Taimate genes sire international demand

Taimate Angus are celebrating being able to navigate American cattle quality protocols and introduce New Zealand genetics into American ranches in an ‘unprecedented’ deal.

As their annual bull sale approaches this June, the Ward Angus stud has been supplying bull semen to Musgrave Angus’s catalogue during the past 12 months in an unprecedented deal across the Australasian cattle industry in the American market.

Taimate principal Paul Hickman says that he and the entire Taimate Angus operation were very humbled to be considered on the international scene, with recognition of selling semen from Taimate Roy R38 at US $400 average per straw and up to US$675 via the Musgrave genetic auction.

“Musgrave Angus is running a world-renowned breeding operation with huge success in Illinois, and have been keeping tabs on this end of the world for a long time to find bloodlines that suit their needs, but it is credit to the late Lindsay Jones for putting us in contact with Musgrave in the first place,” says Paul.

“The scale of our work with Musgrave is unprecedented for this part of the world and having them advocate for the quality of bulls we’re able to produce is a huge step for us into the massive American market.

“It’s been really motivating for us to see what our breeding operations continue to produce not just on site with us but around the country and now the world,” he says.

As the cattle breeding season comes around, Paul is eager to see how the second year of Roy R38’s bloodlines are met by the local market after a successful 2024 season, ahead of the first progeny making it to American markets, being born later this year and the first progeny selling in March 2027.

“Having Roy R38 as a nationally recognised animal and a very special specimen with many sons across the country this sale season helps the Taimate name as people stand up and take notice,” says Paul.

“From our discussions Musgrave is looking beyond the individual animal as it’s a product of the programme and history we’re running, so while he’s our prize animal now there’s interest throughout our bloodlines to match attributes they’re looking for.

“I’m excited to see both the quality of Angus cattle that our deal will produce these coming winters here across New Zealand, coming out of the US later in the years to come and how that plays out in the future for the Angus industry and especially Taimate”.