Govt scientists compete with Fonterra to produce super cows

4.00pm

The Government's biggest science company, Agresearch, is pitting itself against the nation's biggest corporate, Fonterra, in a race to change the face of dairying by producing "supercows".

Agresearch said today it has been operating for two years a joint venture in cattle genomics with Australian scientists to identify genes critically important to dairy cows and dairy farming systems.

Agresearch and Primary Industries Research Victoria (Pirvic) have put together a multi-million dollar Australia-New Zealand lactation genomics programme, employing 40 researchers with skills in quantitative genetics and fundamental biological sciences.

Their goal is to link the function of genes to cow characteristics of economic importance -- exactly in line with the work already being commercialised by Fonterra's gene research arm, Vialactia.

Similar work is already being done in New Zealand by Boviquest, a joint venture between Vialactia and Auckland-based biotechnology arm, Vialactia Biosciences, and a Hamilton-based farmer cooperative Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC) which holds the national database of dairy genetics.

Vialactia was created in 1999 by the former Dairy Board and in 2002 its $60 million Boviquest joint venture released to LIC a screening test for its first commercial gene discovery. The only other dairy breeding company with automatic access to the initial screening tests was Dutch-based Holland Genetics, which helped fund the research and also provided genetic information.

Boviquest identified a gene known as DGAT1 in two variants: one which produces increased milk volume and/or an increased protein-to-fat ratio of the milk; or a drop in milk volume and/or an increase in fat content of the milk.

It marketed tests for the first variation as the "optimum" gene to select bulls to breed cows that produce milk with a higher milksolids content, and less water.

The second variation was marketed as a test for the "quantum gene" to select bulls to produce cows that will boost a herd's milk volumes without necessarily increasing the proportion of milksolids.

This had little appeal in New Zealand -- where cows' milk is largely valued according to its milksolids content rather than volume -- but was instead sold in the northern hemisphere, where farmers place a big emphasis on producing as much milk as possible, even though cows may not be producing any extra protein.

Now the Fonterra operation is expected to face competition from Agresearch in changing the production characteristics of dairy herds, improving animal health and improving food safety and human nutrition.

"The trans-Tasman supercow of tomorrow will look the same as today's cow, but the difference underneath will be akin to the difference between a Ferrari and a Holden," said Kerst Stelwagen, Agresearch's team leader of dairy biotechnology.

- NZPA