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Beef Unit

Breeding for the Future

Wilkins Farming Ltd’s current Angus beef herd was formed in 2007 with the purchase of some Mt Linton heifers, the following years have seen further lines of heifers purchased from Temara and stud herds respectively.
Though they have only a small herd of beef cows, they believe they have brought some of the best breeding genetics available.

Their breeding program has seen genetic gain through AI from some of the best Angus bulls available which have been sourced through Wayne McLaren of Excell Breeding.
The bulls they have selected have high Retail Cut and IMF scores. WFL has also used Eye muscle scoring to help monitor their genetic gains.

The main herd of Angus cattle are breed and finished at their Athol property. However they do periodically buy and finish cattle on contract for various meat companies.
Grain fed beef is also an option they have explored, however this requires forward planning and committment.

Breeding

Wilkins Farming Ltd operates a “high end carcass” Angus beef producing herd aimed at producing a top quality product suitable for the hospitality industry. Breeding females have been introduced into the herd from some of New Zealands most carcass conscious seed stock producers hence giving the quality potential a serious boost.

Wilkins Farming has taken advantage of carcass ultrasound scanning technology to identify the superior better marbling, ( intramuscular fat percentage —IMF% ) in general the higher the IMF% the better the eating experience. Eye Muscle Area ( EMA is an ultrasound reading drawing the boundaries of the rib eye area ) which is an indicator of meat yield in a live animal to enable more informed breeding decisions to be made to keep driving the production of superior product.

With the use of artificial insemination, bulls such as Te Mania Ambassador A134 have been introduced, which sit in the “top percentile band” of all males recorded in Australia and New Zealand for traits such IMF% where he has a current IMF% figure of +3.8 as compared to a breed average figure of +0.8 . Likewise with Ambassadors EMA figure of +8.6 the breed average is at +2.6 .
Another Sire used Te Mania Premium Beef 492 AB, he has a top 5 % of breed EMA and IMF% rating.

This type of intense breeding programme is usually undertaken by pedigree breeders who supply breeding bulls to the stud and commercial market.

Wilkins Farming is to be commended for taking a direct route towards improving the quality of beef available to the market.

Wayne McLaren
Beef Product Manager
Xcell Breeding Services Ltd

 

 

 

Prime Beef

Wilkins Farming Ltd have prime Angus beef available for slaughter – enquire here

Beef Gallery