Supplied by Beef + Lamb New Zealand – AngusPRO Magazine 2026
How does the beef industry accommodate the 1.8 million calves born on dairy farms every year that are not currently entering the beef supply chain?
They are both an opportunity and a challenge, and Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is working alongside other organisations to find solutions that benefit both the dairy and red meat industries as work continues to minimise calf wastage.
Duncan Elliott, who has recently joined B+LNZ as an Operations Specialist, is certainly up for the challenge.
He, alongside Lucy Coleman and others in B+LNZ’s Farming Excellence and Science and Research teams, is working on various Beef on Dairy projects – all focused on adding value to the calves born on dairy farms by developing commercial tools that can be used at every stage of the value chain.
Duncan says some farmers are doing it well, but there are challenges, particularly with a high-cost production model, and while it can be profitable if farmers get it right, there are pitfalls.
Working from first principles, B+LNZ is working to determine the current state of the industry. This includes surveying calf rearers to better understand how calves are being reared across the country.
“We know we have some large-scale rearers, and there are a huge number of smaller operators, and we are actively seeking feedback from rearers about their systems and what tools they would like from us,” says Duncan.
They also want to know what challenges calf rearers are facing and what success looks like for them.
Duncan says they will be drawing on the findings of a number of trials underway.
One is a Massey University trial, which is looking at front-loading feed and milk into calves from an early age: “If you are rearing calves, is there a commercial opportunity to make more quality feed and milk available from an early age to set the calves up for success?”
The pair will also be analysing the wealth of data collected through B+LNZ’s Dairy Beef Progeny Trial (DBPT) to understand how it can best be used by the industry.
This includes using the info from the Progeny Test to enable dairy farmers to compare bulls both within and across breeds and find genetics that can add value to their businesses.
Another study is underway looking at how dairy-origin calves sired by good quality beef sires grow and finish compared to industry average beef animals.
This study is being undertaken by On-Farm Research at the Poukawa research farm in Hawkes Bay, which is representative of the many east coast dryland farms where beef cattle are grown and finished.
“We want to know how they perform in the real world under commercial conditions,” says Duncan.
B+LNZ is working closely with other industry partners and talking to Irish dairy farmers who are world-leading in minimising wastage in the dairy industry by adding value to their non-replacement calves.
“While their systems are different, we are keen to collaborate with them.”
Lucy Coleman is a Dunedin based scientist who is leading the communities of practice and extension work for B+LNZ’s Beef on Dairy work.
Lucy says while they are looking to establish communities of practice with dairy farmers and calf rearers, ultimately, they will be working towards establishing these communities along the whole Beef on Dairy supply chain.
Lucy did her PhD on phase one of B+LNZ’s DBPT, so she feels she has come full circle and is looking forward to taking what was learnt in the initial phase – and the findings of phase two and three – to help dairy farmers, calf rearers and ultimately finishers generate the best value from calves born on dairy farms.
A large piece of her extension work will be around the value of the DBPT and how that data can be used to improve the genetic merit of beef-on-dairy calves.
She says the DBPT has clearly identified bulls that deliver for both dairy farmers – with calving ease, low birthweights and short gestation – and finishers with fast growth rates and good carcase traits.
“B+LNZ is working on ways to speed up the feedback time for the breeders involved, so these DBPT bulls can be better used by dairy farmers. However, the number of progeny-tested bulls is small, and there is a much wider pool of bulls, often younger, available to dairy farmers,” says Lucy.
“The 10 years of data have provided a strong foundation for this work, but progress is still reliant on breeders submitting bulls to the Progeny Test.”
The initial work focuses on breeds that have been well-represented in the DBPT, and the team is hoping to include more beef breeds over time.
“While the current dataset gives us a strong base, the work is identifying how we need to fill the gaps for other breeds,” says Lucy.
“Once we have enough data, we can start extrapolating that information across the wider bull community.”