BORAN CATTLE BREEDERS SOCIETY NEWSLETTER NOVEMBER 2014 2727K6K https://www.borankenya.org https://www.facebook.com/borancattlebreederssociety
INSIDE THIS ISSUE: Message from BCBS Chairman Ol Pejeta Bull and Heifer Auction Ol Pejeta Field Day Giles Prettejohn Yoani Borans Robin Stanley 2 3 6 10 Message from the BCBS Chairman A s this news letter gets to you all, I hope you have had sufficient rains? On the 14 th of June 2014 we had our bi-annual field day and bull sale at Ol Pejeta. It was a great and very informative day. The sale was a success and for the first time groups of heifer went on sale, which also went very well. Congratulations to Ol Pejeta for selling the highest priced bull. A big thank you to Ol Pejeta for the wonderful day and to Giles and his team for all their effort. Well done to Shaban and his team for organising all the BCBS matters. We have our AGM and Field day on the 10 th of December at Suyian Ranch Rumaruti. Thank you to Gilfrid for hosting us. We look forward to seeing you all there for a 9am start. All the best, Mark 2
Ol Pejeta Bull and Heifer Auction Held in June 2014 I n conjunction with the Ol Pejeta field day a very successful auction was held with a good turnout of bulls and heifers. Four lots of heifers were on sale with two lots not being sold. The average price for heifers was 83,500/- each. Sixteen registered bulls were also on sale and fourteen of these were sold. Average price for bulls was 221,428/- with the top price being 475,000/- for an Ol Pejeta bull bought by Solio Ranch Ltd Bull 1686 was the top priced bull and was bought by Solio Ranch Ltd from Ol Pejeta Ranching. A son of 1433 KPO who is Ol Pejetas top sire at the moment who was sired by 622 KPO. A pure Ol Pejeta line with everything right in all the right places. 3
BREEDER SALE BUYER KES Woragus 2 heifers D. Dunn 160,000.00 Ol Pejeta 5 Heifers D. Dunn 425,000.00 Stanley and Son Ltd 3 Heifers N/S - Solio Ranch Ltd 5 Heifers N/S - Solio Ranch Ltd Bull 947 Suyian Ltd 325,000.00 Stanley and Son Ltd Bull 032 N/S - Butiti Ranch, Mogwooni Ltd Bull 4951 Uganda 200,000.00 Woragus Bull 484 D. Dunn 200,000.00 Barnabas, Banuti Sosian Ranch Ltd Bull 0181 Ranchers, Uganda 200,000.00 Ol Pejeta Bull 1645 Sosian Ranch 200,000.00 Suyian Ltd Bull 937 Kakuzi Ltd 75,000.00 Stanley and Son Ltd Bull 036 N/S - Sosian Ranch Ltd Bull 0172 Soysambu Ranch 150,000.00 Butiti Ranch, Homa Lime Co. Ltd Bull 10015 Uganda 150,000.00 Woragus Bull 511 Sosian Ranch 375,000.00 Solio Ranch Ltd Bull 113 Ol Pejeta 350,000.00 Barnabas, Banuti Mogwooni Ltd Bull 4986 Ranchers, Uganda 150,000.00 Ol Pejeta Bull 1686 Solio Ranch Ltd 475,000.00 Red Poll Bull Mazao Yetu 11045 Suyian Ltd 150,000.00 Suyian Ltd Bull 959 Kakuzi Ltd 100,000.00 3,685,000.00 4
Bull number 511, bred by Woragus, was the second highest priced bull selling for 375,000/- to Sosian Ranch. Another good young bull sired by 147 Woragus, a previous Boran Supreme Champion. Maternal line goes back to the Gianni 2812 sire. 5
Ol Pejeta Field Day By Giles Prettejohn BULL 622 - OL PEJETA TOP BULL LINE: D uring the Ol Pejeta field day in June 2014, one particular bull line stood out. Daughters and sons of 1433/1197 were on display during the Field Day. At Auction a son, 1646/1433 fetched the top price. Below is the history of this pure Ol Pejeta line: 622 by 1607 was a bull used extensively in our commercial herd for his beef qualities. He was first recognized by an upstart inspector, a young Mark Taylor, as potential for stud use. We bred him to stud cows before South Africa chose him as a donor sire. Finally purchased by M Taylor, 622 ended up in the Woragus Stud herd. 6
1197 by 622 was Junior Champion bull, LBSS 2006, judged by Kaspar Gunzel of Namibia. 1197 went on to become a proven sire on Ol Pejeta, producing, among others the top bulls below: 1434 by 1197 (half-brother to 1433) was the top-priced bull sold at the 2010 Ol Pejeta auction, purchased by Paul Epsom for Kakuzi Ltd. He is now a top stud sire at Kakuzi, producing their best bulls and heifers. 7
1433 by 1197 by 622: Currently 1433 is our top stud sire, producing quality bulls and heifers of medium size with impressive width and beef qualities. His sons and daughters are top quality as the son below proves: 8
UP COMING EVENT T he 64 th Annual General Meeting (AGM) of the Boran Cattle Breeders Society will be held on Wednesday 10 th December 2014 at Suyian Ranch Limited Rumuruti starting at 9.00am. NB. There shall be a field day after the meeting to see Gilfrid s (Suyian) Boran Herd. 9
