New Zealand study shows genomics benefit commercial producers

That's according to a researcher and grazier at last year's World Hereford Congress held in March 2020 in Queenstown, New Zealand.

As a consultant with agriscience company AbacusBio at the time, New Zealand livestock scientist Dr Jason Archer presented at the congress on the benefits of genetic beef progeny testing.

He particularly focused on the research from a commercial perspective.

"We want to actually quantify and show to our commercial farmers the benefit they can obtain by buying good bulls," he said.

A study was conducted on five commercial beef operations spread across both the north and south islands of New Zealand, with each property running 35,000 to 90,000 stock units.

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Mr Archer said beef producers had plenty to gain from stringently collecting cow and heifer data and following the breeding of their cattle through several herd generations.

He said in the sheep-dominant landscape of New Zealand, cows were often seen as "second-class citizens".

"She is a second-class citizen but she produces a first class product," Mr Archer said.

The research looked at balancing the selection of cattle for hill country and also genetics required for maximising performance and hitting market specifications.

He said collecting data could be used for various drafting methods including testing young sires, identifying potential sires, head to head genetic comparisons or to develop new traits within a herd.

"Fundamentally, the structure of these tests all look similar regardless of what your primary reason is but we have to very much think about it in terms of it both as an extension tool and as well as a tool to take our breeding tools forward," Mr Archer said.

"We've done a reasonable job of understanding the value of the slaughter animals. I don't think we've done nearly as good a job as describing the performance of the animals maternally."

Carcase traits which can be influenced with genetics include carcase weight and ossification; eye muscle area (yield); dressing percentage; marbling and depth, while those like meat pH, fat colour and meat colour cannot.

In one example from the study, Mr Archer showed a 35 per cent range from the best animals to the worst for beef grading based on sire progeny, as per the New Zealand BeefEQ program.

He said it showed the real possibility of adjusting breeding for better meat quality outcomes.

"So about 90 per cent of the genetic predictability in EBVs is being transferred and captured by these farmers commercially," Mr Archer said.

"So the message is - it works and you get the benefit from it commercially."

Collecting data is all well and good but Mr Archer said he realised collection systems needed to be straight forward and practical to be used on-property.

"Probably one of the most significant outcomes of what we are doing is demonstrating the ability to collect data from commercial herds in a practical way which doesn't have too big of an impact on the commercial setting," he said.

ONE of the producers involved in the study for the past five years was Simon Lee, farm manager of Mendip Hills Station, Cheviot, North Canterbury,

The property covers 6200 hectares with about 34,000 stock units, with a 700-head straight Hereford herd plus 500 crossbred Angus cows as well, in two separate herds. It also runs sheep and deer.

Mr Lee said there were nine staff spread over the different properties, plus 300ha of irrigation for support and fattening on chicory and red and white clovers.

Mr Lee said he was excited to put his Hereford dams up for the trial with all of the stock fattened, despite some recent drier seasons prompting them to lighten numbers.

It has resulted in some changes of thinking for the producer.

"Being in the progeny test has made us commit to things around genetics to use genetics around we probably weren't using," he said.

"So it's getting out of our comfort zone a wee bit. We are spreading our wings a bit more."

Apart from long days in the yards with every cow going across the scales to be condition scored, the study included other challenges such as 2.5 years of drought between 2015 and 2017, and even an earthquake six months after the drought eased.

"It has made the whole beef operation a lot more accountable, a lot more data collected," Mr Lee said.

"It's been a really good journey. I've thoroughly enjoyed it and I've got a lot out of it."

His thinking around genetic selection has even flowed through to his sheep and deer operations.

When asked about the old argument of selecting for phenotype against genetics, Mr Lee said there was a place for both.

"I'm a real believer in functional cattle with the balance of EBVs," he said.

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