Lands & Survey: 1. Sheep and cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 1

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang

A germ of an idea
In August 1967, Dr Doug Lang and the late Graeme Hight were driving back from the Massey Sheepfarmers' Conference along the Western Bays road bordering Lake Taupo, discussing a research project that they had started at the MAF Whatawhata Hill Country Research Station where Doug (and his dog Ted) had recently been appointed as Superintendent. The project needed ewes that had produced twins.

Doug was having trouble obtaining these sheep to research giving fertility a big boost, as the lambing percentage at the station was typical of the Raglan Hill country at that time - 60% Lambs weaned/100 ewes joined with the ram if you were honest, and up to 110% if you were in the pub!

It was when they saw the sheep on the Lands and Survey (L&S) blocks along the Taupo Western Bays road that they realised these flocks could be a great source of twinning ewes. There were not a lot of twins to be seen in the paddocks, but the flocks were massive, and if they went through and “screened” enough sheep, they would surely get the twinners they needed. There were about 280,000 ewes on the L&S blocks at the time in the Rotorua area which included Taupo.

Graeme Hight's interest in screening twinning ewes had already been excited, as he and his father (as private farmers) were members of the newly-formed NZ Romney Development Group. This group was pioneering a new form of breeding called "group breeding", where high performance ewes were identified on different individual farms and then run together in one location in a nucleus flock for intense recording and selection for productive traits.

The best nucleus ewes were then used to breed rams to return to contributors. This became a continuous operation of “screening and selection” for high performance. It was a world first and involved Professor Al Rae at Massey University (a world expert in sheep genetics), and a group of Romney breeders goaded on by Tony Parker in Hawke’s Bay.

By the end of the journey, Doug and Graeme’s aspirations had one of the biggest breeding schemes in the world under way, breeding rams first to meet all L&S's needs and then to mate the entire national flock! Why not was their question?

But back to earth. They realised that the first problem was to find out who to approach to float their idea, and then prepare a case for consideration. Clearly, the first place to go was right into the lion’s den - the offices of the L&S Department in Rotorua. Good public servants would have gone first to the Director of their own department, but Doug was an old campaigner and he knew that it was best to delay this for later if the show was a goer.

Lands & Survey: 2. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 2

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang


Gene flow
The theory was very simple; if genetic improvement came through selection, then there must be more scope for selection in a large flock or herd than in a small one. There was never any argument on this point. Every student who had been bored to death by animal genetics - and God knows there have been plenty, remember that.

The trouble was that in New Zealand and most other developed countries where the British have left their influence, the traditional "stud" flocks and herds were all small so everything with testicles had to be kept as a sire, and selection was consequently very limited.

This was never questioned by the breeder, of course, because all the animals were "purebreds" and "registered" in a flock or herd book which gave them a status that no “unregistered” animal could ever claim. This status was not to be questioned and had been supported by generations of NZ farmers and their stock agents, who at that time had the status of demi-gods. The ideas developed on that car journey were about to strike at the very core of NZ's breeding traditions.

The whole system was based on tradition, and the failure of people with the cheek to question it, either in theoretical or practical terms. A violent change in New Zealand’s breeding culture was required, and the Whatawhata team's attitudes and actions were about to spearhead.

We questioned the traditional triangular breed structure, where the studs in the apex passed genetic gain through “multiplying” breeders in the middle layer, down to the commercial breeders in the base. I must have drawn hundreds of these triangles on bar tables with spilt beer and on woolshed floors with chalk raddle when talking to farmers.

The traditional theory was so much hot air, and it was amazing how it was revered and how it lasted for so long. The so-called genetic improvement in the apex was not happening, simply because it couldn't. The stud flocks were too small and anything with four legs and the basic sex organs had to be kept as replacements. There were no such things as "culls"; there were only animals "surplus to requirements" that were bought by other keen young folk with the burning urge to become stud breeders.

There was no way in the world that any reverse flow of genetic material could be allowed to take place in this traditional breed structure. Commercial animals could never be registered when flock and herd books (eg Romney and Angus) were closed. Consequently this state of affairs removed the enormous genetic resources of large commercial flocks and herds in New Zealand from contributing to national genetic improvement.

