Genetics

Genetics programmes

B+LNZ leads a range of programmes designed to deliver practical genetic insights and tools to New Zealand farmers. 

These initiatives focus on improving productivity, profitability, and support a sustainable sheep and beef farming industry – helping farmers breed animals that are better suited to their farm systems and future challenges. 

Learn more about the work underway in our current genetics programmes below.  For information about past research programmes visit our ‘Demonstrating the power of genetics’ page. 

image of sheep on green pastures

Cool Sheep Programme

This programme aims to reduce methane emissions across the national flock by providing practical, science-backed solutions for New Zealand’s sheep breeding sector. It is supported by the Ministry for Primary Industries through the Climate Emergency Response Fund (CERF) and B+LNZ. 

image of two cows infront of misty backdrop

Informing New Zealand Beef

INZB is a seven-year programme supported by B+LNZ and MPI. The four main components are building a genetic evaluation and data infrastructure, progeny test herds, developing breeding objectives and indexes, and developing new data sources. 

image of cows in dry grass infront of mountains

Across-breed Beef Progeny Test

The across-breed Beef Progeny Test compares bulls under New Zealand commercial farming conditions. It is fundamental to a multi-breed evaluation by linking breeds and enabling the collection of New Zealand-specific data to accurately estimate hybrid vigour. 

Sheep progeny

Sheep Progeny Test

A long-standing and critical component of New Zealand’s sheep genetics system. The benchmarking carried out within the Progeny Test underpins our large-scale across-flock breed evaluation, the NZGE.  This ensures rams’ breeding values and therefore future performance is as accurate as possible.

image of dairy beef calves

Dairy Beef Progeny Test

This project aims to improve the quality of dairy beef calves in the industry and demonstrate that genetically superior beef bulls can be safely used over dairy cows, adding value to both dairy and beef finishing operations.