Maungaraki Cattle Company

Maungaraki is located in the limestone ranges south east of Masterton in Wairarapa province in the southern part of the North Island and is approximately 100 kilometres north of Wellington International Airport.

The cattle studs are run on approximately 80 hectares of medium hill country where the winters are long and cool with several snow falls annually. It is traditionally summer dry country but is highly fertile and with the limestone base it is ideally suited to running healthy breeding stock.

The annual rain fall is around 1200 mm or 44 inches. December through to March is normally the drier months.

Hay and barley straw are fed out in the winter months to supplement in the shortage of grass.

Bulls are usually wintered on green feed crops and if necessary supplemented with balage. No grain or hard feed are fed to sale bulls.

The company was set up after the purchase of Maungaraki farm in 1987 with the aim of producing quality seed stock for the stud and commercial beef breeding industry in New Zealandand overseas.

Over 100 registered breeding females calve annually. They are run under commercial conditions on hill country running up to 1700 feet asl.

Heifers are expected to calve as 2 year olds.

All calves are weighed at birth and fully performance recorded on Breed Plan. Fat depth, EMA and IMF data is recorded at around 15 months on all bulls and they are service and semen quality tested prior to sale. Yearling bulls and replacement heifers are all structurally assessed using the Beef Class system.

McWilliam Family 2008 

Lochaber

In 2016 daughter Lauren Cameron (nee McWilliam) and her husband Richard worked alongside Peter to take over part of the Gladstone Gelbvieh herd to run on their 80 hectare property Lochaber. Lochaber is located 15 minutes north of Masterton and is on limestone medium hill country. The farm is typically summer safe and the winters are long and cool with several snow falls annually. There are 40 purebred cows run on the property.

Gladstone Gelbvieh Stud. The first Gelbvieh cattle were introduced in 1989 numbers quickly built up to 60 breeding females by the use of extensive ET and AI programmes.

Maungaraki Pustertal Stud.   We have an elite herd of one of the worlds rarest beef cattle breeds. First importation of embryos in 2009

Semen and Embryos  Are available for sale from all our breeds both locally and for export overseas to most countries.

The working team...

Breeding Objectives

1. Soundness Structural soundness particularly feet and leg structure

2. Constitution Robust constitution, easy doing type, moderate frame with natural feed efficiency

3. Reproduction Strong selection pressure on reproductive traits, all heifers expected to calve at 2 years .

4. Performance Moderate birth weight, high growth particularly to 400 days

5. Maternalbreeds Emphasis on strong maternal qualities, adequate milk and tidy udders

6. Terminal breeds Carcase qualities, positive selection for muscling [EMA] and adequate fat cover

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