LIC Link - December 2013

VOLUME 1 DECEMBER 2013

Keeping you in touch with your co-op

NIL INPUT COWS DELIVERING HIGH RETURNS TO THE DAIRY INDUSTRY

There’s a new ‘breed’ of cow on the scene at LIC — she doesn’t eat grass or produce any milk but she’s generating high returns for the training of AB Technicians. READ MORE » 03 ®

NORTHSEA – earning a place in bovine history

KiwiCross™ bull Scotts Northsea will go down in bovine history, not simply because he was the first crossbred bull to knock purebreds off the top of the Ranking of Active Sires list, but because he was the first bull to be sequenced in New Zealand.

His sequencing pre-empted LIC scientists developing one of the largest genetic datasets of information in the world. Read how this was achieved and what it means for your farm and the New Zealand dairy industry.

READ MORE » 08

Five months into the role,

LIC CEO Wayne McNee

talks about what LIC is doing to improve communications and delivery of innovative quality products to farmers — and gives insight to what the future holds.

READ MORE » 02

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LIC VISION: INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS THAT

LIC Regional AB Manager Mark Te Whare and ALICia the artifical cow

IMPROVE DAIRY FARMER PROSPERITY WAYNE MCNEE, Chief Executive This newspaper comes out of a conversation I had with Shareholders’ Council Chair, Jenny Morrison, at her beautiful property nestled under the Pinnacles in the Coromandel. Jenny challenged me that LIC doesn’t communicate well enough, or often enough, with its shareholders. So I agreed we would put together a six monthly communication to you all, and this is the result.

I hope you find it informative and useful.

LIC’s people are passionate about delivering solutions for farmers. We have some great products and services and we value

the fact that our farmer customers are our owners.

I’ve been with LIC for five months, and have been impressed by the passion our staff show for their work. We have just passed the peak of the AB season, and it was truly impressive and a privilege to be with our team in the AB processing area the day before they reached that peak of around 130,000 straws of semen in one day, delivered all over the country - a great example of team work.

But there is more we can do! Our Board has just reviewed our strategy, and that revised strategy will be published early next year. I

can tell you it will be more focused on growing LIC’s business and providing even better products and services to our farmers.

Some of this we can do ourselves, by speeding up the development of products like MINDA™ on the web. Some of it we need to do in collaboration with others, in particular our fellow dairy farmer owned co-operatives in the fertiliser sector and dairy companies. We believe that, together, we can provide better information for farmers which you can use to make better decisions - new products

In the short term we think we can do better by: - investing in further improving the quality of our breeding programme, and ensuring we are focused on what our farmers will need in the future - ensuring we deliver a range of services and products which make it easier for farmers to farm.

and services, better farm automation,

improved

heat detection, new tests to help identify disease and more.

And all that is within our current

strategy.

Beyond

that, we think LIC has more opportunities to deliver value for our farmers, but more on that when our new strategy is launched in the new year and in the next edition of this

NIL INPUT COWS GENERATE HIGH RETURNS

newspaper!

WHAT IS LIC - AND WHY

YOU SHOULD BE PROUD TO BE PART OF IT MURRAY KING, Chairman

Welcome to the future — it’s here now.

Little did the founding farmers of LIC know and nor could they imagine what the future might look like. In 1909 the average farm size was around 20 cows milked by hand. The farmers who established our co-operative would not in their wildest dreams have believed it possible to farm 1000 cows, let alone milk them with a single person, or by robot. Yet that is where we are today.

So it is that we look to the future. LIC is now more than just a herd improvement company. Not so long ago our core products were genetics, herd testing and animal recording through MINDA. We can now justifiably add DNA parentage verification, animal health testing and automation as also being core, along

with many other products developed and designed for specific purposes which have become the fabric of prosperous dairying.

All of these are developed and designed for farmers to not only make our cows more profitable but also to make it easier to farm them. LIC is now much more than simply a herd improvement company – it’s an innovative technology modern co-operative, unique in the world.

There are three things that make LIC special First, we have dedicated, motivated and inspired people who love what they do and are driven to add value to what happens on farm.

Second, LIC is about innovation. Things don’t just happen, they are created by people with vision and a need

to solve a problem or crack an opportunity.

Third, we are about productivity. The New Zealand dairy industry is world class and it is also different.

