Jenkins said the seven-year programme partnership, supported by Beef+Lamb New Zealand, the New Zealand Meat Board and the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, aimed to boost the sector’s profits by $460 million over the next 25 years.
Focused on increasing uptake of the use of high-quality genetics in the beef industry, the four main components of the programme are developing New Zealand-specific breeding indexes, building an across-breed genetic evaluation and data infrastructure, running a beef progeny test and linking in data from commercial herds.
“These 11 farmers from across the country will join last year’s intake and support our mission to give breeders and farmers genetic tools to help produce great-tasting beef and drive production efficiency.”
Jenkins said the programme was in its third year towards helping commercial farmers understand the value of better genetics and offering them the opportunity to easily select the right genetics for their system so they could increase their profitability.
“Commercial farms are playing a key role in the programme because they contribute to the accuracy of breeding values of stud bulls available to commercial farmers.
“Being part of the programme also allows for more accurate heifer selection in herds which will have a lasting impact on the commercial herds progress towards their own goals.”
The 11 new commercial farmers from Waikato, King Country, Gisborne, Wellington, Canterbury, Otago and Southland bring the total number of farmers involved in the programme to 22.
“They are providing accurate pedigree recording, assessing bull teams’ performances, ensuring accurate information for heifer replacement selection and work with their bull breeders to make more rapid genetic progress,” Jenkins said.
The farmers were also able to benchmark their herd against others in the programme.
