Dairy farmers are responding to social pressures by using increasing numbers of beef sires over dairy cows to produce prime cattle instead of bobby calves, LIC beef product specialist Charlotte Gray says.
“We are seeing end-to-end chain agreements and the use of sexed semen and beef semen worldwide is growing quickly,” Gray told a webinar for farmers on the Dairy-Beef Progeny Test (DBPT) scheme.
The webinar attracted more than 80 farmers and rural professionals in the lead up to mating season in the dairy industry.
Dairy co-operative LIC sold more than 500,000 straws of beef semen in 2020 and expects demand will increase in the upcoming AI season.
The other presenters were geneticist Anna Boyd from Beef + Lamb Genetics and marketer Darren Drury, beef category director for Alliance Group.
They said farmers, processors and exporters have opportunities to capitalise on the grass-fed beef story.
Over five million dairy cows are artificially inseminated or put to the bull every year, one million heifer replacements are reared, a further two million calves are reared on the home farm and two million go on the bobby calf trucks to slaughter.
Gray says beef bulls in the DBPT are proven to deliver calving ease, along with curve-bending growth rates and carcase conformation.
Bulls accepted into the trial are mated to their share of 1500 crossbred dairy cows on the Wairakei Renown farm and the progeny grown out on the nearby Pāmu Orakanui farm.
She highlighted the contrast between current high store cattle and beef schedule prices and low demand in the calf pens.
“Unfortunately, we have a pinch point in calf rearing capacity,” she said.
Commercial calf rearers are price-takers at both ends and many do not stick at it for several seasons.
Fickle results for calf rearers have amplified the need for strong calf marking, mainly whitehead Hereford-Friesian crosses.
The popular marking may not indicate a sire with genetic merit, but just the parent breed.
Two-thirds of dairy farmers are rearing more calves than are required for herd replacements.
She says in this situation there is not the same need for colour marking and farmers can put more emphasis on breeding values when making their AI selections.
Within the third cohort of the DBPT 2018-born calves there is a 17-day spread in time to weaning, a wide range of yearling weights and 600-day weights.
“These are opportunities that make a real difference to the bottom line and the enjoyment of calf rearing,” she said.
More than 70% of New Zealand’s beef production originated on a dairy farm and it makes sense to breed cattle that will grow well and achieve premium grades.
“It is no longer a breed decision as the DBPT has shown that individual bulls can vary considerably,” she said.
Steers and heifers from the top bull could be 20kg carcase weight, or $110, above the average of the same cohort without factoring in grading outcomes.
The premiums available from top genetics really add up across large numbers of calves taken through to finished cattle.
“Yet we know that all those bulls in the DBPT have acceptable calving ease and gestation length,” she said.
Boyd says 125 beef bulls had been used in the DBPT over five years and the progeny from the first three cohorts had been finished, scanned, processed and reported on.
Test reports are published every six months and are available online through B+L Genetics.
LIC and CRV publish dairy-beef AI catalogues that contain some of the well-ranked DBPT sires.
She says all the results so far included a mean 600-day weight range of 68kg and that 97% of all progeny graded P2.
“All traits assessed in live animals have shown a significant impact of sire,” Boyd said.
Only two carcase traits, pH and meat colour, were not affected by sire.
“DBPT has shown there is a huge pool of bulls available that can be safely used over dairy cows,” she said.
“Dairy farmers can buy beef bull genetics that have tight gestation lengths and birth weights and then carry average to above-average EBVs for weight through to the rearers and finishers.”
Drury says dairy-beef had inbuilt advantages like lower emissions in the dam, verifiable animal health treatments and, potentially, being bobby calf-free.
