A Beef + Lamb NZ beef genetics programme is expanding into the North Island.
Lochinvar Station near Taupō will become part of the Informing NZ Beef Genetics Programme, joining Pāmu’s Kepler Farm near Te Anau in Southland, which is an existing progeny test site.
The across-breed beef progeny test uses Angus, Hereford and now Simmental genetics to identify the performance of agreed-on traits.
Angus cows will be artificially inseminated at Lochinver next January with Angus, Hereford and Simmental bulls used at the North Island farm.
Led by Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics with the support of the Ministry for Primary Industries’ Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures (SFF Futures), the seven-year programme aims to improve profitability and enhance sustainability through the development and adoption of improved beef genetics.
In addition to developing a beef genetic evaluation system, the programme will also create easy-to-use tools to enable the collection, management and analysis of data for use by farmers.
Informing New Zealand Beef’s Science Lead Dr Jason Archer said moving into the North Island allows Simmentals to be added to the programme and gives more capacity to analyse the breeds and bulls.
“It will enable us to demonstrate the differences and similarities between the breeds, along with the benefits of hybrid vigour, but the main purpose is to evaluate good bulls on the same base,” Archer said.
