Future challenges and opportunities for this country’s sheep industry came under the spotlight at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics Sheep Breeder Forum held in Christchurch last week.
Around 140 people attended the two-day forum which included keynote presentations, pick-n-mix workshops and a field trip to Bank Peninsula’s Willesden Farms, host of two Hill Country Futures Partnership Programme projects.
B+LNZ CEO Sam McIvor set the scene for the forum, outlining the organisation’s refreshed focus on farm productivity and profitability during what is a challenging time for the sector and its vision of thriving sheep and beef farmers now and into the future.
Other farmer-identified priorities for the organisation included stronger representation at government level, more visible leadership in the regions and telling farmer’s stories.
McIvor stressed the importance of research and innovation to help farmers address issues such as Facial Eczema, internal parasites, a changing climate and market expectations.
He described changes to B+LNZ’s extension programme which would include small groups of farming businesses working together to address specific challenges as well as Focus Farms.
B+LNZ Genetics’ specific vision is profitable genetic gain for the NZ sheep and beef industry. Its purpose is to provide genetic information infrastructure along with the development and promotion of breeding objectives that would positively impact NZ’s sheep and beef farming. This would be achieved through progeny tests, nProve and the New Zealand Genetic Evaluation, Research and Development and extension and technology transfer.
Suzi Keeling, B+LNZ’s Head of Science and Research, provided a sense of direction for B+LNZ’s research portfolio which included the Cool Sheep® programme. This programme would ultimately give every sheep farmer the opportunity to use genetic selection tools to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their flock.
Other research underway included Eliminating the Impacts of Facial Eczema (B+LNZ is leading this work with 13 partners contributing to the programme) and work on internal parasites.
B+LNZ’s Head of Genetics, Jason Archer provided an overview of the international genetics scene, outlining advances in genomics and the use of artificial intelligence and technologies.
He said the US beef industry was very fragmented with breeders, feedlot operators and processors all having very different needs, however amongst breeders, the discussion has recently turned to increased focus on cow size and efficiency. Given a much tighter integration between breeding and finishing in New Zealand, this topic has been on the minds of sheep and cattle breeders here for a long time.
Unlike NZ, the US, Canada, Ireland and Europe all have good, well established feed intake measurement facilities and Archer sees the opportunity to do more to measure feed intake in New Zealand to help identify sheep and cattle with greater feed efficiency.
He said methane was a topic of discussion and research globally, with developed livestock-producing countries around the world measuring methane emissions through different types of measurement approaches and working to reduce their emissions.
Archer said methane was fast becoming a market-related trait and could potentially be used as a non-tariff trade barrier.
Rather than looking at methane as a negative, Archer said as methane emissions are tied in with feed intake and feed efficiency, it was an opportunity to focus on breeding more efficient animals while also reducing emissions.
The forum’s pick-n-mix workshops gave attendees the opportunity to attend interactive sessions on a range of subjects including the ‘Sheep of the Future’ programme, breeding towards low methane genetics, parasite resistance, the use of nProve, connectedness and the Central Progeny Test and EID technology.
One of the highlights of the first day of the forum was a discussion on measuring meat quality and its use in genetic evaluation. This session featured Dr Neville Jopson from AbacusBio, Dr Daniel Brown from the University of New England’s Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit and Craig Hickson from Progressive Meats.
Watch presentations online
Presentations are able to be viewed online via this YouTube playlist.