Goldy won the Meat and Wool Cup again, and also the Johnny Rogers, for the supreme livestock exhibit, all species at the Waikato Show 2009.
Photo taken and kindly made available from 'Photograph Hawkes Bay Today'
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Glenlea Downs Gelbvieh and Suffolk studs are situated 20 minutes from Cambridge in the heart of the Waikato. Founded by James and Leigh Needham, the farm covers 670 acres.
The beef and sheep operations are both run under commercial conditions, with the aim to produce animals which will perform and succeed in all situations.
Gelbvieh Herd
Gelbvieh is a European beef breed originating in Bavaria, Germany. They are docile cattle, displaying full muscling. They have the best calving ease of any other European breed. The females and males reach puberty early, are very fertile and breed readily. The dark pigmentation around the eyes and genitalia eliminates the cancer issues often seen in other European cattle.
The Glenlea Downs Gelbvieh herd is run in conjunction with a cross bred beef herd. All cows are calved as rising 2 year old heifers. They are expected to calve unassisted, get back into calf and rear her calf at foot. The Gelbvieh cattle have excellent temperaments and produce ample milk from a tight udder. Gelbvieh cross bred calves display the calm disposition and full muscling as well as their purebred counterparts.
Glenlea Downs Suffolk flock grazing on the hills
Suffolk Flock
Flock No 976 ****Flock Brucellosis accredited Free**** SIL No 4852
Glenlea Downs Suffolk's are bred with both the farmer and the consumer in mind by making use of services like SIL (Sheep Improvement Ltd) for recording and genetic evaluation.
In layman’s terms, SIL is a performance recording and genetic evaluation service for the New Zealand sheep industry, which ranks animals according to their genetic merit. Raw data is adjusted to allow for environmental fluctuations. This way, the genetically superior animals are ranked ahead of their inferior mates. Picking a genetically good sheep by eye is outdated and flawed. A triplet lamb born to a two tooth late in the season will not be as big as a large single lamb born to an old ewe in the first week of lambing. That is not to say that the smaller sheep is inferior, he may in fact be far superior, particularly if the survivability and maternal attributes are taken into account. SIL calculates and allows for this. We also EMA scan in the autumn. We believe this is the economically relevant time to measure a sheep’s’ EMA. After all, prime lamb production is the purpose of the breed. How he measures at 14-15 months of age is irrelevant if you want his progeny on the truck to the works at 100 days.
We are willing to help any farmer with their ram selection and will happily discuss the benefits of the Suffolk breed in today's market place.
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