Dairy Trust Taranaki isn’t afraid to tackle the big issues. The not-for-profit research organisation is striving to reduce both carbon emissions and non-replacement calf wastage on its four dairy farms and is involved in industry projects addressing both.
Kavanagh, one of Dairy Trust Taranaki’s (DTT) four dairy farms, is New Zealand’s NET Zero Pilot Farm, a project run in partnership with Nestlé and Fonterra with the aim of becoming a profitable, net zero carbon emissions dairy farm within 10 years. This farm is also one of two DTT farms which, last year, signed up to be Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s Dairy Beef Progeny Test.
The Test, which is now in its third phase, aims to demonstrate that genetically superior beef bulls can be safely used across dairy cows to add value to both dairy and beef finishing operations.
One of the DTT herds in the Test is pure Jersey and this will be the first time a Jersey herd has been included in the Dairy Beef Progeny Test.
Mags Bremer, DTT’s Head of Science, says their 167 Jersey cows are run on a 47ha milking platform near Stratford and they are small cows, weighing around 400kg mature cow weight.
“We selected carefully knowing that there was increased risk with Jersey cows, but we are confident in our decisions.”
At the other end of the spectrum, DTT’s Kavanagh Farm is a 210ha property near Hawea running 550 Friesian and Friesian cross cows. Mags says they used to run a straight Friesian herd but have been cross breeding in the past three seasons to moderate cow size. They are still large cows with an average mature cow weight of 520kg.
These cows were inseminated with semen from sires selected for the Dairy Beef Progeny Test, including Angus, Charolais, Hereford and Stabilizer breeds.
All cows on all DTT farms are artificially inseminated, a decision made by the Trust in the wake of the M.bovis outbreak. The only animals mated naturally are heifers which are put to a Hereford bull following artificial insemination.
They start mating relatively early in spring with mating getting underway on the Kavanagh farm on 1 October and the Stratford farm on 28 October. This later date is a better fit with the farm’s pasture growth curve.
Mags says DTT has long been aware of the risk posed by bobby calves to the dairy industry. Four years ago, Colin Holmes Scholarship student Odette Chauncy analysed the fate of calves born at DTT farms and since then, the organisation has been making a concerted effort to reduce bobby calf numbers by using sexed-semen in their high breeding worth cows for breeding replacements and high genetic merit beef semen for the balance of the herd.
This strategy enabled them to reduce bobby calf numbers to 5% last season, down from 20% the previous season. The majority of bobby calves were Hereford and cross-bred bull calves from heifers. Twenty percent of the calves born last season were reared as replacements and the balance were sold for rearing when they were five to 10 days old. Of these 9.5% were Hereford and the rest were Charolais cross calves.
Mags says they were approached by B+LNZ about joining the Dairy Beef Progeny Test and they were keen to get on board.
“We were keen for farmers to get more information about the value of superior beef genetics and if we can help give finishers confidence in the product that they are buying, then it will help both industries.”
She says bobby calves are a problem for the dairy industry and believes the beef industry must be part of the solution.
All the Dairy Progeny Test calves born on the DTT farms this spring will be sold at five to 10 days old and B+LNZ is looking for rearers and finishers willing to be part of the Test.
The DBPT began at Limestone Downs in 2015 and subsequently moved to Pāmu’s Renown Farm. Progeny were reared and finished under commercial conditions at Pāmu’s Wairakei Estate. The DBPT has now moved from Pamu’ Renown farm and last spring, mating took place on five new host farms across three regions. The other host farms are Huroo Downs near Oamaru and two Massey University farms.
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