Hi everyone,
This is to wish you all a very Happy and relaxed Christmas and all the best for 2026. The season so far has been kind for us and we trust that it is for you too.
The fact that we are writing before Christmas is something of a record and we owe our level of organisation to our very good staff. We have Paul who is our new manager and Shane who is his assistant and we all work well together.
We hope that your bulls have done their job and we would appreciate your contacting us if there have been breakdowns.
We have realised that we don’t often have an opportunity to explain the aims of our breeding program and we hope that you don’t mind that we take this opportunity. This is important because bulls tend to breed to the average of the herd that they are bred from and so the aims of a breeding program are important in the purchase of any bull.
There is one key word that sums up our program and that is ‘efficiency”. We are aiming to breed the best animals in terms of converting grass to meat and for that meat product to be of the highest quality. It goes without saying that good beef animals have to be structurally correct. An animal which breaks down is inefficient on multiple levels.
To summarise the traits which we value:
1. Calving ease. Dead calves are inefficient and calves requiring assistance cost time and money and lost production (and so are inefficient).
2. Growth. We aim for as much growth as our calving ease limitations will allow. Growth and birthweight are antagonistic traits and heifer-mating bulls require some compromise in terms of growth while allowing for safe calving.
3. Negative gestation is important for those requiring extra days for cows in milk and we aim for better than breed average
4. Meat. This is important as it is the product which is consumed and so the more meat an animal has the higher the dressed-out percentage and therefore more efficient.
5. Fat and small mature size. These factors are important for early finishing especially if the season is not favourable. We aim for a mature-weight ebv below the 400-day weight ebv and we want an animal which grows quickly to around 500 days and then more slowly enabling it to lay down fat and so finish.
6. Intramuscular fat. This dictates eating quality and means that the carcass is likely to attract a premium which again means efficiency as it increases profit per animal.
7. And finally fertility means shorter calving interval and more cows in calf per bull.
8. Not to forget the controversial climate influence, animals with smaller mature size require less maintenance and emit less greenhouse gasses and animals which finish quickly are similarly efficient.
Thank you for reading this far. We hope that it promotes thought and we would welcome further discussion or enquiries about viewing the stock.
Wishing you all the best for 2026.
John and Mary Allen
11th December 2025
Mahuta Herefords
335 Maurice Rd, R D 5, Tuakau 2695
0274407504
