A new beef genetics programme has the potential to lift the sector’s profits by $460 million over the next 25 years, according to industry modelling.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), through its Sustainable Food and Future Fibres fund, are investing a combined $16.7 million in a seven-year partnership.
Called Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB), the programme aims to provide farmers with the genetic selection tools they need to breed animals better suited to NZ’s farming conditions.
The goal is to improve sustainability, productivity and profitability, while also speeding up farmers’ ability to respond quickly to changing consumer preferences.
INZB programme governance group chair Helen Anderson says NZ’s beef sector currently relies on an Australian genetics platform, which understandably factors in traits relevant to its climate and farming systems.
“INZB will develop a New Zealand-based genetic evaluation, which will ultimately result in more efficient beef animals, which generate less greenhouse gases and are more profitable,” Anderson said.
She says the new evaluation is groundbreaking because bulls of different breeds can be directly compared. Currently, each beef breed has its own evaluation, which makes genetic selection unnecessarily complicated for farmers.
B+LNZ chief executive Sam McIvor says the programme capitalises on NZ’s world-leading skills and knowledge in sheep genetics and applies them to the beef industry.
“The data tells us that our beef industry has been lagging behind on genetic progress,” McIvor said.
“Not only will this give the industry better genetic tools, but a major focus of the programme is to work with commercial farmers to increase understanding and grow confidence in using genetic information to drive productivity and profitability.”
He says dairy farmers will also benefit.
“With these new production-focused genetic selection tools, dairy farmers will be able to select semen from beef bulls for artificial insemination in their herds, more confident that they will have shorter gestation, easy calving and produce more valuable calves,” he said.
The programme is being funded 60% by B+LNZ and 40% by MPI.
Agriculture Minister Damien O’Connor says the programme is targeting a 10% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions per kilogram of product produced.
“The cows most suited to New Zealand’s production systems will be moderate in size, but still highly productive. Moderate-sized cows, which require less feed, will help to lower the impact on soils and produce less methane,” O’Connor said.
He says the time is right to create a beef genetics programme tailored to NZ conditions.
“More than 20 years ago our livestock industry developed NZ-specific dairy and sheep genetics programmes and this has led to exponential gains in productivity,” he said.
“The genetic gain for beef has lagged behind the other livestock industries, so breeding cattle specifically for New Zealand conditions will give the beef industry the same opportunity to excel.”
The new genetics programme will use artificial insemination and genomic selection to identify the bulls with the best genetic markers earlier in their life and with greater accuracy.
Farmers will be provided with tools to capture data and inform breeding decisions, with training available throughout the programme to ensure the tools developed are fit for purpose and used widely in the industry.
“Soon farmers will be able to breed herds according to the landscape they are in, whether it’s flat land or hill country,” he said.
He says as the Government looks to all sectors to pull their weight to reduce emissions, the project is an important component of the primary sector’s response to climate change.
