Article by: PAT DEAVOLL
Short gestation cattle genetics is set to generate $11 million in extra milk production for hard-hit dairy farmers this spring, and John and Liz McKerchar’s South Canterbury hereford stud is at the forefront. Shrimpton’s Hill Herefords at Cave has entered into a breeding partnership with Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) to supply semen and embryos, and is now the organisation’s exclusive supplier of short gestation length (SGL) hereford genetics. John’s father started the hereford stud in 1969, purchasing stock from the Maungahina dispersal sale. By the time John and Liz took over the property in 1990 the stud had 200 cows. They decided to increase the herd ‘‘because that’s what I was interested in,’’ John says. ‘‘This dovetailed into the growth expansion of the dairy industry and we could see to build the business we needed to market to dairy farmers because the beef industry was contracting. Today there are only 300,000 beef cows in the South Island and about the same number of dairy cows just in South Canterbury alone.’’