Because of this we must act differently to farmers in the northern hemisphere. Dairy is number one when it comes to export driven returns yet that will not occur if farmers’ cows are not in-calf in a timely and efficient manner that fits our seasonal pasture growth curve.

Strong financial performance does not come about by chance. It comes by having a clear picture of the future and what it might be. It also comes about by dedicating adequate resources to achieve a goal.

LIC invests significantly in R&D and product development to the tune of an equivalent amount to our EBIT, or around 20% of our revenue. This is significant and largely unrivalled by other New Zealand companies.

All of these things combine to create a catalyst to change and improve - and change we

must. The world is moving further and faster every day; by way of example 90% of the data in the world today has been collected in the last two years alone! We may not be able to predict the future, but we must be able to move fast enough to capture the opportunity that it presents.

production and her likelihood

So what do I think LIC could be in the future?

easily double our current

We will be using massive amounts of data to predict optimisation of all things to do with farming, and reporting of results, in a simple and intuitive manner. Data will be better managed in a way that we cannot even imagine, to provide clarity and simplicity in the way in which we make decisions on farm, through to generating specific genetics for certain markets.

Genomic technology may have had a false start, but the opportunities it presents are only scratching the surface.

In time it may be that every cow is genotyped for specific and unique health properties in her milk and the ability to predict her future lifetime

yet still hold true to our co-

to develop health problems.

She’s got the attributes of a cow — well some of them, mainly the back end — and while these girls don’t eat grass or produce any milk they are generating high returns for the training of LIC AB technicians.

The co-operative will also be bigger; any company that is not growing is inevitably dying. We will have a larger suite of products designed for a wider range of farmers and their unique needs. We could size in the next ten years, operative principle where the benefits derived from pooling individual

animal

data

is

optimised to provide better and simpler solutions for all.

It’s a future I want to be part of – as Chairman, as a shareholder of LIC but, mostly, as a dairy farmer who wants to give my children and (eventually) their children, the chance for the wonderful life

and

opportunities

possible in dairying. I hope you share that dream and I and my Board look forward to working with you to achieve it.

She is one of a team of three artificial cows, the idea for which was conceived by a team of LIC Regional AB Operations Managers 'some years ago', according to a member of that team, Mark Te Whare.

“Traditionally, AB technicians are trained on cull cows at freezing works, but this comes with sensitivities around animal welfare. As trainers we also felt compromised because, with live animals, you rely on a verbal explanation of technique lacking the ability to visually check that the technique is as good as it needs to be before trainees refine their skills on live cows.

“We knew what we wanted, a cow which was portable, didn’t need feeding or veterinary support and which had a window in her side so insemination techniques could be easily monitored – but where to find it? We looked around the world for an artificial cow with the

attributes we required but came up empty handed, so we put our designer hats on and got to work.“ Working with Mike Williams from MW Design the concept finally began to take shape with early prototypes subjected to months of testing and trials before FeLICity (Jersey), ALICia (Friesian) and Aroha (KiwiCross) arrived in early 2013.

“We made sure each breed is represented and standardised the height to an average which would suit most Technicians.”

The three 'girls’ made their debut with a group of Waikato Artificial Breeding Technician trainees in the autumn of 2013.

“Half of the recruits trained at the works while the other half started with the artificial cows and then moved to the works; we then compared their knowledge and technique to see which method was more effective.”

And the result?

“Traditional Technician training has a pass rate over the two week training period of around 55%. We thought we’d improve this with the artificial cows but weren’t sure how much better it would be.

“However, after just one week of training on the artificial cows, our trial group achieved a 90% pass rate which speaks for itself. The result was so convincing we decided to abandon the trial and make the artificial cows available to as many trainees as possible.”

Since then the trio of cows have been used at the start of training for LIC trainees around the country, consistently delivering the pass rates achieved by the trial group. A total of 76 trainees used the cows with 70 graduating as AB Apprentices for the spring of 2013. That’s a 93% pass rate.

Mark Te Whare said the artificial cows have also answered a longstanding problem of maintaining and improving technique in the time lag which occurs between training and the

dairy mating season.

“The gap between training and working is a concern to Technicians. Of necessity training occurs at the start of the year but it can be six months before they are operating as an AB Technician, and they understandably want to hone their skills before they hit the road.

