A project to increase the use of high-quality genetics in the beef industry has increased its foothold among commercial beef farmers.
There are now 37 farmers in the seven-year Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme, which aims to increase the use of high-quality genetics in the beef industry.
The programme’s four main components are developing NZ-specific breeding indexes, building across breed genetic evaluation and data infrastructure, running a beef progeny test and linking in data from commercial herds.
Sonya Shaw, the INZB project lead, commercial herds, said they still hope to increase the number of participating farmers who need to be interested in beef genetics, recording data and using that data.
She said participating farmers provide the programme with accurate pedigree recording, assessments of bull teams’ performances, ensure accurate information for heifer replacement selection and work with their bull breeders to make more rapid genetic progress.
They can also benchmark their herd against others in the programme.
The seven-year INZB partnership, supported by Beef + Lamb NZ, the NZ Meat Board and the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food and Fibre Futures fund, aims to boost the sector’s profits by $460 million over the next 25 years.
“The INZB programme is helping commercial farmers understand the value of better genetics and offer them the opportunity to easily select the right genetics for their system to drive greater profitability on their farms,” Shaw said.
“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.”
