Page 2 - Silverstream 2021 Catalogue eBook

Welcome to our 2021 Annual Bull Sale Catalogue. With last year’s sale being postponed a month due to Covid we have had this
sale come round more quickly and we seem to be later than normal getting this catalogue together.
The dry weather has been tough in this part of the world. Our hill block has been dry since January 2020 and while we are seeing
a bit of a green tinge now, it’s still a long way off having grass blowing in the breeze.
The bulls have come through surprisingly well. They were weaned in January last year and had a couple of setbacks along the
way but come sale day they will be looking pretty good. The industry despite the challenges of the three big ‘C’s’ - Climate, Covid
and Cindy is well positioned going forward. We are very confident there will be ongoing demand for our wonderful sustainably
produced primary products in New Zealand. We really believe the Charolais breed has a huge part to play in the future of
sustainably produced beef. A recent study carried out at Lincoln University compared seven different finishing systems in
NZ and looked at resource use efficiency and how methane and nitrogen output differ. It found that there was an opportunity
for beef producers to cut back methane production by 50% simply by improving their production efficiencies. Basically the
longer an animal is alive the more methane they produce. If the industry can improve on this and send more cattle away earlier
it is going to better for the industry and for the environment. We hope that in the future the producers will be rewarded for
producing beef with a lower carbon footprint.
We will once again have Silver Fern Farms catering our sale. We are very appreciative of their efforts and are most grateful of
Eldon who comes up from Dunedin every year to prepare the BBQ. We are also glad to have Alastair Harvey there too who
makes sure everything falls into place.
We appreciate the sale day can be pretty busy so if there is anything we can help with before the sale as far as bulls that would
suit your operation we are happy to give our opinion. It’s in our best interest that you get the most suitable bulls for your
operation so we are keen to help out.
We are really happy with the direction the bulls from both breeds are heading. We appreciate the feedback and would like to
think we are breeding industry relevant genetics. We are really thrilled with the sire bulls we have been using and really feel bulls
like Manhattan are going to have such an impact on our herd. It’s really heartening to see our genetics still doing well overseas.
Evolution even after all these years is still having an impact in Australia with both a grand daughter and grandson taking out
the Champion awards at the recent beef week in Rockhampton. Embryo calves are also being successful and Siverstream sired
bulls are still so sort after at the Australian sales. We are also excited to see the Manhattan calves being born over there and look
forward to the influence he will have there and in North America. We have also seen some fantastic progeny of Memphis in
Australia and are waiting for the first National calves to be born over there as well.
It’s not long now till the sale and we are sure looking forward to seeing everyone there. I know we look busy on sale day and
often people say they don’t want to bother us but please do come and say hello. The best part of this industry is the people and
we really love catching up.

Until then take care

Brent, Anna and the Fisher Family.