“The arrival of the new cows enabled us to set up a training programme so all Senior Technicians and Apprentices could attend a one day course involving all aspects of the role but specifically focusing on inseminations with the artificial cows.

“The concept of refreshing skills with artificial cows was, of course, foreign to many of our long-standing Senior Technicians who were sceptical about how useful they’d be – but, after working with the artificial cows, there was universal endorsement that the ability to combine sensory and visual cues was invaluable.

“The other bonus, of course, is that being able to use the artificial cows for training means we’re minimising use of cows at the end of their lives at the works – and that’s something which everyone in farming cares about.”

The herd of artificial cows has, as a consequence, been increased to seven with the arrival of four new ‘girls’ which will be permanently based in the South Island.

In future, all recruits to the LIC AB Technician training programme will start their training with the artificial cows.

LIC's first team of artificial cows. L-R ALICia, FeLICity and Aroha

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TRAINING DESIGNED BY FARMERS, FOR FARMERS

LIC INVESTMENT SHARES DELIVER

16% RETURN SINCE 2004 LIC has what’s called a ‘dual share structure’.

Farmers are allocated Cooperative Shares (which have voting rights) when they purchase a prescribed volume of products and services from LIC, and they can opt to purchase Investment Shares.

Investment Shares can only be purchased and traded amongst Co-operative Shareholders with a small holding available to LIC staff.

This closed shareholding is a source of frustration to private investors who frequently ring LIC wanting to benefit from one of the highest dividend yields on the New Zealand Alternative Market.

Investment Shares were introduced in 2004 to give farmers another type of return from their co-operative in addition to products and services. Initially listed at $1.54 per share, demand driven by the closed market has seen the share price increase to around $6, which equates to an average return of 16% over the decade since they were introduced.

At the end of the 2012/2013 year Investment Shareholders received a dividend of around 55 cents per share, which is a gross yield of 13.2% based on LIC’s revenue for the year of $199 million.

Two options make it easier for LIC dairy farmers to buy Investment Shares and avoid a large cash outlay – • The Voluntary Investment Scheme (VIS) allows farmers to annually charge their account with 4% of the previous season’s spend which is then used to purchase Investment Shares via the market.

• The Dividend Reinvestment Plan (DRP) allows dairy farmers with Co-operative Shares to elect not to receive dividends in cash and instead use the dividend monies to buy more Investment Shares.

Both the DRP and VIS are run independently of LIC, but the co-operative picks up all the brokerage and administration costs rather than passing them on to farmers, as it is with ‘normal’ share trading.

Dairy farmers who hold Co-operative Shares and want to purchase Investment Shares can do so via a Share Broker, through an 'off market' transfer with another shareholder, or by joining the DRP or VIS Schemes.

LIC’s Share Registry team is available to answer any questions – phone 0800 542 742.

Financial Disclaimer: The opinions, views or recommendations contained in this article are for general information purposes only and do not take into account any person’s particular financial situation or goals. They do not constitute personalised financial advice under the Financial Advisers Act 2008 or constitute advice of a legal, tax, accounting or other nature. Anyone acting on the information supplied does so solely at their own risk. Investment decisions are very important and often have long term consequences.

We highly recommend that investors seek advice from their usual professional adviser before taking any action. Before investing, you should make yourself aware of the investment risks.

All investments involve risk. The price, value and income derived from investments may fluctuate in that values can go down as well as up and investors may get back less than originally invested. Past performance is not indicative of future results.

LIC moved into the training space for farmer customers more than a year ago and it’s proving popular with more than 3000 farmers taking part each year. The reason is simple – the style, frequency and location of the training has been designed by farmers.

LIC’s General Manager of Human Resources, Megan Scott, says her team knew farmers wanted help to get more out of their technology but it was important to deliver it in a style which suited the

demands on farm.

“Farmers told us they wanted short sessions that deal with the challenges they face on farm at various times of the year and handson experience so new skills can be practised in locations which are close to home.

They also wanted to hear the experiences of other farmers and to have options in the type of training, because what suits one farm team, doesn't suit another.

“With that insight we sat

down and developed a range of options which we’ve been delivering and which are clearly hitting the mark as attendance and feedback have been great, and demand is growing,” Megan Scott said.