It was a national disgrace (in our humble opinion) and we were brave enough to say so at farmers’ meetings and conferences. So it was not hard to see the massive genetic resources of L&S a gift from the Gods to prove what could be done when you had a population big enough to provide scope for selection. It was the application of theoretical population genetics at its best.

Infamy
Some of us became infamous for our outbursts on the subject. On an Australian visit to speak to beef breeders, at a field day I likened the triangular breed structure in New Zealand to a blocked septic tank! I spoke with feeling as we had just had this experience in our new house on the Research Station. I remember having to cut a long of bamboo pole to poke through the ventilation mushroom on the top to free up the flow. My outburst resulted in a letter to the Director General of Agriculture from the Angus breed society suggesting that I be deported for disloyalty to New Zealand!

One visual item that helped our cause greatly was an early "Farming Today" TV programme which showed a famous Feilding Romney stud breeder putting bottomless water tanks over each ewe and twins as they lambed to ensure good and correct mothering straight after birth.

It also showed him deciding which was the sire of the lamb by holding the lamb up for visual inspection and looking at the mating date! It highlighted the very practices that commercial farmers were growing sick of, but didn't know how to change. But the battle was not only with traditional breeders, it was also with the many stock and station agents of the day who had the status of demi gods when it came to stock breeding. Their views, always spoken with plenty of volume, were not to be questioned.

Sacrilage
The first sale of Romney rams from Waihora unregistered ewes. The Breed Association were not happy, but you can see from the size of the crowd that turned up that there was massive interest.

Lands & Survey: 3. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 3

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang

Dreams versus reality
Alf Tinkham was Superintendent of Land Development for the Rotorua district of L&S at that time, ably supported by Lloyd Bedford. Alf was nearing retirement after many years of loyal service, and as Doug Lang remembers, he gave a very frank description of what he though of the idea of forming a nucleus of twinning ewes to breed rams.

However, after a long and heated discussion, he yielded a bit and turned the project over to Lloyd Bedford who could see the advantages of the scheme to L&S, along with providing the few sheep Whatawhata wanted for their research. Doug and Graeme were delighted that their idea was accepted, but it was a case of "you can have the twinning sheep if you can catch 'em!" Note that the Directors of Ag Research at Ruakura were kept in the dark on this developing project. Doug & Graeme needed to be further down the track – and catching their sheep they wanted was the challenge.

Catch 'em
The challenge of catching sheep in the paddock was up to the technicians at Whatawhata to make it work. The Whatawhata team was led by Chief Technician, Jock Clayton (and his steady bitch Maid), and with two other shepherds they started in the flocks of two-tooths in the blocks around Waihora. The paddocks were big and the two-tooths flighty, as they were not used to close shepherding as in research flocks where men and dogs didn’t bother them. The days were long, the dogs tired, and it was not exactly tropical with the wind off the mountain. Their healthy look was caused by wind burn and not sun tan.

To their credit, by September 1967, they had managed to catch and mark 840 two-tooths which were then run on the Waihora block to form the nucleus of the future breeding scheme. Whatawhata took an initial 40 or so sheep, and were allowed to take further supplies in future years.

The aquisiton of the ewes for Whatawhata was covered by a MAF “Research Project Proposal” so Dr Wallace did know of our antics, but only as far as what went on in our own patch on the station. These ewes, with all the twin lambs at foot were a sight to see on the Raglan hills as they were so different to the local-bred sheep.

Seen the twins at Waihora?
The twinning two-tooths from the blocks around Waihora were all gathered up into one “nucleus flock” which had a massive visual impact on a lot of people, especially office-bound L&S sceptics and carefully chosen farmers. To see all these two-tooths mothering and rearing their twins so well, made them realise that they had greatly underestimated what could be achieved on developing country if you had the selection potential.

The whole concept of "screening" was accepted with a vengeance because they were looking at commercial L&S sheep, bred and produced on the newly-developed pumice country. We pointed out that they were their sheep - and they were "blardy good ones at that". We knew we were starting to win when many folk asked, why hadn't this been done before?

