A total of 132 heifers, in-calf through AI to Hereford and Angus sires, calved on Kepler Farm in September and October.
The first calves born into the Informing New Zealand Beef Programme (INZB) have been measured for the first time and sires selected for this season’s round of artificial insemination (AI) next month.
The calves’ marking weights have been recorded and DNA samples taken to confirm parentage at Pāmu’s Kepler Farm in Te Anau, which is part of the seven-year INZB programme.
A total of 132 heifers, in-calf through AI to Hereford and Angus sires, calved on Kepler Farm in September and October.
The Beef Progeny Test uses Angus and Hereford genetics to identify the performance of agreed-on traits linking with international beef genetics.
Jason Archer, genetics specialist with Beef +Lamb NZ (B+LNZ) Genetics, says the test got under way last spring, having secured a farm and identified bulls to create linkages to international datasets and previous progeny tests.
“Time is of the essence when dealing with biological systems, so we took the opportunity to get started last spring so that we have calves on the ground this year,” Archer said.
He says this year’s crop of male calves will be grown out to slaughter on Kepler Farm, while the heifers will be grown out, live scanned for carcase traits and mated as yearling heifers.
The outcomes of the heifer mating will be recorded, as will their mating performance as two-year-olds.
“Previous trials have shown that genetic differences become more apparent at the two-year mating,” he said.
An additional five Hereford and five Angus nominated bulls have entered the Beef Progeny Test this year.
The calving on-farm went well, with a very low incidence of calving difficulty recorded.
“We achieved this low incidence of calving difficulty by selecting ‘heifer appropriate’ bulls based on calving ease and birth weight EBVs,” he said.
The INZB programme is a joint initiative between B+LNZ and the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures (SFFF) fund. It incorporates four areas of work, including the Beef Progeny Test.
The other three are the development of NZ-centric breeding objectives, the development of a data measurement and collection system to collect phenotypic and genotypic data and the use of next generation commercial genomic tools to support stud and commercial operations
Archer says B+LNZ Genetics will use their experience of building a genetic engine for sheep to build a similar engine for beef, combining phenotypic, genotypic and genomic data to calculate breeding values for agreed traits.
Ultimately, under the beef programme, B+LNZ Genetics plans to extend nProve genetics systems to include stud cattle. This would give commercial users the ability to quickly and easily source the right genetics for their environment and farm system.
“The final and arguably most important part of the beef programme is industry uptake and we will ensure that we are transferring knowledge to commercial farmers and making cutting-edge tools and resources available to the beef industry,” he said.
