Southland boy Koby Hunter wants life on his family dairy farm to be less black and white so he paid top dollar for a red cow.
The largest Shorthorn herd in Southland was on offer at a dispersal sale last month.
A full clearance included a top price of $6900 for 7-year-old in-calf cow Grosvenor Jedi Natie.
In the front row at the on-farm sale near Invercargill, making the final bid on the cow, was 8-year-old Koby, of Edendale.
The cow, known as Natie, would be the foundation cow to build his dream of establishing his own Shorthorn herd.
When the auctioneer took the final bid he yelled "sold to the young fulla at the front".
The final bid was near the top of his budget, he said.
When the Murphy family advertised their sale, he considered buying a calf but the pedigree of Natie was too good to ignore.
The appeal of Natie includes her fertility, milk production, body condition and colour.
"I’ve always wanted a red cow - a different colour to a Friesian," Koby said.
His parents, Sam Hunter and Amy Crofts, are 50:50 sharemilking 450 pure Holstein Friesian on 180ha in Edendale.
The farm is owned by his grandparents, Alec and Sandra Hunter.
Koby got permission from his parents to include a Shorthorn in their milking herd, the first time they had allowed a cow into their closed system, and then he counted his savings.
The savings were earned working for his parents, getting the herd in and putting the cups on for their twice-a-day milking, either at 5am or 2pm.
Milking frequency would be reduced soon as the herd approaches dry-off at the end of May to be put on crop at a run-off block at Pine Bush.
The milk production target is about 500kg of milksolids per cow this season, which they will most likely hit despite a slow start due to a wet spring.
His savings were bolstered by the cash prizes he won showing Holstein Friesian calves at A&P shows.
Koby won three trophies showing his Holstein Friesian calf Ruby at the Southland A&P Show in Invercargill last month.
Natie was taller than the Holstein Friesians on the farm so she had no issues joining the herd, he said.
Ruby was one of the most welcoming of the new arrival.
"She loves her and follows her everywhere."
A difference for Natie was moving from an all-grass diet in Kennington to having access to grain in the milking shed in Edendale.
"She’s not too sure about the grain," Koby said.
She mouths the grain and would hopefully start swallowing it to lift her milk production.
Her production was already great, producing 530kg of milksolids a season on a grass diet.
He was waiting for bull catalogues to arrive to find semen to artificially inseminate Natie, possibly from an Illawarra Shorthorn sire from Australia.
His breeding objectives included producing a medium-size cow which calved easily and had udders with medium-to-long teats for milking ease and darker colour coats to avoid sunburn risk.
Neighbours Graham Smith and Debbie Mercer were "silent investors" in Natie.
The couple ended a nearly 150-year history of breeding and milking Jersey cows when they sold their herd in 2023, retaining two of their cows to show.
Koby said the couple had taught him the skills to show dairy cattle and might possibly help him have embryos flushed from Natie to progress his Shorthorn herd faster.
"They are very kind people," Koby said.
shawn.mcavinue@alliedpress.co.nz
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