Lands & Survey: 4. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 4

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang

Enthusiasm fired
The theory backed by the practice (and vice versa), clearly fired the imagination of three important people - Barry Dawson, the L&S field officer for the blocks around Waihora, and the manager of the Waihora block, Peter Guy, and his wife Rose. They were key people and were keen to push ahead with the scheme – willingly accepting the extra work it would land them with for no extra pay. They treated the show as if it was their own.

Apart from the daily routine, these people did so much of the public relations on the ground to get the concept accepted among shepherds and managers on surrounding blocks. These folk may in theory have been “farm employees”, but they were critical as they had to work with the stock, and if you dislike what you see every day, then your dedication to the job disappears pretty quickly. The enthusiasm of the farm staff involved was what fired the office bureaucrats. They could not ignore something that the managers were so enthusiastic about – and made more money for the Department.

Th news of this project spread and fired the enthusiasm of many overseas visitors who were agog at the concept. One such person was Dr Claire Terrill from the USA who was a great mate of Al Rae’s, and had a similar international reputation as a sheep geneticist. He became a tremendous supporter of the project which we at Whatawhata always made sure to stress it was a L&S project and not a MAF one. This kept reinforcing the “buy-in” by everyone in the L&S department.

Castrate or not?
The decision to retain all the female lambs from the twinning two-tooths was easy to make, as they obviously had enormous potential as female replacements. But whether to keep the rams entire was a momentous decision and none of us involved in the project could foresee the troubles ahead. Anyway, somewhere along the line, without the decisions going to too high an authority, the decision to castrate met its doom, and a new genetic reservoir was created. There was always the possibility that the decision could be changed up to the time it was too hard to get a ring around the rams’ testicles.

The new boss at Rotorua
In 1968 (the year Clive joined the Whatawhata staff) the newly appointed L&S Superintendent, Eric Gibson, had arrived at Rotorua and everyone involved waited with bated breath to see if the whole idea would meet its death by being declared as "bullshit". We had been told that when “Mr Gibson spoke, he didn’t mince his words and was no fool”. He had been given the nickname “Hoot Gibson” at Lincoln College. We had to set up a meeting to face this new challenge.

We scientists from Whatawhata, approached Rotorua with trepidation. We soon discovered that whoever had made that assessment of the new boss should have been given top marks for perception. But much to the surprise and relief of us Whatawhata boffins, Eric immediately understood the principle of group breeding and in particular saw the implications of where it could lead the Rotorua L&S district. He could see far beyond the scientists' political naivety - and realised the implications of a government department breeding its own rams. We saw a smile on the face of the tiger!

Mind you, we sensed another twist in Eric’s motivation as he was a very competitive trooper, and there was great competition between the different districts in L&S. As the new man at Rotorua, he clearly wanted to show the L&S “Head Office lot” that they were the best. To have a contempt for HO was a basic requirement of any public servant – and we all prided ourselves in developing the art.

We'd better tell Wal
The scheme, by this time had raced ahead in terms of the number of two-tooths being screened, so the nucleus flock was rapidly expanding. With the excellent working relationships between everyone involved, things that were ideas at one meeting were put into practice the next day. The Public Service had never seen anything like this enthusiasm turned into action. Sir Humphrey in the BBC “Yes Minister” would have committed suicide!

The charge was led by Eric Gibson who had the simple approach of "if it makes sense – then get on with it". There was no bureaucracy to feed and slow things up before approvals were obtained, because the decisions were made by the whole group and approved by Eric on the spot with no decision waiting time.

These good relationships soon advanced the programme to the point of no return. There was no turning back, so Doug Lang realised we had better declare its hand with its MAF masters. No official project proposal had been written for the Waihora project which was now invovling more of our (MAF) time and resources in travel, data handling and Ruakura computer time. We started to get a bit jittery about the Director of Agricultural Research, (Dr Lyn Wallace) finding out from other sources what we were up to. So Doug decided it was time to tell "Wal".

