In a first for New Zealand, CRV Ambreed was set to offer dairy farmers next spring genetics that would guarantee them polled calves.
The recent birth of three homozygous polled bulls was the result a collaborative effort between the company and breeders who had been using the polled stock for a number of years.
Being homozygous for the polled gene meant both polled genes were carried, compared to bulls with only one copy of the polled gene, known as heterozygous. The progeny of those bulls had only a 50% chance of being polled.
Beatson said while not a world first, the NZ-sourced genetics were important because they gave farmers the option to breed for polled animals without sacrificing production traits.
“These genetics are available overseas but the bulls carrying them have very low production indices when they arrive so have limited appeal to farmers here.”
The company had also been working on developing genetics that improved an animal’s ability to tolerate facial eczema exposure and was also working to understand the genomics contributing to lameness in dairy animals.
“It is interesting that more farmers seem to be increasingly engaged on these health issues.
“They are very, very aware of welfare issues and public awareness of them.
“They, themselves, also do not like to see animals sick with problems like facial eczema and lameness.
“And the cost of treatment for these conditions is becoming very high.”
Given tighter finances, genetics also offered another path to develop a lower-cost cow for modern dairy farmers.
The offspring from the Ambreed bulls would not require de-budding, something that was an animal welfare concern and increasingly expensive. A mob of 200 replacements cost about $1400 to be de-budded.
Two of the polled bulls were Holstein-Friesian-Jersey crossbreds and one was a Holstein-Friesian.
Beatson said the animals’ production indices represented good all-round, consistent producers.
