Friday, March 29, 2024

Project to test regen’s impact on meat

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A new project is under way this season to determine if regenerative farming practices lead to better quality beef of New Zealand farms.
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Led by Waikato farmer Tracey Bayliss, along with assistance from AgResearch, the project will test the hypothesis that regenerative farming practices produce better meat quality compared to more conventional cattle.

The project recently received $50,000 from the Our Land and Water Rural Professionals Fund to allow it to proceed.

It is one of 15 nationwide projects to receive such a grant from the fund. 

Bayliss applied for the funding to validate her own private research into the effect regenerative farming has on meat quality for her family farm business Grandad’s Beef.

Her father Cliff Bayliss’ farming system revolved around the long-term non-use of synthetic fertilisers, with a heavy focus on healthy soils that are regularly tested for trace elements.

“He called it a common sense approach to farming,” she said.

That approach led him to believe the meat was of a higher quality than more conventional farming methods.

They started sending meat samples to AsureQuality to test its nutrient levels and compared it to results from more conventional farms found through online research to prove that theory.

“It was showing really good levels and that ours was higher in things like iron. But we needed something more concrete than that,” she said.

It was at that point Bayliss started pushing for funding to work with groups such as AgResearch to do a proper study.

She says initially no one was interested, but that soon changed with regenerative agriculture becoming a buzzword for sustainable farming.

“For five years we have been trying to get the science to prove this,” she said.

Bayliss says it was frustrating that the same people demanding that more science was needed for regenerative agriculture are the same people who earlier did not want that science to be proven.

This was why much of the science around regenerative agriculture was only available from overseas.

“What was uplifting for me is that farmers have said, ‘bugger it, I’m just going to go ahead and do it’,” she said.

“Farmers are doing this and getting good results. They are not waiting for the scientists. They are out there with working models that show they are getting better grass growth, animal health, their inputs are lower and their profits are higher.

“It’s put the joy back into farming again.”

She says, for her, it was to give something back to farmers by offering a better style of farming.

“Here is a style of farming that puts the joy back into farming and if you have a value-added product, you should be able to get a premium for that product,” she said.

In late September, the funding was confirmed.

She says it will see 10 white-faced heifer calves finished on regenerative farmed paddocks this season to around 18-24 months before being processed. 

In a separate study, Bayliss and her father will undertake their own trial to see if they can reach the same marbling score from 18-month-old cattle.

Over that time, samples of the pasture will be taken and analysed for their nutritional content.

AgResearch will then test the animal carcases for its intramuscular fat levels, fat melting point for favourability, as well as trace elements such as iron.

Those carcases will be compared to 10 of the same type of cattle farmed under more conventionally farmed pastures where fertilisers are regularly used.

An AgFirst consultant will also visit both farms to look at the differences in farming practices between the regenerative and conventional farms.

She hoped it would lead to a more comprehensive study with a larger sample of animals, including different species and breeds.

Bayliss hopes the research will help more farmers make that transition from conventional to more regenerative style farming.

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