About 1971, the then Minister of Lands, Duncan McIntyre, visited Whatawhata accompanied by Dr Wallace on a bit of a PR visit when he was up in the Waikato, mainly to see what was going on at Ruakura. Such VIPs were regularly brought out to Whatawhata for an hour or two, and as Duncan was also a Hawke’s Bay hill country farmer a look-see at what we were doing was a obvious time filler for him. We always took visitors up the twisty track to the woolshed and airstrip from where they could get a decent view of the steep back blocks of the farm’s 2000 acres.

I remember we were heading down a steep slope in the Landrover when Doug started telling Duncan about how well one of the most exciting projects we at Whatawhata were involved with was going - in his own Department. Wal was all ears!

But there was no explosion and after further detailed discussion and questioning, to the credit of these two eminent men, the verbal go-ahead was given. We didn’t need written permission in those days as these mens’ words were their bonds. They warned, however, that if the project caused any hassles between the two Departments (MAF and L&S) there would be no support from the top at Director General and Ministerial level. We had to deliver!

But we were on safe ground, because although we didn't realise it at the time, Eric Gibson and Duncan McIntrye (Eric’s boss) were old duck and quail shooting mates, and we learned that the theory and practice of group breeding had already been mai mai chat!

Lands & Survey: 5. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 5

By Dr Clive Dalton; Dr Doug Lang

Political genetics
Like all L&S regions, the Rotorua superintendency had a well established ram and bull buying policy, and a specialist staff member had devoted his whole career to this business. He was known around the country and was courted by stud breeders and stock agents alike and had a well-oiled purchasing round visiting studs on a regular annual programme. These staff members were very important people in the farming business, as they in fact had the cheque book for a big government department which was guaranteed money if you got the business. It was well worth the stud breeder having a new bottle of whisky opened and the top thrown away for their arrival.

So there were some considerable concerns (to put it mildly) on the part of the Rotorua district’s ram and bull buyer about having to cancel orders and, worse still, tell the breeders why the Department didn't want any rams that year. Things that had remained the same for donkey's years were starting to change.

Stud breeders and agents were certainly not happy, and we saw the development of a new branch of genetics which I called "political genetics". The theory was that Government Departments did not have the right to breed their own sires, as it was unfair to people who were in business to supply them.

Change had arrived and the last rams from outside stud flocks were purchased in 1968 and 1969. There was feeling of "the gathering storm" and we scientists were worried. However, Eric Gibson, with support from Jack Fitzharris in L&S Head Office was prepared to go ahead and face any flak from the stud breeders. Again we got the clear impression that he was actually looking forward to it.

Duncan McIntyre, by this time, had become a real enthusiast of the scheme, both under Eric's influence and his own perception of what it could do for his Department of Lands, as the early results were impressive.

Expansion of sheep scheme
The scheme progressed at a pace with more screening of two tooths from more blocks, and the development of a sound ram selection policy. By this time the "Waihora Sheep Improvement Programme" was reported at the Massey Sheepfarmers' Conference in 1975. It involved 7698 ewes, 3000 ram hoggets and 3900 ewe hoggets in the scheme. By 1968 the nucleus flock was run on Waihora (manager Peter Guy), Otutira (manager Bob Black) and Kakaho (manager John Stringfellow).

Data handling
Very soon it became clear that the information coming through from the sheep scheme was far beyond anything that a research station had ever faced before, and if it hadn't been for Graeme Hight's "workaholic" nature, it could so easily have been ditched and put in the too-hard basket.

First, there was the actual fieldwork of weighing thousands of animals and weighing and classing fleeces. When the job looked impossible, everyone involved seemed to see it as a challenge - especially the farm managers and their staff, which included their wives.

There was always a spirit of competition to see if a system could be bettered or the speed of handling increased, so a whole collection of new developments arose from this work. Examples were: lambing bags, recording aprons, raised races and narrow pens to inspect sheep and so on. Necessity was certainly mothering invention.

The Biometrics Section at Ruakura played a vital role in developing systems to handle and analyse the data. The two key people in this were Ken Jury and Don Wilson who fortunately could understand the practical problems involved. They entered the spirit of the scheme, goaded on by Graeme Hight.

