Published in AngusPRO Magazine 2024
As the seven-year Informing New Zealand Beef programme reaches the halfway mark, its focus is shifting to extension, education and the development of genetic evaluation tools.
Dan Brier, Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) General Manager Farming Excellence, says Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) is well on track to deliver on its overall purpose of breeding great-tasting beef underpinned by a strong environmental and welfare story.
Ultimately, this will drive a sustainable and profitable New Zealand beef industry.
The programme, a Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures partnership supported by B+LNZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries and the New Zealand Meat Board, aims to boost sector profitability by $460m over the next 25 years.
Brier says the programme’s annual survey of farmers, beef breeders and agribusiness professionals showed an increased awareness and knowledge of genetic tools within the beef industry, as well as an increase in the use of artificial insemination (AI) by both stud and commercial beef breeders.
“This signals a willingness amongst bull breeders and commercial farmers to embrace technologies such as AI.”
Brier says the traits for which estimated breeding values (EBVs) and indexes are being developed include fertility, functionality, and mature cow body condition scores. All have been identified as being high priority by beef farmers and rural professionals.
“Developing NZ-specific breeding values and indexes is one of the key outcomes of INZB,” he says.
Commercial farmers play an important role in INZB and at the end of 2023, 21 farmers from across the country were involved in the programme. At least 10 more farmers will be brought onboard in 2024.
Progeny test heifer (2021-born) with her 2023-born calf, sired by a Focus Genetics Bull
These farmers are recording data that can be incorporated into breeding value prediction, Brier says. This includes assessing the performance of bulls, recording the heifer replacement selection process and monitoring genetic progress.
Commercial farmers involved in INZB receive reports on the data they record for the programme and can benchmark their herd against others in the programme.
This year, a big focus will be on the development of economic models and selection indexes for the NZ beef industry. This will involve selection index modelling of new traits (including greenhouse gas emissions) to determine what the impact might be of including these traits in selection indexes.
Data collected from both the Beef Progeny Test (BPT) sites and commercial farmers will continue to be loaded in the research database – so far that’s more than 400,000 measurements on about 16,600 animals and growing.
Through 2024, INZB will continue to roll out the Better Beef Breeding workshops with 21 workshops planned across the regions. These workshops lay the groundwork to drive the adoption of genetic tools produced through the programme.
Progeny Test
Now in its fourth year, B+LNZ’s across-breed BPT continues to gain momentum with more than 50 bulls being nominated as sires for use in the 2023 mating season. Twenty-three of the nominated bulls were Angus.
This was the highest number of bull nominations since the across-breed BPT was launched in 2020, as a component of the INZB programme.
The test, which compares bulls under commercial farming conditions, is being run on Pāmu’s Kepler Farm in Manapouri and at Lochinver Station near Taupo.
Progeny test Angus calf (2023-born) at Kepler Farm
Data is collected from conception and throughout the animal’s life, and the progeny test now has processing data from calves born into the programme and reproductive data from heifers born in 2020.
On Kepler farm, Angus and Hereford cows are run side-by-side with crosses undertaken both ways. This replicates the crossbreeding programs commonly used by commercial beef breeders throughout New Zealand. Simmental sires have been added to the mix on Lochinver Station. A commercial herd programme is also linking NZ Shorthorn data into the progeny test data.
The progeny test is building on the information gathered from the earlier BPTs. For example, the fertility investigation using tag monitoring and the soon to be developed Body Condition Score evaluation are drawing on information and insights from the earlier work.