From John & Star
Dear friends
When Star and I reflect on the journey that is now Rissington Breedline we conclude that life is full of many twists of fate.
While I have always had a passion for cattle breeding and genetics the one piece of advice that I well remember was from John Cherrington, a well known farmer in the South of England and agricultural correspondent for the Financial Times who I had the good fortune to work for in my single days while on my ‘OE" in the UK. He said ‘the sooner you Kiwis stopped trying to make your Romney sheep do everything and concentrate on producing separate terminal and maternal lines, the faster your progress will be". 20 years later we started developing just that.
Not long after that Star and I met, married and travelled to the USA to study the then newly imported European breeds (not every bride's idea of a honeymoon!). We visited several universities while we were there including Davis in California where we were to receive our next valuable piece of advice from Professor Caldwell. He said "In breeding, to make progress you need scale to enable you to select for the most productive traits".
The advice didn't stop there! When Star and I were lucky enough to produce four sons we were given lots of advice including the one ‘you'll have to buy four farms'! Knowing this to be well beyond our means, not withstanding the fact that not everyone wants to go farming, we looked at growing the business as a genetic provider of semen, embryos, bulls and rams.
What has transpired in a very short time is that Jeremy, our eldest, is now my boss and CEO of Rissington Breedline, Daniel is the Product Manager responsible for quality control, and sire and breeding selection for both cattle and sheep. Ben our youngest son leases the home block at Rissington and is contracted to Rissington Breedline to produce both bulls and rams to sale weight. Willie our third son has chosen the building trade as his vocation. These days, if Star and I are not getting advice from our sons it is from our 5 lively grandchildren who keep life as interesting as ever.
The last 6 years have seen major changes with the formation of Rissington Breedline Ltd as solely a sheep and cattle genetics company with the production of both maternal and terminal sheep and three differing lines of cattle not only for New Zealand but throughout the world.
The appointment of a board under the chairmanship of Richard Bentley, and a General Manager, Alastair Nelson, were two notable milestones in the young company's history. Latterly the buying in of shareholders BioPacificVentures with their main backers being Nestle and PGG Wrightson, has added a more solid platform to take the company to its next stage of development.
Our vision for providing farmers with the tools to dramatically increase their productivity is fast becoming reality and our advice (it is time to give some back) is to take your choice in Rissington Breedlines farming programmes seriously should you want your part in this dramatic lift.
With that in mind, Star and I would like to thank all those who have given advice over the years (solicited or otherwise!) and to our repeat buyers whose loyalty is very much appreciated.
Yours sincerely
John & Star Absolom
