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About
Laucke-Merrina
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LAUCKE
- MERRINA POLL HEREFORDS
was
established at Eudunda in 1972. The property is situated
100km North East of Adelaide, and just 35km from the northern
end of the beautiful Barossa Valley, where grandfather Laucke
began flour milling in 1899. A new property has recently been
added to our cattle operation. Situated south of
Bordertown, in the South East of South Australia and some 300
Km. south of Eudunda, the property enjoys an average annual
rainfall of some 550mm ( 22inches). The addition of this
property will enable us to extend our grain growing interests at
Eudunda whilst increasing our cow numbers in a higher rainfall
district.
Since
establishment the female herd has grown to around 100 animals
and they are selected under a performance driven retention
program. This means that there is no tolerance for
infertility, calving difficulties, structural unsoundness and
below national average growth rates. Our cows must do the
job for which they were created, if they fail to do so, out they
go, regardless of breeding. |
Stud
Principal
KIP
LAUCKE |
Laucke-Merrina
is located 100km North North East of Adelaide, South
Australia. |
OUR
COUNTRY
is in the Lower North area of South Australia and
receives an average annual rainfall of 375mm to 425mm
(15-17 inches). Our normal feed growing season
runs from late Autumn (May - June) to about the end of
Spring (November).
Therefore
apart from the availability of cereal and legume
stubble, our stock require some supplementary feed
from about January to June, usually in the form of good
quality cereal/legume hay. Due to the short
growing season, and the necessity for young stock and
sale cattle to exhibit their full growth potential, all
of our bulls have access to some supplementary feed from
weaning onwards. |
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THIS
supplementary
feed intake is strictly controlled on a daily basis to 1% of the
animals bodyweight in the form of a mix of grains (oats, lupins,
barley and a vitamin and mineral concentrate). The bulk of
the daily ration being in the form of a paddock pasture when
available and or good quality hay. The controlled hand
feeding method together with regular weighing of our bulls
ensures that no animals receives excessive amounts of the grain
portion.
WE
consider an average daily weight gain of between 1 - 1.5 kg to
be not only acceptable but highly desirable. Daily weight
gains on our bulls is directly related to muscle development,
which is also directly related to the profitability of our bull
buying clients. |
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Mated
Heifers in spring pasture |
| OUR
herd
has been performance recorded with Poll Hereford Group
Breedplan for birth weight, growth and fertility traits
for more than a decade. We have also been scanning
our total calf drop (bulls and heifers) for muscle, fat
and intra-muscular fat (marbling) since this technology
became available a few years ago. Our stud being
one of the first in South Australia to take advantage of
this particular technology. This added information
is assisting us to better identify the higher producing
animals, both male and female in our herd. It also
gives our clients extra information and added confidence
in our seed stock, be they male or female. |
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BECAUSE
our clients are the life-blood of our business, we place great
importance on after sales support. This support comes in
the way of client contact as soon as practicable after the sale
by way of a phone call or letter. When possible, and by
mutual agreement, personal visits are made to discuss (on home
ground) matters of interest such as bull acclimatization, local
environment, market targets, cow herd and so on.
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WE
are
participants in the Australian Johne's Market assurance Program
for Cattle and have a herd status of Monitored Negative 2 -
Certificate Number S100.
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AS
seedstock
producers we have an obligation to produce the best possible breeding stock. We
are meeting this obligation through a dedicated approach to
every aspect of our stud operation.
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To
see more of Laucke-Merrina Poll Herefords simply click on
"Kevin Laucke The Dog" to be transferred to the next
Laucke-Merrina page.
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