Pāmu is rolling out a dairy-beef integration programme to rear all non-replacement calves born to the government-owned farming company’s dairy cows.
Although it is early days in the programme, Pāmu’s head of ventures and farming, Jim Inglis, says 2030 is the target time for full implementation across 45 dairy farms and 32,000 cows.
“This is not a one-size-fits-all dairy farms policy but a combination of inputs, farm policies and breeding programmes to improve our business efficiency over time,” he said.
Retention of non-replacement calves born to dairy cows is enabled by the Dairy-Beef Progeny Test (DBPT) provided by Pāmu subsidiary Focus Genetics with support from B+LNZ Genetics, LIC and commercial bull breeders.
Now in its fifth year, the DBPT is based on Pāmu’s Wairakei Renown farm on Central Plateau where calves from different bulls in the progeny test are finished under commercial conditions with assessment of rearing, growth and carcase traits, as well as calving ease and gestation length.
Under farm manager Damien Watson, Renown uses sexed dairy semen over the best cows for the herd replacements and DBPT semen for the rest of the AI period.
In Pāmu’s 2022 Integrated Report, Watson said the selection of herd replacements on Renown now has first priority, and the dairy-beef programme has no downside for milk production.
“There are some constraints on how we operate, but the whole integration model is going to pay dividends over time as more animals leave the farm with higher value for beef production and as bobby calf numbers fall, ultimately perhaps to zero.”
Using sexed semen also allows replacements to be generated from his very best cows, and this is accelerating the rate of genetic gain achievable in his milk-production herd.
Focus Genetics scientist Rebecca Hickson said environmental benefits come from the replacement of beef breeding cows and their progeny by rearing and finishing dairy-beef crosses born to dairy cows from DBPT bulls by AI.
“The improvement of dairy-beef genetics will ensure beef finishers have a good supply of calves for finishing systems irrespective of breeding cow numbers,” she said.
“It isn’t a case of all or nothing. Any increase in the proportion of finishing cattle that have a dairy origin will have environmental benefit.”
When a dairy cow produces both milk and a calf for beef finishing in the one season, the emissions intensity of both products goes down.
Inglis said Pāmu’s adjacent Kapiro-Takou Bay farms in Northland are already integrated, where Takou’s 200 replacement dairy heifers, 90 once-bred dairy-cross heifers and 200 Angus-dairy cross finishing cattle are run on Kapiro Station.
Pāmu dairy and beef finishing farms in Wairarapa, Central North Island, Canterbury, West Coast and Otago are also integrated, to some degree.
The dairy farms use dairy AI over 40-60% of their cows and first-bred heifers to obtain 20-25% of herd replacements needed each year.
The use of sexed semen can refine the targeted herd replacements more, he said.
The remainder of the dairy herd is mated to Pāmu beef bulls or by beef AI from DBPT leading bulls, with many of the progeny reared and finished.
Tail-up bulls have higher breeding values in calving ease, birth weight, gestation length and weight gains.
The growth and finishing targets within the system are for one or two winters for the males and only one winter for the heifers, Inglis said.
Once-bred, dairy-beef heifers are also sent to some Pāmu beef breeding farms, which fits with more use of terminal sires.
Local trade beef supply is not a formalised processing agreement, but it does happen with the lighter, younger heifers.
“We produce export, prime, local trade and manufacturing beef and we are working with a couple of processors on lower carcase weight beef,” he said.
“We are collaborating with others across research, farming and meat processing without going down one exclusive route.
“Collaboration in this instance covers genetics, breeding, rearing, growing, finishing and processing.
“For example, we just built more calf-rearing facilities in the central North Island but we also rely on contract rearers in a big way – we are not an island.”
Dairy cow numbers across Pāmu are falling with de-intensification and some transition to organics and lower stocking rates.
“Our beef-finishing systems and our calf-rearing capacity are increasing.
“As we adapt our breeding programmes to make all calves from our dairy cows good for rearing, we look to be on track for 2030,” Inglis said.
Perhaps some bits of the dairy-beef programme could be accelerated but much of the timing is dictated by the cattle breeding cycle.
Other farm management aspects include winter feed requirements for herd replacements and dairy-beef finishers, cycling and heat detection and efficient calf rearing.
