Milestones reached in Beef +Lamb NZ’s informing New Zealand beef programme

Dan Brier, Beef +Lamb NZ’s general manager farming excellence, says the focus of the Informing New Zealand Beef Programme has been on collecting data which will be instrumental in the development of New Zealand-specific breeding indexes.

Supplied by Beef and Lamb NZ

As the Beef + Lamb New Zealand-led seven-year Informing New Zealand Beef programme hits the halfway mark, the focus is changing to education and extension and encouraging the use of high-quality genetics in the beef industry.

Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s (B+LNZ) general manager farming excellence Dan Brier says over the past four years, the programme’s focus has been on collecting data from the Across-breed Progeny Tests and Next Generation herds and gaining a better understanding of farmer and industry needs. This data will be instrumental in the development of New Zealand-specific breeding indexes, which will be one of the significant outcomes of INZB.

Ultimately, Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB), which is a partnership between B+LNZ, the Ministry for Primary Industries and the New Zealand Meat Board, aims to boost the sector’s profits by $460 million over the next 25 years.

Developing New Zealand-specific breeding indexes

In a step towards developing Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) for New Zealand’s beef industry, B+LNZ has been running workshops in the North and South Island to give beef breeders the tools to measure beef cow Body Condition Scores and assign teat and udder scores.

Run by B+LNZ genetics beef specialist Anna Boyd and genetics specialist Jason Archer, the workshops have been breeder-focused as the programme needed breeder-recorded data in the development of New Zealand-specific EBVs.

Anna says Body Condition Scores (BCS) and udder and teat structure were identified as being important to beef farmers through the industry-wide Trait Prioritisation Survey carried out in the early stages of the programme.

Running Progeny Test herds

Now in its fourth year, Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s across-breed Beef Progeny Test continues to gain momentum with more than 50 bulls (Angus, Hereford and Simmental) being nominated as sires for use in the 2023-mating season.

The test, which compares bulls under commercial farming conditions, is being run on Pāmu’s Kepler Farm in Manapōuri and at Lochinver Station near Taupō.

Data is collected from conception throughout the animal’s life.

On Kepler farm, Angus and Hereford cows are run side-by-side, with crosses undertaken both ways. Simmental sires have been added to the mix on Lochinver Station. A commercial herd programme is also linking Shorthorn data into the progeny test data.

Next Generation herds

Commercial beef farmers play an important role in INZB through Next Generation herds. These are farmers who have an interest in genetics and are wanting to assess their bull team’s performance, have more accurate information for selecting heifer replacements and are willing to work with their bull breeders to speed genetic gain. This typically, but not necessarily, involves using artificial insemination to create direct genetic linkages.

To date, 21 farmers have come on board with the programme, with 15 more joining in 2024.

Educational focus.

There will be a strong educational focus in the second half of INZB.

Twenty-two Better Beef Breeding workshops are planned for this year and online learning modules are available on B+LNZ’s Knowledge Hub, as are how-to videos of carrying out a structural assessment of a bulls and Body Condition Scoring cows.