Graeme was the key to the sheep scheme and worked long into the night, "rolling his own" and copying out endless lists in his neat script on reams of MAF data paper. Eric Gibson remembered that at one time there was something like 7,000 stock units being recorded and an index worked out for them using manual corrections for all their traits. This was all done by Graeme in the few days after weighing.

Eric remembered that once, when computers were first used, the results didn't arrive for six months! Eric pointed out that all this recording work was done by Graeme in addition to all his other research on the station. The Waihora sheep data were Graeme’s pride and joy and he was very protective of it.

There were also some very dedicated technicians at Whatawhata who supported Graeme with the Waihora sheep work, but before the lambing books reached Whatawhata, there were many hours of hard work done by the farm managers and their wives. Without their contribution the whole show would have ground to a rapid halt.

The Apple computer revolution
By the time Geoff Nicoll took over the Cattle Breeding Scheme from me, PCs had arrived and Geoff was brave enough to take one out into the fresh air of the sheep and cattle yards.

Dr Geoff Nicoll showing ram data to buyers at a Waihora ram sale.
The machines are Apple IIe models

Selling rams


The first rams to be sold from the Waihora flock went to surrounding blocks. Some managers were very happy with this, as they were believers in the scheme and had screened their top two-tooths into the Waihora nucleus, so they expected to get some good rams in return.

Others were not as enthusiastic, and their main criticism was always over the size of the rams. A good ram in their view had to be a massive beast, and no amount of fancy records could compensate for this. These managers been reared on this principle, and when their rams arrived each year, mainly from Feilding where they had been purchased by the L &S stud stock manager, they were massive. 'Too blardy small, too blardy small' was their mantra.

Block ram sale day
Here the rams were balloted to go to blocks so there was a fair sharing of the genetics. The picture below shows Dorothy Hight picking the numbers from the barrel and the paper work being done before the ram was purchased for the block.



Public ram sale
This is when the fun really started, as some Council members of the Romney Association came to buy rams, make a fuss and declare to all who wanted to listen that they were taking them home to feed to their dogs.

Other serious buyers were given plenty of opportunity to check the records of each ram and there was great discussion on all aspects of the scheme. (See the pictures below).

The Lands & Survey staff, led by Eric Gibson were having a ball.

Lands & Survey: 6. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 6

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang

Cattle
The momentum and enthusiasm created by the sheep scheme soon spread to the 30,000 Angus cattle run in the Rotorua superintendency. The technical side of the sheep scheme was looked after by Graeme Hight, so I took on the job of organising the technical side of a cattle scheme. The project was drawn up and presented to Eric Gibson in 1969 in the Rotorua office and was approved immediately. It began by screening the cows on Waihora at weaning in February-March 1970.

Finding the good cows
The first decision was to define what was a good cow. In our view, it was a cow that weaned a good calf each year. To find them easily and quickly was the next question, as it was certainly not practical to go around and mark cows in the paddock with good calves at foot, like we did with twinning two tooths.

The managers and staff on the surrounding blocks carried out what was a very simple idea. At weaning, all the calves were separated then weighed (if scales were available) and the heaviest were kept. If there were no scales, the biggest calves were drafted off. The next step was to separate them through a good strong fence, till they had mothered up again (see below). A few days later both mother and calf were drafted off and sent to Waihora.

Photo a day after separating the 'top' calves from the cows.
Their mothers are back bonding with them, so are easy to identify from the rest of the herd which has given up looking for their calves and moved away.

So these cows started our first “Angus nucleus herd” and they looked a picture. There wasn't one among them that you would have thrown out because of some physical feature. But remember the “genetic sin” of this exercise; none of these cows had a pedigree to qualify then for a stud book, and we were going to breed bulls from them! Although they had all been bred by bulls purchased from registered stud herds, that still didn’t count.

We didn’t keep the good calves from these good cows, as they could have been big for all sorts of environmental reasons as well as good genetics. This could not be sorted out at this stage. The heifer calves from these good cows went back into the herd so their genes were not wasted and if they were good performers; they would be picked up in any further screening.

