Defective genetic variations are causing dairy cows to lose their calves.
Livestock Improvement Corporation scientists have discovered new genetic variations which can impact a cow's ability to carry a calf to full term.
The variations are known as Fertility2, Fertility3 and Fertility4, and are carried by about 2per cent of Holstein-Friesian dairy cows and 1per cent of crossbreds.
LIC chief scientist Dr
Richard Spelman said it follows the 2013 discovery of Fertility1 in the Jersey breed and concludes 18 months of DNA sequencing research which focused on fertility and calf survival.
"All three variations have the same effect on fertility and calf survival, with origins in the New Zealand dairy cow population dating back to sires born in the 1970s.
"These are recessive genetic variations which mean an embryo will be non-viable if both the sire and dam have a copy of the variations and pass them on; even if both parents are carriers, only one in four of their progeny will be affected.
"When an animal has two copies of the variations the animal will die in utero. Our research shows that the cow carrying this foetus will then be empty, which means it will not lactate the following season. No live animals have been seen with two copies of the variation."
The farmer-owned co-operative, which supplies genetics to breed approximately three-quarters of the national dairy herd, has published a list of its artificial breeding (AB) sires that carry the variations on its website (www.lic.co.nz).
The information has also been added to the co-op's Datamate technology, which its AB technicians use before insemination to check inbreeding potential or any lethal gene combinations with a dam and sire.
DataMate will issue alerts to reduce the frequency of matings between two carriers of the variation, as it does already with Fertility1 and other undesirable genes including CVM, BLAD and Small Calf Syndrome.
"These variations will have little impact on a farmer's mating decisions this spring, but what they do provide is a solid genetic explanation for why some calves do not survive through to birth, resulting in an empty cow.
"It allows farmers to make more informed decisions to manage and minimise this risk on their farm."
The variations were discovered as part of LIC's DNA sequencing programme, which aims to map variations in genes in a cow's DNA that can impact production and health.
It utilises a large sequencing dataset developed by LIC scientists and co-funded by the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Transforming the Dairy Value Chain Primary Growth Partnership programme, led by Fonterra and DairyNZ.
The programme has led to previous discoveries including the Small Calf Syndrome gene, a fat gene which impacts milk composition and a variation which impacts a cow's ability to regulate body temperature and cope with heat stress.
Pasture contest
The hunt is on for great dairy pastures in the Waikato and Bay of Plenty. Entries are now open for the Pasture Renewal Persistence Competition, run by the DairyNZ-led Pasture Improvement Leadership Group. Competition organiser, developer Sally Peel says pasture renewal is one of the first steps to achieving high-performing farms.
"We're keen to discover what farmers did to manage their pasture and pasture renewal so well during the past three years of dry summers," she says.
Farmers can enter in two categories: pasture sown this year and pasture sown more than three years ago.
Entries are open until October 24, with judging taking place during November. Winners' field days will be held in early December.
For more information or to receive an entry form, call 08004DAIRYNZ (080043247969) or register online at www.dairynz.co.nz/pasture-comp.
Support for Beef+Lamb
A referendum that closed recently has shown strong support for the retention of Beef +Lamb New Zealand via the endorsement of levies for the next six years.
The referendum was run under the Commodity Levies Act, with 6448 voting, a 38 per cent turnout. The sheepmeat levy was supported by 86.04 per cent and the beef levy supported by 84.60 per cent.
Despite the low turnout, Beef +Lamb NZ chairman James Parson said the support was a "great endorsement". It was much greater than the degree of support in 2009, and Beef+Lamb NZ can look forward to progress through to the next levy vote in 2022.
"Without question Beef+Lamb New Zealand in another six years' time will be vastly different to what we see today," he said. "Farmers can expect a lot more initiatives already in the pipeline to surface in the next couple of years."
... industry outlook
Beef+Lamb NZ's Economic Service predicts the average sheep and beef farm in New Zealand will see its profit before tax lift to $109,900 this season - 9.6 per cent more than last season but 3.1 per cent below the five-year average.
Chief economist Andrew Burtt says much of the extra profit is the result of an 11 per cent lift in cattle revenue, which comes on top of a 12 per cent increase in 2014-15.
Meanwhile, sheep revenue is forecast to lift 2.6 per cent, which includes a 4.0 per cent increase in lamb farmgate prices, to an average of 547 cents per kg.
International demand is expected to remain strong for beef, while tight sheepmeat supplies in Australia and New Zealand should support prices - although uncertainties remain around China's demand for sheepmeat.
Mr Burtt says extreme weather events last season will affect the production side of the income equation in the new season.
"Export lamb production is forecast to decrease by 6.3 per cent in 2015-16," he says. "There is a smaller lamb crop, due to a decline of the ewe flock and a lower lambing percentage from the 2014-15 season's high. On the same basis, we expect export mutton production to drop, after three years of high destocking rates." New Zealand beef production is also expected to be down 5.3 per cent in 2015-16, after a record high in 2014-15, boosted by a high level of cull dairy cow processing in response to low dairy prices and high international demand for beef.
Smedley 2016
The Howard Estate Advisory Board has named 11 cadets for its 2016 intake at Smedley Station.
Chosen from 57 applicants as far afield as Dargaville to Invercargill, they start a two-year course learning stock farming on the 5054ha (three blocks) of flat to steep hill country near Tikokino.
The station, where the first intake of cadets was in 1931, carries 28,000 stock units and runs sheep, cattle, bull beef and deer.
The intake for next year is: Jordan Finlay (Central Hawke's Bay College), Jonty Wilson (Lindisfarne College), Angus Higgins, Oliver Jonasen and Paul Tahau (all Napier Boys' High), William Pinkney (Christ's College), William van Bohemen (Wellington College), Henry Wilson (Rathkeale College), Rory Harrigan (Feilding High School), Cody Makinder (New Plymouth Boys' High School), Thomas Stevenson (Dargaville High School).
The track will stay closed until safety is confirmed, says DoC.