THE HISTORY OF SILVERSTREAM

The Silverstream Charolais Stud operation was established in 1968 when Charolais beef cattle were first introduced in New Zealand. Bruce and Maureen were at that stage dairy farming with an interest in beef cattle as a sideline. Bruce and Maureen had a town milk supply dairy farm in Greenpark which Bruce took over from his father in 1972. They became interested in Charolais in about 1967 when they started looking around for a larger type of beef cattle.

Bruce and Maureen’s Charolais began from imported semen bred to three Friesian cows. Jodie was a Charolais-Friesian cross steer and was their first to be born. He was bred rather in the nature of an experiment and eventually sold for a near record price to Mr Clothier of Matamata. By the time Jodie was 4 years old he had reached a ton and at 9 years old weighed a huge 3000 pounds. When Jodie was 12 years old he returned to Bruce and Maureen after ill health forced Mr Clothier to sell his farm. He turned down a record $1500 for his carcase from a meat company and chose to return him home. By this time Jodie had matured to 1360kg. Jodie helped raise thousands of dollars for the National Heart Foundation. His fundraising activities were based on his gentle and quiet nature. Jodie even walked down Auckland’s Queen Street for charity. After his retirement back to the Fishers he continued to make public appearances for fundraising efforts.

By the late 1970’s the Fishers had 60 Charolais in addition     to their herd of 70 Friesians. They also had many successes in beef competitions. In 1977 they had the winning carcase in the Canterbury Beef Competition, and were first place in the Otago A & P Society Beef Cuts Competition. In 1978 they won the Mid- Canterbury Export Beef Competition and Bruce was the first to receive the Yamanaka Cup presented by Mr Sadanari Yamanaka a Japanese member of Parliament and president of the Japan Beef Cattle Breeders Association. Bruce’s three quarter Charolais, quarter Friesian steer had the highest weight gain of any animal in the contest putting on 265kg in the last 130 days of the trial. In 1979 they had success again when their Charolais-Friesian cross steer was   judged the best beast on hoof in the Canterbury A & P Association Beef Cuts Competition out of 59 cattle entered. In 1979 a steer of the Fisher’s was sold for $720 to A Verkerk who was a leading Christchurch butcher and was thrilled because it cut out so well. Other successes Bruce and Maureen had with beef competitions included the Thomas Borthwick and Sons Silver Challenge Cup which was for all breeds steers over 300kg carcase weight. They won this 6 times.

By 1978 Bruce was elected to council of the New Zealand Charolais Breeders Association. Maureen was just as keen to popularise the Charolais breed just as much as Bruce and also at the time a 10 year old Brent and 7 Year old Jo were also taking a keen interest. At last in 1980 Bruce and Maureen bred what was believed to be the first graded up pure Charolais which they began back in 1967 and then worked through 5 generations from half-bred to three quarter to seven eighths to fifteen sixteenths then finally pure-bred.

All the Silverstream bloodlines originate from the Brookfield Charolais herd. This herd came about because, during World War II, New Zealander Sandy Copeland was sent to Great Britain as an adviser to British Agriculture as a representative of the New Zealand Government. After the war Sandy went into partnership with Lord Beaverbrook who was the Minister of Aircraft during the war. He was a very prominent person in business circles and owned the biggest newspapers in the country. Lord Beaverbrook was the first to have Charolais cattle born in Great Britain. Charolais semen was smuggled in from France (not by Sandy or Lord Beaverbrook) which was highly illegal and the semen was inseminated into Ayrshire cows belonging to Lord Beaverbrook and Sandy Copeland. The resultant calves were the first Charolais to be born in Great Britain. Eventually the authorities caught on to what was occurring and tried to track these cattle down. The cattle were continually shifted to keep ahead of the authorities. It was then that the British government put a protocol into place to legally import cattle. Sandy Copeland was one of the individuals sent to France to select the Charolais cattle to bring into Great Britain and many of the progeny of the original importations from France made their way to New Zealand where Sandy Copeland’s brother, Angus Copeland established the Brookfield Charolais Stud.

In 1983 Bruce and Maureen went to St Andrews in South Canterbury to see the Brookfield herd and were very impressed with the cattle. They felt they were far superior to their own graded up cows. Due to a family casualty the Copeland’s were unable to continue farming their stud. One morning Angus rang Bruce and asked him what he thought of his cattle and Bruce’s reply was “they are the best cattle I have ever seen Mr Copeland”. Angus then asked “Would you like them?” Bruce and Maureen then leased (and later purchased) the 70 females that made up the Brookfield herd. Among them were some very significant females; Brookfield Rochelle who made many A& P show appearances with great success and was the dam Silverstream Bonecrusher and Silverstream Tulip who was sold to Australia for $10,000; Brookfield Ocelot who would be regarded as one of the most influential cows in the world. She was the dam of Silverstream Ulverstone, Silverstream Vance, Silverstream Executive, Silverstream Jonah, the grand dam of Silverstream Performer, there are 50 females currently remaining in the herd that originate from her and you would struggle to find a pedigree at Silverstream that would not have her name in it; and Brookfield Tania who was the dam of Silverstream Chandler, from which the Chandler family originate, and was also the dam of Silverstream Diligent who was sold to Greenwood Park Charolais where she played an influential role in their herd and was the grand-dam of Greenwood Park Rangi who holds the record price in New Zealand for a Charolais bull of $45,000. Tania was also the full sister to Ocelot. After purchasing the Brookfield herd all of Bruce and Maureen’s own graded up cows were sold.

