Coopworth, Dorset Down & Shorthorn Cattle Studs
New Zealand
GLENDHU GENETICS
SHORTHORN CATTLE STUD
OUR OPERATION
We started Glendhu Shorthorns in 1995 and today the herd is made up of 85 Stud cows.
The cows are all run 45km away at our Lawrence farm on steep hard terrain. Here, the cows are run under commercial conditions, there is no supplementary feeding and they are made to work managing undeveloped pasture.
At weaning, all the calves are brought back to our Heriot property. The heifer calves are mated at 15 mths of age and calved at Heriot before heading to Lawrence post calving.
HERIOT FARM
LAWRENCE FARM
The Bulls are wintered on swedes and hay, and are all run in one mob for their life. Our breeding emphasis is on producing structurally sound bulls that are soft, easy going with good temperament.
EBVs play an important role in our selection as we aim to have moderate birth sires with good growth, plenty of muscle and fat, while maintaining the strong maternal attributes of the Shorthorn breed.
Our 2022 sale bulls are the first to be sired by our two new sires Brown Sparta 16/17 whom we purchased from the Browns Stud in Morrinsville, and Orena Output 31/17 from the Morton Family in Katikati.
We purchased Sparta as we were looking for another high muscle Bull and we felt he was one of the best bulls in New Zealand in 2019. We are rapt with the way he’s bred, in particular, our line of R2 Heifers sired by him are the best we have ever had. Real muscle machines, and we are excited to see them breed for us.
Orena Output was purchased as a heifer Bull and we are pleased with hi progeny, ranking us in the top 15% for rib and rump fat, and top 5% for IMF. You can see the softness of his progeny and his IMF scanning data was the highest we have ever had.
Both Bulls offer complete out crosses in genetics to what we have been using and we are rapt with how they have fitted into our breeding programme.
Also, we took possession of a selection of calves from the Rauphua Stud in the King Country after weaning. We have selected one in this year's sale and believe this gives people the chance to choose genetics with similar breeding objectives to us.