NEWS

Click here to see the article in "The Land" Rural Newspaper

It's here as a pdf:

And click here to see an article in German after they got back home!

We are preparing the farm for the international pinzgauer breeders visiting Australia in October who will come and see our herd. This is the most exciting thing to happen in years!

Over 20 calves have landed - we got lucky and did get some black and white heifers and bulls from Satchmo, but beyond that quite a large number of boys this year - I guess that'll give us some steers to sell as well.

Finally post COVID it was possible to see our Austrian breeder friends again - see report here.

We have received way more than our average annual rainfall in the first quarter of this year........... so there is mud everywhere. Not fun. Better news when things have dried out, but that may take a long while with winter on the doorstep and the weather-man promising more wet weather into spring.

Unfortunately a very high proportion of male calves this spring, but we did get lucky and had 2 homozygous polled calves, a bull by Fairfield Rayman and a heifer by Fairfield Sniper. Both will be retained.

Pasture management is going well, the clovers are thriving this winter!

Local Land Services provide a contribution towards fencing stock out of creeks or existing stands of native vegetation. We took them up on it last year, it helped us fence off gullies on our property to stop erosion from the cattle, and plant them out with native rainforest species to provide shelterbelts. Helps the environment and increases the productivity of the property. LLS have made a short film about this featuring our farm, will post link when it is released!

Click here to access the funding program page.

Click on the logo of the "Bergbau und Gotikmuseum Leogang" im Pinzgau - you can get an English translation too if you click on the top right corner.
They have an exhibition about Pinzgauer Cattle and feature items about their international distribution in the world.

A fair while ago our Austrian friends Ossie and Melanie Dick were so kind to lend their bull “Haller Fex” to the Salzburger Rinderzuchtverband to send to the Semen Station for collection. We met the bull on their Alm in the summer and really wanted him for breeding to our Australian herds – a bull that was not too massive and able to sire calves on the Alm that can be born without trouble. The Salzburger Rinderzuchtverband, and then Genetic Austria made this possible – huge thanks to everyone involved !!
Once the semen arrived in Australia we started a first round of Artificial Insemination and got the first 9 pregnancies. They finished calving yesterday, we got 9 calves, small and swift on their feet, as we had hoped.
We joked and said surely all 9 cows inseminated within one hour would kindly have their calves within the same hour on the same morning of day 287 just like in the textbook. Sadly no such luck - but we did the statistics on our small sample space ….. and indeed the average gestation length was 287 days, with a standard deviation of 4 days. What did however not fit averages is the gender distribution –8 females out of 9 calves, (the boy calf was not out of a purebred cow so won’t be in the breeding pool). So we have 8 Purebred Haller Fex females from our best foundation cows to build up the herd – happy days!

We even got a mention on the Austrian Pinzgauer Page - click here!

An absolutely fantastic calf drop from Glentariff Derek, with more females than males so that should boost registered female herd numbers at our farm!

Success with our AI Attempts - we are expecting 12 calfs from Haller Fex, the first round is due in November. Very good news we have pregnancies. It is very exciting to have a new polled bloodline from Austria in the mix.

Success with our AI Attempts - we have a heifer from kr Mars and the first 2 black and white Pinzgauers in Australia - a bull and a heifer calf ! A great start to introducing some black and white purebreds to the herd!

Fairfield Farm has great amounts of clover throughout the paddocks so we were able to host the "knowing your nodules" workshop organised by Local Land Services and presented by Jo Powells. There was very good attendance, and we learnt that the clovers in our paddocks indeed are nodulating and fixing nitrogen, and had a great presentation about the science of bacterial and plant partnerships underlying it all. A very educational and enjoyable day!

We had a visit from an LPA Auditor to check us over for the Livestock Production Assurance scheme and are happy to have passed all points. Here is a summary of the LPA scheme:

A visit to Maishofen and the surrounding Pinzgauer heartland has given us much inspiration and learnings, from a visit to a Purebred Pinzgauer Dairy herd on an Alm with the Pinzgauer Young breeders, where we learnt about evaluating animals and udders, as well as a visit to the Judenalm to see the babies of Haller Fex (whose semen we have in the tank), and lots of pedigree studies with our wonderful friends Melanie and Oswald Dick. More pictures, click ---> HERE.

Vestfold Park Trigger on loan from Lachvina Pinzgauers did a marvellous job last year - resulting in 11 out of 14 calves being polled animals. Poll tests revealed one is a homozygous poll - we've called the little guy "Fairfield Sniper".

Haller Fex (photo below taken on the Alm at work) went to the Semen Station last year and AQIS have approved his semen for import. It has landed and we have inseminated 4 cows late this season for January 2020 calving. It is so exciting that our wonderful friends in Austria - Family Oswald and Melanie Dick, the breeders, and the Rinderzuchtverband Salzburg have made this possible - Ein Riesen Dankeschoen Nach Maishofen !!!

The first calves have been born, a lovely heifer out of a Lockwood Lodge heifer by Shalni Park J-Man, and a couple of bull calves, by J-Man and Bimbadeen Park Liam. More to come still this year from Vestfold Park Trigger as well, and perhaps a couple of kr Mars (AI) babies.

July 2018 allowed us to visit Salzburg again and see the offspring of Haller Fex, who has now travelled to the semen station and hopefully will be able to collect and send semen to Australia later in the year.