Friday, March 29, 2024

Time for an upgrade

Avatar photo
New Zealand’s dairy genetics database is 20 years old and no longer fit for purpose, prompting a $1 million investment to upgrade it.
Reading Time: 2 minutes

DairyNZ animal evaluation manager Brian Wickham said the overhaul, largely funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries, has two main components. It will create an independent system and support breed societies.  

The data collected is very important, enabling the sector to fast-track genetic gains for traits important to farmers using artificial insemination. 

The new system will record and collate vital data on a range of important traits of dairy cows, especially the non-production traits.  

Each year physical and behavioural traits of 50,000 dairy cows are assessed by breed societies to help evaluate the performance of NZ’s top breeding bulls.

“Besides production traits there are also important ones such as the look of an animal and adaptability to milking – something that you can’t see but a farmer would know,” Wickham said. 

“It’s replacing a system that was previously part of LIC’s database but is now more independent of LIC.”

Wickham said a database collecting information on traits other than production (TOP) has been around since the late 1980s but is out of date. 

The second component of the system is to support breed societies with registrations, classifications and other services.  

Holstein Friesian NZ general manager Cherilyn Watson said the old system has major limitations and can’t deal with the rise in the use of genomic technologies.   

“The data collected by breed societies on behalf of their members and genetics companies is accessible to all dairy farmers. It’s a vital industry-good service which is independent and impartial.”

MPI has given $792,000 from of its Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures Fund. The work is expected to be completed by November.

The new database is being jointly developed by the independent, not-for-profit, dairy cattle breed societies, which include Holstein Friesian NZ and Jersey NZ.

MPI investment programmes director Steve Penno said the TOP data collected through the database will help all dairy farmers breed more efficient cows that are healthy and live longer. 

“This project attracted SFF Futures investment because of the clear animal health, environmental and economic outcomes being sought and its aim of future-proofing our dairy industry by having access to the best genetics.”

The new, independent system will integrate with the Dairy Industry Good Animal Database, managed by DairyNZ subsidiary NZ Animal Evaluation. 

It will provide NZ’s dairy industry with access to the latest technology, improved data and the ability to add new traits in line with world standards, something not possible now.

“The key to utilising genomic technology is having access to accurate phenotypes in suitable training populations,” Wickham said. 

“The more flexible and adaptable TOP system we’re developing will facilitate independent collection of phenotype data for calibrating and validating our genomic predictions.”

Total
0
Shares
People are also reading