Unique to the world

Continued efforts to reduce bobby calves and emissions to meet consumer demands have led to the development of a world first, the KiwiBlue.

The genetics are a collaboration between Woodleigh Belgian Blues and Samen NZ and offer New Zealand dairy farmers an efficiency focused, polled and double-muscled solution to meet future demands in the way beef is produced.

Samen NZ’s Cees van Baar says there has been exponential growth in sales of their short-gestation Belgian Blue genetics.

“There are many benefits to using a specially bred dairy beef sire. The European genetics we have selected for use here in New Zealand have been specifically bred for decades to go over dairy animals.

“The benefits of using such genetics are easy calving, shorter gestation (more days in milk), rapid growth rates and the unique colourmarking capability of the pure-white Belgian Blues.

The KiwiBlue breeding programme was established in 2020 by Samen NZ and Woodleigh Belgian Blues.

Since then, together they have bred a number of KiwiBlue sires. The KiwiBlue is a combination of the best European Belgian Blue genetics and Woodleigh Belgian Blues’ unique polled Belgian Blue genetics.

There are a number of KiwiBlue sires now collecting and all are pure-white and Pp (heterozygous polled), ensuring all offspring colour marks for easy identification. Half of the offspring will be born without horns.

This breeding initiative is already commanding attention around the world.

Sir Lockwood Smith has been breeding his own Belgian Blue stud Woodleigh Belgian Blues in Matakohe since 1987.

He says his love of beef cattle and background as an agricultural scientist drove his passion for breeding a more efficient herd.

When he took over from his father, the herd was Angus x Friesian. Wanting to add additional beef capacity to his herd, Sir Lockwood began looking at other beef breeds with potential.

“In 1987 I read about these Belgian Blues and the modification to their myostatin gene. All mammals, like us, have a myostatin gene and in fact the gene was discovered in Belgian Blue cattle.

“The myostatin gene is often referred to as the double-muscling gene and controls the amount of muscle developed on the animal’s carcase.

“I was fascinated by that technology, so I decided to import some embryos and some Belgian Blue semen. I began to upgrade from my Angus x Friesian base to a purebred Belgian Blue herd.”

Belgian Blues are traditionally a horned breed and Sir Lockwood focused on retaining the polled gene from his Angus base.

“I also wanted to smooth out their shoulders to seek natural calving and made sure I had animals with shorter gestation lengths, which can also contribute to calving ease.”

Another core benefit of the Belgian Blue breed is its ability to lay down lean muscle. The more fat laid down in a carcase, the more energy or carbon cost there is, he says.

“I see a huge future for younger, leaner and more tender beef. The carbon emissions associated with that carcase are going to be so much lower.” n

GENEZ supplies premium beef semen for artificial insemination, selecting elite traits for dairy cow reproduction. These beef genetics are carefully tailored to suit the dairy industry, but with an eye on beef market needs.

It aims to find answers for recent and future bobby calf regulations with a strong purpose around creating better outcomes for dairy.

GENEZ is tackling these two issues by matching elite beef genetics for low-genetic merit dairy cows, yielding progeny tailored to the beef finisher market.

This approach aligns with the growing role of the dairy industry in New Zealand’s beef processing, and caters to finishers that utilise these one- to two-year-old heifers or steers as part of their farming practice to enhance margins.

GENEZ co-founder and general manager Ben Watson has been working within the industry good and dairy genetics space for many years. He has a family history in building strong genetic performance and relationships in both dairy and the beef finisher market.

He now has a vision of providing better value and more varied beef genetics specifically for dairy to ensure that progeny has a useful life.

He is doing this by aligning market demands while being mindful of environmental factors, ensuring progeny is fast growing, and creating a marbling beef product that has value. This will support lowering methane emissions to benefit both the dairy and beef narrative.

GENEZ has carefully chosen premium sires with the right genetic profile, focusing on enhanced manager Ben Watson says science has proven that crossing a superior beef sire with dairy can produce the attributes prized by the beef industry. efficiency, early maturing/ finishing, and desired carcase composition. These attributes are harmonized with short gestation and calving ease, fulfilling dairy farmers’ requirements.

This dual-focus approach aims to offer scalable solutions that deliver a premium processing product, attuned to market demands.

Watson says the science has proven that by crossing a superior beef sire with dairy the attributes prized by the beef industry can be produced.

“We want to scale this quickly, continuing to deliver more data from breeding, genomic and weight gain to ensure pathways can create transparency from conception to plate.

“Ultimately, we will bring all this data to a centralised point to continue to allow greater optimisation of the insights and entire supply chain.”

Farmers face increasing pressure to find homes for calves because of Fonterra’s new requirements around non-replacement calves needing a useful life.

With the onset of modern technology such as activity monitors and sexed dairy semen, only around 50% of cows are required for herd replenishment, while the rest, considered to be low-genetic merit breeders, are often bred without much thought.

If dairy farmers can take more interest in beef estimated breeding values (EBVs) and intramuscular fat to consider the value proposition the beef market requires, it is better for everyone, he says.

“The significance of beef genetics in dairy farming has the potential to reshape the industry’s narrative.”

Through delivering progeny with the right genetic makeup, growth rates can be increased, meaning less time for finishing is required.

This is good news in many ways, as lower inputs mean less emissions. Ag Research LCA calculations showcase a minimum 30% reduction in carbon emissions per kilogram of beef produced when dairy beef is compared to traditional beef cow systems.

In addition to this is a possible 7-12% reduction available when breeding decisions are made with feed efficiency BVs in mind, substantially decreasing greenhouse gas emissions. n