Recording
The fun started with the practical problems of first identifying commercial cows not used to close human contact in wide open spaces. An upset Angus cow was a very different propostion to a skitty two tooth ewe.

Up to this time, recorded cows in New Zealand studs and research herds wore chains around their necks carrying a heavy numbered brass tag. You could hear them rattling from miles away when cows were mustered. Graeme Hight was adamant that this had to be the way for the cows at Waihora. Clive viewed this with little enthusiasm thinking of all the work involved.



Plastics were developing rapidly at this time and a numbered plastic tag appeared on the market which was ideal to replace the brass tags, and a wide range of nylon cords were also available. The two were ideal for the job but there was concern about how to tie the unbreakable nylon around the cow’s neck to carry the tag.

Doug Lang remembers getting the germ of an idea from Frank Paviour the saddler and canvas company in Hamilton. It was a metal non-slip tie which we got made and this became the standard for cattle identification on the station and the proposed system for the L&S cows. Clive Dalton still had little enthusiasm for tieing these around the necks of a few hundred snorting bellowing Angus cows. But at least it was an improvement in chains that had to be joined by small shackels with screws.

But the day was saved by the Ackland brothers (John and Mark) who had been to the USA and seen Ritchey tags. They purchased the right to make them in New Zealand and formed a company called 'Little River Products', and Plastic Products in Hamilton was where it was happening. The first samples were inspected with little enthusiasm as they seemed soft and would not last, but they sure passed the “destruction test” as nobody could tear them apart. Plenty doubters tried I well remember.



Against Graeme Hight’s better judgement, we purchased the first batch of tags which I remember were still warm when I collected them from the factory in Te Rapa. The tags came with white ink to write the numbers on, and a nasty looking pointed dagger to push the tag through the ear. Once throught the slit it was held by a small arrow head.


Historic Day
So on one historic day, all the nucleus cows were yarded at Waihora and individually held in the crush. As Peter Guy did pregnancy tests via the cow’s recturm, Clive spearing their ears with a Ritchey tag in each. The poor salivating, roaring bailed cow didn't know which insult to concentrate on!

Tagging was tricky as the cow didn’t like the pain of the first stab, and if it flicked it’s head at that point, the dagger went into the ear and slit it right to the edge so the cow ended up with what looked like two ears on that side! Then she sure didn’t like her other ear being treated the same.

Checking that the arrowhead on the tag has gone through the hole and is holding.
The cow didn't like this much and you had to watch your fingers.

It was now clear to all that we could never have operated the scheme with any form of identification which involved a tag tied around a cow’s neck. So Ritchey tags were very much part of the genetic revolution.

The scheme was underway and was fully reported at the Massey Sheepfarmers' Conference in 1973, and at the Ruakura Farmers' Conference in 1974. It involved basic recording of each cow, performance testing of all bulls and heifers from weaning to yearling and 18 months of age, and then intensive selection for growth and reproduction after that.

The inaugural nucleus cows after tagging and Preg Diagnosis.
It's clear from their tail angle that they didn't enjoy the rectal PD experience.

Lands & Survey: 7. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 7

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang

Search for top bulls

Top 2-year-old bulls at Kakaho to go out to other blocks

Again, political genetics raised its head as bulls for the Waihora herd and on surrounding blocks were now being bred from the Waihora nucleus cows. It was made very clear by Angus stud breeders and their Breed Association that this would spell disaster in both the short and long term, as these cows were not registered.

I loved to quote the obvious genetic myth that unless you could trace an Angus beast’s ancestors back to the famous "Old Jock" of Scottish antiquity, you would find "dirrrty genes” in the stock that had been hidden away as they could not be "pure".

So to placate breeders' concerns, and also to see where the project stood in relation to the conventional studs, highly selected and performance tested bulls were purchased to compare in a progeny test built into the scheme.

A mammoth effort for the managers and staff - sorting out
the different groups of progeny by each bull at Otutira yards

This got a lot of publicity as the news spread through the stud world, because Eric Gibson laid his cards on the table with breeders right from the start. We certainly got breeders’ attention as after they realised there was no turning back, getting a bull into the Waihora progeny test would give them great prestige – if it came up trumps and proved what rubbish L&S were breeding for themselves. It was a risk worth them taking, so the courted Eric Gibson’s business in a big way and he loved it.

