Dairy beef opportunities

As the lead organisation for Pillar 1 of the Dairy Beef Opportunities (DBO) programme, Beef + Lamb New Zealand (B+LNZ) is helping build the foundations for a stronger dairy-beef sector through better beef-on-dairy genetics, practical on-farm systems and farmer-led extension.

This work aligns closely with our focus on improving profitability, productivity and resilience for New Zealand's sheep and beef farmers.

At the heart of Pillar 1 is a simple idea. The right calf, with the right genetics and management, creates more value throughout the supply chain.

Our beef-on-dairy genetics work builds on years of investment in the Beef-on-Dairy Progeny Test (BoDPT), helping improve our understanding of which beef sires perform best when used over dairy cows.

Through the programme, we're developing tools and information to help farmers compare beef genetics and make informed breeding and calf purchasing decisions.

Over time, this work will help deliver calves with improved growth rates, feed efficiency and carcass performance, while supporting dairy farmers to continue prioritising milk production.

The programme is also improving our understanding of calf rearing systems and how information can be shared across the supply chain to build confidence between breeders, rearers and finishers. Better information and more consistent outcomes will help improve decision making and support farmer profitability.

Just as importantly, we're ensuring the programme delivers practical outcomes for farmers. Whether it's selecting the best beef bull for dairy cows not producing replacement calves, adopting calf rearing practices that improve growth and health, or choosing genetics that suit a finishing system, Pillar 1 is focused on providing useful tools and resources.

B+LNZ is also leading the establishment of Communities of Practice, bringing together dairy farmers, calf rearers, beef finishers and industry partners to help shape the future of dairy-beef systems in New Zealand. These groups will play an important role in ensuring programme outputs are practical, relevant and easy to adopt.

We're already seeing strong interest from farmers. Since the start of the year, B+LNZ has hosted and supported several successful beef-on-dairy field days around the country. One recent event at Poukawa Research Farm brought together more than 50 farmers and industry stakeholders to view comparison animals and hear updates on genetics and supply chain opportunities.

The enthusiasm and discussion at these events reinforce what we're hearing across the sector. Farmers are interested in practical solutions that improve profitability and create opportunities for future generations.

While much of the work during the first two years of the programme is focused on establishing research, collecting data and building industry connections, this is an important stage.

Good decisions rely on good information, and the investments being made now will provide the tools and confidence needed to support wider adoption in the years ahead.

The focus for Pillar 2 is growing the proportion of calves born that are suitable for dairy- beef, which begins with decisions dairy farmers make within their herd. Led by DairyNZ principal scientist Paul Edwards, Pillar 2 is focused on finding practical and economic ways to do this within two key areas of work: integrating beef within a herd’s mating plan and reducing the number of unsuitable calves born via extended lactation systems.

Mating plans

Selecting semen and bull types, which cows to use them over, and when in the mating, are the key decisions made by dairy farmers that influence the attractiveness of calves for dairy-beef finishing systems. The primary considerations for dairy farmers are often reproductive performance and wanting to minimise risk of calving difficulty. However, genetic gain is also of high importance, and this can be complementary with using elite beef semen to produce desirable beef-on-dairy calves.

Key for farmers to make informed decisions about the components of their mating plan is an ability to understand how their choices will impact the number and timing of calves born of different categories, and the balance between cost and value – what trade-offs may be occurring. Importantly, the mating plan also needs to be practical and easy to implement during the busy mating period. One of the outcomes sought is to deliver a resource that will enable farmers to assess the mating plan that best aligns with their specific farm goals. Learn more in this episode of Talking Dairy.

Extended lactation

Extending the calving interval reduces the number of calves born. The system of interest has cows calving every 24 months, with half the herd calving each year. The 24-month interval is important as it allows the herd to remain spring calving and maintain alignment with seasonal pasture production. This approach has the potential to reduce non-replacement calves by 60% while providing greater flexibility for beef options, for example by using a shorter mating period. The viability of this system is being investigated through a farmlet study and modelling. Learn about the work here.

Developing market opportunities and support around genetics are key to enhancing value for farmers from beef-on-dairy breeding, says Meat Industry Association (MIA) science and innovation manager Richard McColl.

MIA is managing Pillar 3 of the Dairy Beef Opportunities (DBO) programme.

Pillar 3 looks at developing new and differentiated products and value, including earlier finishing for dairy- beef cattle and preparedness of the processing system.

McColl says MIA is working with processors, including Silver Fern Farms, to set up pilot programmes with dairy beef cattle of different ages.

“The pilot programme leads will work with farmers to procure and with processors to process the animals and will take them to market and work to identify the opportunities.

“The pilots will be different models and different ages of animal, for instance at less than one year and at 12 to 18 months, to see what the opportunities are in the market and what scalability looks like.

“If we can generate opportunities, with the demand for protein, we can aim to generate a viable work programme for a new class of dairy beef animals that also enhances on-farm profitability.”

As part of the programme, Silver Fern Farms is collaborating with Fonterra to encourage dairy farmers to consider beef-on-dairy mating.

That includes providing a database of beef sires selected for easy calving, moderate gestation length and high growth calves.

“That’s very important, to ensure there are calves with the genetics to be grown into dairy beef,” says McColl.

“Identifying market opportunities that create a value proposition will be critical to incentivise farmers, but another primary driver is that New Zealand needs to find alternatives to non-replacement dairy calves being processed at four days old.

“That is a reputational risk. The metric for the market is ‘a life well lived’. So, we need to look at other options for these animals.

“We are investigating what the value proposition looks like for New Zealand to farm these animals. We expect to begin to see early indication of market demand and the economics after year two of the pilot programme, although it will take two to four years to see what opportunities might be scalable.”