HISTORY OF PINEBANK ANGUS AND WAIGROUP

Pinebank 627/89

Waigroup 1/180

Every animal is genetically coded to reach a given weight at a given age, and that weight can be achieved at any time

 

PINEBANK

Pinebank was began by A.H Falloon in 1919 with the purchase of three cows.  Since that date very few cows have been purchased. 

In the beginning the stud was bred in the usual way and went through the whole spectrum of breed ing.   At one stage it had foster mothers, a scottish herdsman,  and cattle were bred for the stud market being sold at News Zealand’s National Stud Sale.  Mr Falloon quickily realised that his main market was the commercial market,  supplying the poor coastal hill country with bulls

This was in the period when the so called chiller market was in vogue, and smaller and smaller bulls were imported from United Kingdom.  Anything that had been imported became fashionable and there was a general deterioration in the angus breed.

Pinebank never became involved because of our coastal country’s demand for cattle with bone and substance.  At that  time we were constantly searching the country for  bigger bulkier cattle

A.H.Falloon died and his son Gavin left school and took up the stud.  Gavin went to England in 1956 and spent some time with the English and Scottish angus breeders.  As  it was out of season while he was studying, he spent time talking to the studmasters.  This was when he discovered that most of the successful herds   were “line bred”

On returning to New Zealand he looked through the herd book to find anyone who was doing anything constructive in the Angus breed.  He found his breeder and his bull and purchased “Escort of Ngawaka” who was linebred to Embassy 5th.  Embassy the 5th had been the best breeding son of Mulben Embassy, who was one of the most successful bulls imported into New Zealand.

Escort was a senior bull, and because Gavin could find nothing to replace him  he began studying genetics to make the best use of Escort before he died.

In 1960 he made contact with Dr Ch’ang, a research geneticist at Massey University, It was 1965 before he could persuade him to help.

In 1965 Pinebank was closed and the programme began.  Then  in 1967 three other herd joined the programme

Waigroup was formed for the following reasons

1) In a closed herd breeding the bigger the population the faster progress you can make.   I wanted more than 120cows  to select from.
2) To be a political force in the Angus association.    120cows was not enough but, 800 cows in 1967 was something that the Association had to take seriously.

In 1995 my son William and his wife Angela took over the stud with Gavin running the web and advising if required.   William had already done a course in genetic under Dr Dorrian Garrick.
In 2007 Pinebank Canada was set up in Alberta with Christoph Weder and his wife Erica

The first Canadian Sale will be held in 2009

The Pinebank Herd is anticapated to have  600 to 700 cows by the year 2010

WAIGROUP

Each herd was closed. The best 2year old bulls were selected on growth and structual soundness, in each herd and was used for one year and then relaced by the next years best 2 year bulls.   We used this system for ten years while we examined each herd's level for genetic recessives (if any), potential for growth and their different environments' effect on growth.

After ten years we changed the objective of growth to weaning weight and dam traits. This is the most costly part of the beef production cycle. Waigroup has never selected for structural size but has allowed performance to dictate the best size of cattle to suit grasslands grazing environment. Strong emphasis has been placed on structural soundness and longevity.

Present Breeding Objectives are:

Pinebank is rapidly evolving a very efficient pasture production, low cost herd.