We also gained the undivided attention of the stock firms as they could see the potential loss of business through Waihora bulls being home bred. Clive Dalton was once called to an audience with the Doug Pickin manager of a local Wrightson’s stock firm in Hamilton and the company’s senior stock agent from Palmerston North Tim Russell to see if we were serious, and if L&S were going to go ahead with breeding their own bulls. Clive explained the genetic basics of the scheme which they didn’t disagree with, and referred them to Mr Gibson for futher comment. It was clear that their worst fears had been confirmed.

Public relations
By this time it was clear that the farming public had to be given an opportunity to see what was going on at Waihora, and it was proposed that we needed to have proper "open days" which would prevent managers and scientists being constantly bothered by interested individuals (both serious and skeptics) and groups wanting to keep up with progress. It was a good idea that never worked.

About 1974 we had an Angus field day where visitors traveled to each of the three main blocks - Waihora, Otutira and Kakaho. At Kakaho the feature was to show individual bulls and their performance and progeny test results. One famous Angus stud breeder from Te Kuiti was almost apoplectic when he saw the top progeny tested bull! Others were very kind and said they'd enjoyed their day.

Waihora Angus herd c 1975

There were many other visitors from all over the world who came to view both the sheep and cattle schemes. One memorable group was from Kansas State University who were so impressed with the cattle work that Eric Gibson was invited to speak at their Cattlemans’ Conference. The scheme was also a special feature during the first World Sheep and Cattle Group Breeding Conference which was held in New Zealand.

Using yearling bulls
To speed up genetic gain, we Whatawhata scientists persuaded Eric Gibson that we should be using yearling bulls. The problem with this was that a yearling had not matured like a 2-year-old so there was always a fear that if you picked a top bull on records, and his yearling physical traits, all sorts of things could go wrong with his conformation and feet as he aged.

We won the day, but the yearlings got extra special scrutiny at their final inspection - as seen from the photo below.

Yearling bulls getting intense scrutiny

Dr Geoff Nicoll with the Mac computer in the cattle yards
Note the carrying box made by one of the staff

Lands & Survey: 8. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes - Part 8

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang

Looking back
By the late 1970s the show was on the road and nothing could stop it. More than that - it had now gained international recognition. However, some local breeders were still not keen to visit. They had decided the whole idea was rubbish, you could not breed decent sires from unregistered stock and that government departments should not be doing genuine stud breeders out of business. So why bother to go and see what was going on?

Dr Wallace always enjoyed baiting Graeme Hight about the scheme, knowing full well he would get a spirited response. The head of genetics at Ruakura, Dr Alan Carter, was never very enthusiastic about the scheme as it didn't meet his high scientific standards. He argued that we could truly prove progress was being made in either the cattle or sheep scheme without an unselected random “control” flock and herd. Alan had a good point and his Angus selection lines at Waikeria did have an unselected control herd. This was fixed up later in the Waihora cattle project with Alan's help.

Dr Leyden Baker comments
Leyden was a geneticist at Ruakura with Alan Carter and he provides this valuable comment:

'You stated that Alan Carter did not fully support the Waihora scheme because it lacked scientific rigour - which was probably correct. But you also stated that he wanted a control line included which is only partly true. His original cattle selection experiments at Waikeria never included a random-bred control line, but tried to estimate genetic gain using a bull repeat-mating system. Once BLUP was fully developed (which was not in those days) this is not too bad an approach. However Alan random-bred control lines because he said they took up too many resources.

'I arrived at Ruakura in 1971 at the stage when Alan was designing the cattle selection lines at Waikeria and I suggested that a random bred control line should be included and had to convince both Alan Carter and Eric Gibson that this was important and useful.

'I was helped by a visit at this time by Helen Newton Turner from Australia who had included random bred control lines in her CSIRO sheep selection experiments. I also had to convince Roger Bedford of L&S of the importance of random bred control lines and the hassle of using 12 bulls in the control line each mating!'