Silverstream’s showing career began in 1984 when they took Brookfield Rochelle to the Ellesmere A & P Show where she was the Supreme Champion Beef Exhibit. She also won the All Breeds cow at the Invercargill Royal Show in 1985, the Meat and Wool Cup at the Christchurch A & P Show with Bonecrusher at foot in 1986 and then took out the Supreme Championship again at the Ellesmere A & P show in 1988. Rochelle was eventually sold and exported to Ballangara Stud in Australia along with her daughter Silverstream Tulip. Silverstream had a successful year in 1985 with Silverstream Ulverstone where he won the Meat and Wool Cup at the Christchurch A & P show and the Meat and Wool Cup at the Royal Show in Hamilton. Silverstream Bonecrusher would have been the most well known of their show bulls. He won the Meat and Wool Cup at The Hawkes Bay Royal Show in 1988 and the Meat and Wool Cup at the Christchurch A & P Show. Up until 2009 Silverstream had not shown cattle for 12 years. Their last shows saw Silverstream Jonah win the Meat and Wool Cup at the last show at the old Christchurch Showground’s and the first show at the new Christchurch Showground’s.

In 1989 Silverstream Ulverstone was entered in the ‘Conception to Consumer’ progeny testing scheme where he outperformed American and Canadian champion sires. About 45 progeny from each sire were monitored. Ulverstone’s progeny had a 300kg carcase weight at slaughter and scored the highest yield at 60.15% and the rib eye area was the largest at 70.55sq cm. He thereby qualified for the elite group of bulls tested under the scheme since its inception in 1968. Other Silverstream bulls that have been noted overseas include Silverstream Jonah. Semen from Jonah was used in both Australia and New Zealand. He has been used in 67 herds in Australasia with nearly 750 progeny. This is the highest number of progeny recorded by any bull in Australasia. Silverstream Performer is also another bull that has made his mark around the world. Performer was sired by a French bull Exclusif out of a daughter of Brookfield Ocelot. He has been used at prominent studs including Palgrove in Australia and Harvies Ranches in Canada. He would be the most successful sire used at Silverstream. He has calves due again this spring and still alive at 11 years old. He is continuing to have a big influence on the breed.

Silverstream held its first annual bull sale auction in 1989. It was held at the Christchurch showground’s and offered 18 bulls which all sold for an average of $3027. The 2nd annual sale offered 10 bulls and 5 females and saw Silverstream Executive sell for a whopping $36,000 which was a New Zealand record. The 4th sale featured Silverstream Gemma a heifer calf out of Brookfield Ocelot sell for $20,500 to Paul Steele. The 5th Sale was held on property at Greenpark. This sale averaged $3700 and saw Paul Steele buy another Ocelot daughter for $14,000. By the 13th Sale the numbers had increased to 50 lots and was highlighted by the sale of Silverstream Phoenix for $43,500 to Forest View and Whananaki Coastal Charolais Studs of Northland. This was a New Zealand record until the following year where it was superseded by the sale of Greenwood Park Rangi. The 14th Annual Sale featured the sale of Silverstream Rembrant for $22,000 to Castle Downs Charolais. The top price at the 17th sale was also $22,000 made by Silverstream Unload who sold to Timoho Charolais. The 19th Annual Bull Sale was the first to be held at the new property on Hudsons Road in the new sale complex.

After the purchase of their property at Embankment Road in 1992 Brent was able to work at home full time although he had always been very involved since he was young. In 2007 the Fisher family purchased their new farm on Hudsons Road. The property is 1600 acres plus 400 acres of leasehold land. They run 220 stud Charolais cows and 700 Border-Romney ewes. Bruce and Maureen now live in the Lincoln Township but are still are both very involved with the Charolais and Bruce drives out and works on the farm every day. Brent plays the major role in the running of the farm and the Charolais stud but he still appreciates the years of hard work his parents put into establishing such a fantastic herd of cows. Silverstream are focused on the promotion of their stud and their bulls but believe they have such a great product and the bulls really sell themselves. When breeding bulls Silverstream’s main focus is the commercial buyer which have always been the mainstay of the business. Some places have been buying bulls since before the 1st Annual Sale. With this in mind the bulls need to be moderately framed, well muscled, sound easy doing bulls so they can shift well and survive the tougher conditions of their new homes. Silverstream takes pride in the fact that their genetics have adapted and thrived in a variety of environments from the hard hill country of New Zealand where the bulls predominantly go, to both extremes in temperatures experienced in Canada and Australia.