newsletter

• Send your 2023 Calendar photo submissions to editor@highlandcattle.org.nz

AUGUST

• Bull assessment – October round. Contact the Registrar to request a Bull Assessment form or download from the website. Cost $60. Send your form to The Registrar: Cynthia Christie, 145 Somerton Rd, RD2, Ashburton 7772. P: 03 302 2656. Registrar@highlandcattle.org.nz

• Last day for Calendar photo submissions is 14 August

• Show season starts in October. Have you applied for your animal passports?

• Contact: Cynthia Christie, Registrar. Registrar@ highlandcattle.org.nz

SEPTEMBER

• Return Bull Assessment forms with payment by 1 September. The Registrar, Cynthia Christie, 145 Somerton Rd, RD2, Ashburton 7772. P: 03 302 2656. Registrar@highlandcattle.org.nz

• Mating will shortly get underway. Keep mating

lease forms etc.

• Tag calves as they are born – letter K

• Purchase the 2023 calendar from: Anne the Editor! Editor@highlandcattle.org.nz

COUNCIL CORNER

What an absolute delight it was to host so many of you in Palmerston North for the annual NZHCS AGM, the weekend of the 27th – 29th May. We kicked off on Friday evening with a meet and greet at The Brewers Apprentice Restaurant and Bar, attended by around 25 enthusiastic members, where old friendships were rekindled and new ones forged. Saturday dawned bright and sunny and saw members gathering at Caccia Birch Homestead for Registration, and morning tea

one as President and Council member, having served six years on the Council, the last two as President.

During Rosalie’s term, the B grade assessment scheme, championed by Doug Sheldon, was instigated and voted in at the 2021 AGM. Many members received phone calls from Rosalie, enquiring as to how we were getting on with our cattle and if there was anything the Society could do to help. The many hours she spent on these phone calls enabled the Council to contact a number of members who had not previously received any personal attention. Thank you, Rosalie, for all your efforts and we wish you all the best with your retirement from the Council. We appreciate that you have made the offer to continue with these phone calls.

The AGM also saw Judy Smyth (Tauranga) a long-standing Councillor, step up to the role of Co-Vice President. Judy has Continues ....

www.highlandcattle.org.nz

CALENDAR

We are now taking photo submissions for the 2023 calendar. Photos must be landscape and at least 2MB in size. Your Highland Cattle must not be standing in a body of water in the photo

You can enter up to 5 submissions per Fold There must not be any people in your photo Please email your photos to: editor@highlandcattle.org. nz by 14 August 2022. Note that photos submitted for the varying photo competition’s, run in the newsletter will also be included in the selection panel for the Calendar, if they meet the Calendar criteria.

a huge background in breeding Highland Cattle and a wide knowledge of the genetics of the New Highland Cattle breed. Also taking up the role of Co-Vice President is James Brown (Dunedin), who is a second-generation highland cattle breeder, following in the footsteps of his father Royden. James is heavily into genetics, AI, Embryo Transplant, exporting and importing. We welcome Doug Sheldon back to Council; Doug has given many years of service to the society as a Councillor through to terms as President. A breeder of note for many years, he and Jennifer have shown their cattle all around the country as well as being involved in Bull, and more recently B grade Cattle assessments.

face in the last twelve months, the rest of the attendees took a bus to Pohangina for a Cheese tasting experience. The cheeses were supplied by Cartwheel Creamery, who are, a local boutique industry.

The evening we met back at Caccia Birch for a Haggis ceremony, followed by formal dinner, where Highland beef was the pinnacle of the evening along with copious

Clarke.

After a leisurely breakfast at the Copthorne Hotel attendees visited Anne and my Fold in Bunnythorpe where they looked over our cattle and inspected our crossbred offspring destined for the dinner plate.

Next up was Rowan Lee and Wendy Guiness’s Glen Tui Fold where a number of their cattle were assessedusing the B Grade System, Vintage and Classic cars were checked out along with a BBQ of amongst other things, 3 different Highland beef sausages of Rowans and some of our Konini Highland Scotch Fillet Steak and possibly the odd dram, beer, or wine to round off the weekend which was organised to perfection by Anne Meyer. Thank you, Anne, for all the many hours you put into ensuring everything went off without a hitch and allowing the participants a great experience.

Next year it’s Dunedin where James, Rosalie and others are preparing a Southern Welcome for all who attend. So please keep the last weekend of May free and watch our website, Facebook page and newsletter for updates.

Regards

Tony Wright, President

WELCOME TO OUR NEWEST MEMBERS!

Jenna and Gary Donovan- Dickson - Rotorua, Teralee Murphy – Winton, Tracey and Lyle Davies – Porirua, Jacolene McPhee – Taranaki, Tyler Cook – Balclutha, Lynn and Neal Foote – Mangawhai Heads

WOOLLY MANOR MOOS

At the gateway to the Tararua’s is Otaki Forks, is the home of Woolly Manor Moos and their humans – Lisa and Pete. Lisa grew up next to some of the initial founding stock of Murray Greys. When Pete and she bought their block of land they wanted something to keep the grass down and they already had a long-haired German Shepard and longhaired cat! Lisa and Pete currently have 4 breeding girls, a bull, 2 heifers, a pet steer and a bottle calf. They have minimized their numbers from 45 breeding ladies due to reducing grazing size and the need to support an unwell family member. This was heartbreaking for Pete and Lisa. Lisa tells me that the highlights of having Highland Cattle have included showcasing them to the public at the Wairarapa A&P show, winning Supreme Beef All Breeds with their bull Loki and recently running the most amazing Halter training/Ring craft camp in Levin.

