The New Zealand Charolais Cattle Society (Inc) since 1968
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Wayne Semenoff

Wayne Semenoff has been a Northland Councillor for the past 10 years. His involvement with Charolais began when he borrowed a Charolais bull. The resulting 28 superb calves convinced him to look at breeding his own Charolais.

Wayne was raised on a dairy farm in the Hokianga. After leaving secondary school he worked in the Bay of Islands Dairy Company, Trading Division at Mangamuka. Later he was transferred to Moerewa to become Manager of the Bay of Islands Dairy Company Trading Division, which had 5 branches within its catchment.

Wayne, with wife Gay and their daughter Catherine moved back to Broadwood in 1979. Gay continued teaching and Wayne began work on their first farm, establishing a beef herd made up of black white face Angus and Hereford cross cows using an Angus sire.

In 1983 he used a loaned 15/16 Charolais bull over a selection of these cows. The resulting 28 head of superb calves convinced him to look at breeding his own Charolais.

The Broadwood Charolais Stud was started in 1984 with 4 heifers and 2 cows bought at a dispersal sale in Kaikohe. These were the nuclei of their breeding programme. Their first purebred Charolais bull was purchased from the Henderson family at the National Sale in Palmerston North.

The Semenoffs have continued to source bulls and females from around the country to develop their stud. They looked for bulls that had good temperament, constitution, muscling and were structurally sound. EBV’s also play a big part.

They aim to have a herd of easy calving cows producing a live calf with good growth and temperament. They need to be structurally sound and able to stand the conditions of the Northland climate and land type throughout their lifetime.

At present Wayne and Gay have 115 mature cows and 50 rising 2 year old heifers to calve this year. The mature cows are farmed along with a small herd of commercial cows on a newly purchased farm, with the young cattle and bulls farmed on the home farm.

As well as farming Wayne is the Elders Livestock Manager for the Northland area and service the North Hokianga area as an Elders Livestock agent. He has been a stock agent for 25+ years.

Wayne enjoys working with all the members of the society throughout New Zealand. The experiences of farmers both here and overseas have made an impact on his ideas of what he can do as a Charolais breeder.

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2024 AGM
Central North Island
date to be confirmed