The lobbying of Duncan McIntyre
Duncan McIntyre as Minster of Lands had to face enormous lobbying from both Romney and Angus Breeders about the Department breeding its own sires. Political genetics was taken to the very top.

As progress and momentum grew, it was decided to hold the first public auction of rams at Kakaho. L&S “settlers” who had won a L&S block in a ballot were first allowed to buy rams, before sales were open to the public (see earlier blogs).

The ram sale - some came to buy, many to watch

The President of the Romney Breed Association was so incensed at the prospect of a public sale that he went to Duncan MacIntyre threatening to resign from the National Party and taking the whole board with him if the sale was not canceled. The sale went ahead.

But then some members of the Romney Council came up with tactic of buying rams (which indeed they did), to take home to compare with their own sheep, to show how genetically inferior the Waihora rams were. One member said he would do the country a service by buying a ram to take home to feed to the dogs! He definitely bought one but whether the dogs enjoyed it we never found out.

The technical advisor to the NZ Angus Association (Mr Jack Evans) didn't miss the opportunity to make his concerns felt. At one stage, relationships improved as breeders saw the value of the progeny test information coming out of the L&S scheme which could not be generated in small stud herds. This realisation didn't seem to last for long and was worsened when semen from Waihora bulls was offered for sale.

Over and out!
It was both a pleasure and a relief for me (Clive Dalton) when a young, newly qualified student from Massey University called Geoff Nicoll joined the scheme. We handed the entire technical end of the cattle scheme over to Geoff, who later took on the sheep scheme as well.

Geoff then moved from MAF to the new “Landcorp” State Owned Enterprise which became and still is the largest farming operation in New Zealand with taxpayers as the shareholders. It’s future has been in doubt a few times in the past due to political pressures with the urge to sell it all off to commercial farmers. We boffins have always argued that it is a unique genetic resource for the nation and should not be sold off and dispersed after the many years of hard work and undoubted achievement.

It’s future is still in doubt today - you can read my (DCD) opinion on that matter here on Rural Network.co.nz if you like.

Doug Lang moved on into farming in 1971 and Graeme Hight had an untimely death at age 41 in 1979, the year Clive moved to the Ruakura Research Centre into scientific liaison work and extension.

For everyone involved, to say it had been an “interesting and challenging” phase in NZ animal breeding would be the understatement of the century. In 2007, forty years after Lang and Hight’s journey up Lake Taupo’s western bays road, Clive Dalton and Doug Lang went to a Waihora Open Day, designed to show farmers and the public what Landcorp were doing with their sheep.

“Landmark” composite rams derived from the Waihora Romney

We two old blokes enjoyed the nostalgic trip down there and thought things looked pretty good. But it was a bit of a shock to hear the chairman in his opening remarks talk about the beginning of the scheme - 40 years ago. We didn’t think we were that old!

Landcorp Ewes and lambs, 2007

Lands & Survey: 10. Sheep & cattle breeding in New Zealand

History of NZ Lands & Survey Department Angus & Romney breeding schemes.
A Selection of References

By Dr Clive Dalton & Dr Doug Lang


References
Dalton, D.C., Gibson, A.E. 1974.
Breeding high-performance Angus cattle - a Lands and Survey project. Proceedings of the Ruakura Farmers' Conference 26: 7-19.

Hight, G.K., Gibson, A.E., Wilson, D.A., Guy P.L. 1975.
The Waihora sheep improvement programme.
Sheepfarming Annual 38: 67-89.

Gibson, A.E., Dalton, D.C. 1973.
Beef Breeding Programme: Lands and Survey Department, Rotorua.
Sheepfarming Annual 36: 9-19.

Nicoll, G.B. 1989.
Performance and Financial Returns of Two Romney Flocks Sired by Waihora and Commercial Rams.
New Zealand Journal of Agricultural Research 32: 37-43.

Nicoll, G.B., Johnson, D.L. 1986.
Evidence of Genetic Improvement in the Angus Breeding Scheme of the Department of Lands and Survey.
Proceedings of the New Zealand Society of Animal Production 46: 67-70.