Lisa shared a great story about being the only people who have ever had cattle on the Wellington waterfront, or at Te Papa!

“In 2019, before COVID changed the world, Performance Arcade Wellington asked if we could supply some cows for an artist (ATOMr) that was coming from Chicago to do his “reinvention” of Rhinestone Cowboy. The performance arcade runs 24 hours a day for a couple of weeks with all sorts of activities that range from food art, to whatever it was that we did! We started at Circa Theatre where the cows were dressed in garlands and then walked the cattle along the wharf to Te Papa – all the while with a choir of vibrant singers accompanying us. Once at Te Papa we stood the girls up against the building whilst the festivities continued. The whole thing lasted a couple of hours and ended up being a very busy night as the Eminem concert was the same night at the stadium and everyone was walking along the waterfront to get to the show”.

Lisa thinks there are many different reasons for owning Highlands, but strongly feels that we all want to improve the breed and structure and that we certainly need to be looking at fresh Blood lines.

EAR TAGGING

There is a NZHCS rule which outlines how all cattle requirement is for both a primary and secondary tag. The primary tag is the NAIT tag, with the secondary tag containing the NZHCS information.

The NAIT tag will have visual information including your NAIT number and unique animal ID and have

The secondary (management) tag will display the following: your herd code, the year letter and unique animal number. So, Arcadia Fold secondary tags would be ARCK22-1 for the photo here is of the ear tag of the second calf born at Arcadia in 2021).

If selling cattle to non-members of the Society, please ask them to not remove the secondary tag from their cattle. This ear tag needs to remain on for the life span of the cattle. Equally if your cattle have lost their secondary ear tag, please re-tag them and notify the Registrar of the new details. It is imperative that both ear tags are present, current and in the correct ear. If unsure as to what is required or how to go about the process, your local Councillor is available to contact for help.

If the tagging is not correct, the Registrar is unable to complete the registration. You will be contacted with a request to rectify any issues.

Your ear tags will be letter K from now until 31 May 2023. It can be tricky getting your secondary ear tags to read and Leader Products have both been really helpful in custom printing ear tags for members.

write exactly what you want on your ear tags. You will need to draw each tag you want separately on the piece of paper. Email this picture to: custservnz@merck.com, along with the size tag you would like, the colour, and your payment details.

Leader Products: Members can register at https://www. leaderproducts.com/en_NZ/register/ and select Leader Products NZ as your preferred reseller. Here you have the ability to pay via credit card, making the tag transaction seamless. If you have any website queries you can call Shaun Green on 021 480 419. Any members who are not comfortable ordering via the website can call Leaders Products on 09 444 6180 and they can help you place the order.

HERD RETURNS FOR THE YEAR 1 JUNE 21 TO 31 MAY 22

Herd Returns have been emailed to you. This email has been known to go to ‘junk/spam’ so please check there if you have not yet received your herd return.

for return was 30 June 2022.

Open the link in the email and follow the instructions to complete. Ensure you save before you submit. If you need help, email the Registrar.

If Herd returns are not completed, then any registrations from that mating year will require DNA proof of longer to process.

In previous years only 25-50% of herd returns have been completed. This means it is impossible to maintain an accurate pedigree base. Maintaining accuracy of records is a primary function of the Society and it is critical that members do their part by supplying accurate and up to date information.

If one of your animals is missing from the list – please put list, so that the Registrar can check and correct any error in the database. Any transferred and registered animals after the date the herd return was sent will not appear – please just note these too, especially if they ran with a bull during the year.

We need the date that your bull went with each cow and the date he was removed. If it was all year – put: 01-0621 and 31-05-22.

If you prefer to write manually on a pdf or work in an excel spreadsheet, click on the buttons at the top of the

page. These can be saved/scanned and emailed back to the Registrar.

Open your email from registrar@highlandcattle.org.nz Click on the link to go to your herd return

All of your registered animals should be listed here. Go to the edit button on the far left that looks like a pencil in a square and click on it.

Update the date of death, mating details, add any relevant mating details.

Click Save up the top.

Click Back to return back to your list of cattle.

Once you have updated the details for ALL of your cattle by following the above steps then click on Submit Notification of Completed Return

You can print this document for your records.

Don’t forget to visit our sponsors:

FOR

ON

Slate server, front, Slate cheese board, rear

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Cheese Board

Grooming Comb

Nylon Cow Leading Halter

Grooming Comb Spiral

TITBITS

1st Prize: Debbie Bassett-Clarke

2nd Prize: Doug and Jenny Sheldon

3rd Prize: James Brown

Spot prizes: Rosalie and Brian Hutton, Bella Marshall, Neil Aitcheson, Cass Atkinson, Ginni Alexander, Doug and Jenny Sheldon

Massive thanks to: Tony and Anne Wright, Rowan Lee and Wendy Guiness for hosting the Fold visits on Sunday, “Not Now James” for the amazing catering of morning tea/lunch and dinner on Saturday, Caccia Birch House for their stunning venue for our AGM and Dinner, Con the Bus Driver and Haggis Master, the Brewers Apprentice for hosting our “Meet and Greet” on the Friday night, and Cartwheel Creamery Cheese for the awesome Cheese Tasting trip.

STRATHBURN HIGHLAND CATTLE

Bred for Quality, Hardiness and Performance

Providing genetic diversity from all over the world

Strathburn usually has for sale - Fullblood females - Fullblood bulls - Semen