WAY BACK IN 1929
A Bit about our History
In 1929 David and Nellie Kane with their 5 children moved from Wanaka to buy “Westholm”,300ha of flats to rolling ridges farmland, beside the Pomahaka River, Tapanui. David ran dairy cows and sheep for their main income source. Once Murray took over the running of Westholm the neighbouring farm “Burnfoot,” which runs to the Blue Mountains and to the Pomahaka river was purchased, with both properties run as one.
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1963 Murray purchased his first stud Hereford cows and Westholm Polled Herefords was developed.1964 Murray set a record for the highest price paid at the New Zealand National Sale where he paid 2650 guineas for a 2 year old bull. In todays standards it was a very small bull. For many years the stud developed different family lines which will perform and last. 1996 Robert bought 226 ha neighbouring farm Pomahaka with flats to rolling hills and steeper ridges. This completed the family purchases with all three blocks being farmed as one enterprise.
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1998 Robert and Mary-Anne bought an Angus heifer at the Black Magic sale, at the National sale being the foundation of Blue Mountain Angus. Embyro transfer of this heifer and a selected few others saw the Angus stud formed. This has grown to 40 cows today.
IT ALL STARTED HERE
The Kane Farm Story
Since 1929 Kane family has been farming beside the Pomahaka river for four generations now. Over the years Kane Farms has grown to be a very diverse farming operation, consisting of a dairy, sheep, dairy beef finishing and stud beef unit. We farm 1000 hectares of flat to rolling farmland.
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In 1964 Kane Farms bought 20 registered Polled Herefords cows, this was the beginning of breeding stud cattle, In 1996 Kane Farms incorporated registered Angus into their stud beef enterprise. We now have a combined total of 160 breeding Herefords and Angus cows where we focus on breeding a type of cattle with high calving ease, low birth weight with good growth and carcass suitable for Dairy Beef or Beef heifer market, Kane Farms ensure they meet their bull buyer's needs by sourcing the best genetics from around the globe and here in New Zealand.
As most family farms, we have gone through some changes in recent years as Robert and Mary-Anne are starting to step back and Peter, Luke and Nicole are taking the lead. One such change is the sale of our commercial sheep flock which has allowed us to focus our time and resources on cattle part of the business and while simplifying our operation
We run 700 crossbreed dairy cows, which has been a great asset to the operation as it is an opportunity to prove our stud beef genetics within the dairy cows. This improves the accuracy of the selection of bulls we have to offer, giving our buyers confidence that if you purchase a bull from Kane Farms - he will work for you!
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We have a yearly on farm yearling bull sale at Kane Farms every October where there will be 55 bulls available to purchase. Semen straws are available to purchase all year round from high accuracy, proven sires.
We stand behind our cattle 100% because we believe that it is a lot easier to keep our old customers than to constantly be looking for new ones.