Yoani Borans a perspective by Robin Stanley Y oani Farm was one of the smaller land holdings in Machakos district and the last to have been allocated and bought by the early settlers. It was covered by thick bush, lion and hyaena in plenty, there was no permanent water. It had a hilly and rough terrain compared to other farms on the Athi- Kapiti plains and really wasn t the top choice of properties. During WW2 Robin W. Stanley (Snr) and his wife Mona managed F O B Wilson Limited farm at Kilima Kiu which when sold later became Aimi ma Kilungu. After the war Yoani came up for allocation and Robin Snr put in a bid to buy the land. His reputation as a cattleman and his service in a reserved occupation during the war helped and in 1947 he bought LR 1748 of 5048 acres. What you see was what you get! There was no water supply and the arduous and expensive task of drilling for water started. The first three drilling attempts failed and the money ran out! Robin and Mona went to work in Subukia in 1950 to save again to invest in the farm and came back in 1953, drilled again and struck water in 1954. The supply was not huge, 300 gallons per hour, but it provided some water security for developing the farm and creating a small herd was now a reality. In those days the immediate neighbours were large, welldeveloped properties. Notably: F.O B Wilson Ltd., Joyce Ltd, Kima Estate (Jock Stanley), Mousley & Sons Limited at Kiu and Jack Blowers at Marwa Sisal Estate. 10
At Sultan Hamud was Ken Sands and further on at Emali was W.B. Thomson later to become Norman Peckover s. They all ran cattle, breeding the likes of Aberdeen Angus, Ayrshire,Sahiwal, Guernsey, and DairyShorthorn. Of course Boran was the foundation of all the herds. Dairying was the cash enterprise that developed almost every farm in the district. Dairy ranching, with a pull-suck system where the cows were separated from their calves overnight and milked in the morning, was the norm in the area. Large numbers of cows were run on these ranches and there was a lot of milk produced. F. O B Wilson Ltd milked up to 900 cows by machine and had their own processing factory, as did Joyce Limited and Kima Estate. The Stanleys at Yoani delivered their milk to Kima Estate to be pasteurized and sent daily on the overnight milk train to Mombasa. An old photograph shows the Kima Estate lorry loaded with 80 milk cans (4,000 litres) ready to go to the station. That is still an impressive statistic in any dryland area. 11
After Robin & Mona s son David returned from Australia in 1959 the three tackled the development of Yoani in earnest. In 1968 Jane Stanley joined the team with wholehearted enthusiasm. In 1971 a Caterpillar D6C bulldozer was bought and development of the land carried on apace. Dams, roads, erosion control drains and most importantly the thick bush cleared and the carrying capacity soon doubled. Stanley & Son Limited was formed in 1975. The Kenya Dairy Board intervened and stopped the Mombasa milk market to give favour to the Mariakani Milk Scheme. This meant that Machakos District milk supplies had to be delivered to Kenya Cooperative Creameries (KCC) factory in Enterprise Road, Nairobi. Milk suppliers were regulated by quota and contract and the price was set according to KCC performance. The milk cheque was invariably late by sixty days. Any desire to expand a milk business meant a farmer had to buy quota at a premium price. Failure to deliver was penalized by a quota cut. This quota restriction prevented expansion and forced David and Jane to think again as to how to educate their two sons, William and Robin. The only route was to by-pass KCC and get into added value products. Stanley & Son Limited bought a cream business in Nairobi and with the fame of Brian Granville-Ross of Endesha Distributers Limited together built the Stanley Cream business for twenty years in the 80 s and 90 s. 12
In 1993 Yoani was into a very bad drought and was obliged to feed-lot the dairy cows (zero-grazing). Amichai Naveh, the animal nutrition specialist of Agriner Limited helped formulate the rations. In this way the dry season milk supply for cream was maintained. When the milk industry was finally deregulated and the price of whole milk decontrolled, it allowed Yoani to supply milk to local distributors who were desperate to get started in business. Then the purchase of the first RMH 320 feed mixer wagon from Israel followed, to provide cows with a Total Mixed Ration (TMR). This was a real labour saving move because hay, silage, molasses and concentrate feeds could be accurately measured and easily fed out to groups of cattle at different stages of lactation with different feed requirements. Soon after, in 1996, came a new model of mixer wagon the RMH 420 which is still in use on Yoani today. This is a powerful machine and able to cope with up to 4 tonnes of feed at each mix. In 1998 Robin (Jnr) joined the Stanley team having excelled at Massey University in New Zealand. He was well versed in the latest research in Ruminant Nutrition and Farm Management. He could not have arrived at a time when Yoani was in a more perfect condition. El Niño rains were on and the farm was green grass from one end to the other. To make hay the grass had to be draped on fence lines to dry. Needless to say within the first month all grand ideas break-feeding the milking cows came down with a thump when the electric fence energizer and battery were stolen out of a metal box having only been there one night! Any grand ideas of a Kiwi system were stymied as the reality of where we were farming sank in. 13
