ASSOCIATION NEWSLETTERS

President's comments.

Nearly Christmas already, time flies. Hope you have come through calving OK and now have lots of grass waving in the wind. Personally I ran into a bit of trouble calving my two year old heifers this year and lost two out of fifteen calves. The reasons were probably the heifers were in very good condition/too fat and the bull I had used had an above average birth weight EBV producing some heavy calves. Hopefully I have learnt my lesson. I am using a lower birth weight bull this year and will keep the condition down with better management.
It is good to see stock prices so buoyant with a likely hood of them staying high. I can see a prime beef shortage occurring here in the next year or two, which should keep prices up. Beef cow numbers are static and less beef is coming from the dairy herd as dairy farmers chase the export dairy heifer trade.
We have a new patron. Joan Power has agreed to be our patron following our AGM decision. Long standing members will know Joan well, she is of good Devon stock and ran the Isca stud for twenty years. She was also our breed secretary in the early nineties and served on Council for many years. Joan is a strong supporter of the Devon breed and has worked tirelessly over the years. Having said that I am sure she would acknowledge what pleasure she has received working with such quiet and beautiful cattle.
Just a reminder of the dates for the next World Devon Conference, which is held every four years. It is the turn of Brazil in 2012 and will be held from 10th to 25th of May. Details of the itinerary to follow. If you were wondering how the rotation of the World Conference venues has gone over the last twenty years it is UK, New Zealand, U.S.A, Australia and Brazil.

Happy Christmas.

Colin.
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President's comments.

Firstly, I would like to thank Karen Schumacher for the incredible effort she has put in over her two year stint as President. It was Karen, with help from Kevin Fletcher, who did the hard yards in completing the change over to Performance Beef Breeders. We now are very much a professional organization with a published herd book and an effective performance recording system. It is my intention to carry on where Karen has left off, maintaining the same structures that she has put in place. We still have some work to do, so that all members feel comfortable with the new recording systems and what can be got out of them to help in their breeding decisions.

Just a mention here that PBB are about to up grade their recording systems. All pedigrees and EBVs will be up graded every month. See the section on recording in this newsletter.

The AGM at Dargaville on June 11^th saw a small attendance which led to a fairly short meeting. A big thank you to David and Sue Dreadon for a very well organized weekend, good venues, good food, good cattle, and good company.

After the AGM we had a council meeting to formalize which role each councillor would take responsibility for, they are as follows.

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