General News
11 May, 2022
Terang farmer ready for life’s next phase
TERANG’S Bryan Dickson has reached a stage in his life where he wants to slow down a bit, and will put 250 cows under the hammer at Mortlake next month.
TERANG’S Bryan Dickson has reached a stage in his life where he wants to slow down a bit, and will put 250 cows under the hammer at Mortlake next month.
As Mr Dickson prepares for his first reduction sale for Emu Banks Holsteins, he has also celebrated breeding value success with bull “Superpower.”
Superpower received his first daughter proven breeding value and shoot straight to the top as the number one Australian-standing daughter proven Holstein.
Marketed by Genetics Australia, Emu Banks Superpower is expected to live up to his name and deliver profitable and robust cows with tremendous production and strength traits.
For Mr Dickson and wife Jo, it’s another in a long line of successes.
Superpower came in number three in the April ABVs – following imports from Canada and USA – but he’s the number one daughter proven Holstein bull standing in Australia.
“He only became proven in April and he’s from a home-bred family, not a family we bought in,” Mr Dickson said.
“Genetics Australia progeny tested him and he came to the top and now his daughters don’t have many faults; they’re consistently good.”
Superpower graduated to the Genetics Australia proven daughter team after the April 2022 ABV release with a 454 BPI and 256 ASI, easily placing him into the top one per cent of bulls available and the highest new Australian bull.
Semen is available as sexed or conventional and Superpower is set to be one of Australia’s most popular bulls in 2022.
The herd’s ongoing success – including being the second ranked Holstein herd in Australia after the April proof run, augers well for the farm’s first reduction sale when about 250 cows go under the hammer at Mortlake on June 1.
Being billed as a Winter Opportunity Sale, Bryan promises “good commercial cows” as he seeks to reduce his herd size.
“I’m getting smaller,” he said.
“I’m sick of milking 1000 cows. I’m not going to retire but I’m going from 1000 down to 700. For starters, milking will be an hour faster."
“I always had in the back of my mind that I’d retire at 50 and do nothing, but I’ve talked to a few people who have sold their farms and then had seller regret. I thought, I’m not going to do that so I’m going smaller and enjoy life a little bit more."
“When you’re 20, you want to grow and grow so I’ve lived my life for 30 years thinking bigger is better."
“You make more money with 1000 cows but money isn’t everything; I’m not driven as much as I used to be.”
Bryan and Jo sold their second farm at Glenfyne a couple of years ago and are already enjoying the lifestyle benefits since concentrating on their farm near Terang.
Following a new philosophy that there are “more things in life than staying at home”, Bryan has accompanied his family to the Royal Sydney Show to watch them achieve multiple successes and recently went to Pakistan with Genetics Australia’s export manager Rob Derksen.
“Pakistan was mind blowing and I want to do more of that,” he said.
“I’d been to America in 2013 but that was more of a study tour and this was more about sales of semen for Genetics Australia."
“It worked really well. A lot of the farmers wanted to talk to another farmer.”
While his bulls find continued success, Mr Dickson is preparing for his first big reduction sale of his Holstein-dominant herd.
“I don’t know the average BPI but they will be good commercial cows and mostly freshly calved from February through to June,”he said.
“Even my very top cows are not show cows; they’re commercial. I don’t have a lolly paddock – every cow gets treated equally; no-one gets favours."
“My kids like showing cows but I breed commercially and pick cows commercially. If we happen to get a fancy cow we’ll show it, but the priority is being commercial.”
Mr Dickson plans another sale later in the year for spring-calving cows. All cows are registered and genomically tested.