However, not all of Yoani was suitable for running exotic dairy cows. Hilly terrain and thick bush is suited to tougher types. A beef herd of 120 F1 Boran cross Friesian cows bred from selected Friesian cows ran very effectively. These F1 s are back-crossed to Boran to produce three-quarter Boran steers and heifers. Only the best Friesians are served with progeny tested Friesian A.I. for dairy replacements and the rest are served by registered Boran Bulls to breed replacements for the ranching herd. There were always a handful of registered Boran cows running with the ranching herd and these were used to breed bulls for serving the dairy cows. In the early 90s there was severe bout of calf scours in the hand reared dairy calves and the losses made a big hole in the replacements for the dairy herd. A quick decision was made and the commercial F1 Boran X Friesian cows were transferred to milking duties and this temporarily brought an end to the commercial herd. The crossbreds easily convert to milking, showing their dual purpose and adaptable nature. The transfer reduced the ranching herd as most had now become milkers. 14
In August 1993 David bought fifteen registered Foundation heifers from John and Jane Kenyon at Mogwooni Ltd and in March 1994 another eighteen heifers from Gilfrid Powys at Kisima Pinguone, now Suyian Ltd. The Yoani Boran stud resumed in earnest with about 40 cows. The first bull used on the Mogwooni heifers was 373/42 bought from Solio Ranch where Pat Smith was managing. 373/42 was a well-muscled stocky type and had already been serving dairy bulling heifers. When the Pinguone heifers arrived, a 10 year old Solio bull 109/30 was put with the whole herd. He had been the main working bull in the crossbreds achieving impressive calving percentages. O n e y e a r h e achieved a 100% pregnancy rate. 109/30 and 373/42 formed the backbone of the Yoani Boran stud. 109 s was noted for excellent feet and legs and the bull continued serving until he was 16 years old. He was put down in the 2000 drought. We managed to collect 1600 straws of semen from 109/30which was stored at C.A.I.S. for use on our Friesians. Unfortunately, when about 1000 straws were remaining an error at C.A.I.S. spoilt the remaining doses. This was a terrible loss of irreplaceable genetics. 15
109/30 had the ability to nick well with cows and produce good quality progeny with longevity traits. One of his sons (943/109) while at Suyian had semen collected. It is understood that there are about 500 doses of his semen still stored at Ol Pejeta. 16
David and Jane became synonymous with the running of the early Livestock Breeders Show & Sale under the chairmanship of Mary Nevill. Together with Nancy Shaban they ran the show office and the treasury until the time that Brookside took over. Showing cattle is excellent fun and always good to keep ones eye in to what other breeders are achieving with their Borans. Yoani was pretty successful at showing and sometimes we struck lucky and came away with the champion bull in 2000, 2004 and reserve champion in 2011. It does not define Yoani s existence as it was up against large stud herds and as one knows, beauty is in the eye of the beholder. 17
The idea of the F1 Milking cow class as a display was initiated in 1999. The feedback from show goers and the knock-on success of this tough animal that was excellent for the small holder, spurred on the policy of maintaining the F1 as a key part of the dairying enterprise. At present there are about 170 crossbred milk cows with the majority being ¾ Friesian ¼ Boran. These are turning out to be the perfect cow for the conditions and a conservation feeding system has been developed to provide for the higher yields. It has become obvious that having the Boran traits in a dairy cow make it a low maintenance, commercial dairy animal. We are not just talking of any Boran blood! The performance statistics show that the Yoani Borans are currently have an average of 410 day calving interval. This trait has influenced the crossbred and a 60% first service conception rate is achieved; up from 52% with Friesian. This has a significant impact on the profitability of a commercial dairy system. One of the most important principles is that tough selection of the heifers is crucial to the herd. The female progeny of any sire will have a far greater impact on the future and success of the herd. Long after the prime steers have been sold and the show bulls have won their prizes, replacement heifers will still remain on the farm producing the next generation. Selection is very harsh especially on feet, legs, adaptability, calving interval and post weaning growth rate (based on the research by Reinhard Tonn. ***) Yoani produces outstanding bulls each year for the Stud market, but the majority are sold to the local ranchers in Kajiado, Ukambani and Taita Taveta. 18
The aim is to select female bloodlines producing bulls able to achieve growth rates of 16 kg per month. Not much faith is put in weaner weights or the percentage of the dam s weight achieved as these are measures of the maternal environment. Instead, the post-weaning performance using 300 and 600 day weights is the main selection criteria. (Based on the research by Reinhard Tonn. ***) *** The suitability of Boran and its Crosses with European Breeds for Beef Production under range conditions in Kenya, Reinhard Tonn, 1974 19
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