The Country 13/08/26: Callum McDonald talks to Jamie Mackay

PGG Wrightson’s National Genetics Manager talks bulls on this month’s livestock update.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Let's head to God's Own farming province, Southland. There we
find Callum McDonald. He is PGG rights In's national genetics manager.
Now callum, the two year old bull season selling season.
I've got too many seasons in there, but this is
live radio. Let's continue on has finished. I didn't realize

(00:20):
that you went from the two year olds to the
one year olds this spring. Now here's my question for you.
Why would you sell a bull as a yearling like
the spring rather than keep it a bit longer and
get the big bucks for the two year olds? That
is that a sensible question? Good afternoon.

Speaker 2 (00:38):
Oh yeah, here you Jamie.

Speaker 1 (00:40):
Yeah.

Speaker 2 (00:40):
No, we're obviously coming off the back of a pretty
successful two year old selling season, which you know, obviously
on the back of bee prices and that they were
pretty cool to see. And yeah, but no straight back
into the yealing sales, which you start at the end
of this month sort of up north and follow their
way down the country sort of ending in mid October.
But yeah, there's all we sell balls the stummy years

(01:03):
sort of A lot of them go into the beef
industry with hiper mating options and stuff like that. And
then obviously beef on dairy is a big, big part
of what we do now too, And yeah, there's a
lot of balls going to that side of the industry,
which is, you know, a big part of what we.

Speaker 1 (01:16):
Do that is going to become more and more predominant,
isn't it the what did you call it? The beef
on dairy because the barbiecarf issue was one that won't
go away. So the more beef animals we can get
out of our dairy cows the better, right, Yeah.

Speaker 2 (01:30):
Yeah, no, and we're seeing a lot of those animals.
Obviously the deer farmers are into it at the moment. Yeah,
you know, we can get some beef animals through that
eat the dairy industry. It's it's yeah, it's good for
the whole beef industry.

Speaker 1 (01:42):
So we've seen record prices for the two year old
bulls on the selling season, that's what late autumn early
winter are you are we likely to see records broken
for the yealings.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
I mean, we do have record yealing prices and stuff
like that, so, I mean it would be nice to
see and I think it's like everything is the there.
Then you know the punters will follow them and pay
pay for what they think is there worth. But yeah, certainly,
just that buoyancy and the beef industry is propping things
up at the moment. And yeah, we're going through a
bit of a purple patch which is nice to see.

(02:13):
And you know, long mate continue.

Speaker 1 (02:16):
Will the anger spalls again be the star of the stable.

Speaker 2 (02:19):
There's a bit of beaver thing really. I mean, obviously
the anger cell pretty well. When we've got here fits
and you know, you've got all breeds that go into
the air industry. There's a few exotics nowadays, and yeah,
it's there, you know, with all the data and stuff
that's there, then there's a ball for everyone, and yeah,
you can certainly there's plenty of choices out there. So
that's keeping us busy in the in the next couple

(02:40):
of months.

Speaker 1 (02:40):
Anyway, we've spoken to Gen corkran out a Rabobank already
on the show, and the prospects for beef, despite tariffs
and all the other interference that certain people around the
world are running, that market is pretty hot and it
looks like it's going to stay that way. So that's
got to be really good for the beef industry, especially
the breeding industry.

Speaker 2 (03:00):
Yeah, no, we're pretty pumped about it at the moment.
It's that short to medium looks really positive and you know,
as I say, it's it's nice to be in the
industry at the moment. And you know, as I say,
it's just controlling what you can control, and you know,
finding those genetics that sutain, they're certainly pointing them out there.
So it's just a matter of everyone doing their homework
and buying a ball that's going to add value on farm.

Speaker 1 (03:22):
Well, we'll look forward to these spring ball yielding sales
and we'll see if we can break some more records.
Callum MacDonald and National genetics manager for PGG Rights and
thanks for your time today on the country.

Speaker 2 (03:33):
Thanks Jamie,