A range of training options are on offer to farmers from an online Learning Centre on LIC’s website, to free regional workshops on seasonal topics, as well as training tailored to the specific needs of farms and their staff.

LESS WATER WASTE PUT TO WORK AT LIC INNOVATION FARM A new heat recovery unit in the LIC Innovation Farm milking shed makes use of waste heat from the refrigeration plant to preheat the wash water.

There are several key energy uses in a typical milking shed. One is the need for a refrigeration plant to chill milk to reduce its temperature from 37 degrees (when it leaves the cow) to seven degrees.

And then there’s hot water to wash the milking plant after each milking, and the

vat after the tanker has been.

Both activities require a lot of hot water and the standard approach is for an electric hot water cylinder to heat it to the desired 85 degrees.

LIC’s Innovation Farm has successfully harnessed the waste heat from the milk refrigerant to preheat the hot water. The heat transfer system creates savings on both sides - the refrigeration plant doesn’t need to work as hard and the hot water cylinders just need to top up the temperature of the

water, rather than heating it from cold.

The old refrigeration plant has been replaced with modern efficient units using refrigerants that are not harmful to the environment. A larger milk

vat has also been installed with an insulating wrap to prevent the chilled milk being warmed by the sun, saving even more energy.

One of the key features of the Innovation Farm’s Eureka Heat Transfer unit is that it is completely driven by natural convection; there are no pumps or other moving parts that consume energy and wear out.

Canterbury University trials on the Eureka unit suggested a saving in water heating costs of at least

61% could be achieved and LIC will be monitoring energy use

over

coming

months

to assess how well the unit is performing.

The project was partially funded

by

the

Energy

Efficiency and Conservation Authority’s Dairy Shed Energy Efficiency Programme which is available (on application) to all dairy farmers. Full details can be found on www.eecabusiness.govt.nz/ dairy-shed-heat-recovery

----------- AND -----------

NO PONG

The practical realities of installing new toilets and septic treatment at LIC’s head office on the outskirts of Hamilton are a reduction in water use of 40% and less 'pong' from outdated septic tanks.

Staff numbers have grown since the offices were built back in the 1980s and the growth in the size of the campus has seen an obvious increase in demand for toilets and effluent disposal.

In 2011 toilets were replaced with low-flow dual flush units and sensors in urinals delivering water savings of 40%, and earlier this year a new on-site waste water treatment plant was installed reducing the ‘aroma’ which often accompanied the regular emptying of the old septic tanks.

The treatment plant requires little energy to run yet effectively treats the 23,000 litres of waste water generated each day. The quality of the treated waste water is enhanced by a subsurface wetland that has been specifically designed to remove nitrogen.

And it doesn’t stop there. LIC is currently looking at recycling the treated water from the wetland back through the toilets, thereby reducing the amount of municipal water being used. Long term, rain water from the offices’ large roof area, will be captured and used as potable water.

Our Customer Trainers will be in your area every couple of months, delivering seasonally focussed training around LIC products.

To find out what is coming up in your area, visit the LIC Learning Centre (www.lic.co.nz). While there also check out the free online tutorials on LIC's Animal Recording Service, Tagging Management, Farm Automation and Pasture and Farm Management.

You can also request one-on-one training for your staff.

TIMELY REMINDER - PARTICIPANT CODE AND PIN NUMBERS • Your participant code is the unique identifier for you and your herd.

• Your PIN number is a way of ensuring that the person accessing or updating your herd records is entitled to do so.

• If you’d like someone else to either view or update your records, LIC recommends you grant them access to your participant code by visiting Member Services at www. lic.co.nz. You can use the ‘Assign Permissions’ tab to grant read-only or read/

write access to another participant code.

• Granting access to another participant code is safer than giving your PIN number to someone else.

It allows an audit trail to be created, which helps determine who accessed, created or altered certain herd record information.

• LIC values the integrity of your data so expect to be asked for your participant code and PIN number during any interaction with the co-operative.

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COST OF INBREEDING TO DAIRY INDUSTRY – $10M PER YEAR DAVID SELLARS, LIC Genetics Consultant

Inbred animals generally produce less, are less fertile, and don’t live as long. The converse is also true; the more genetically different two parents are, the less inbred their progeny will be, and the more protein, more milkfat, more volume, better fertility, and longer life they will have. This is called hybrid vigour, outcross, or crossbreeding.

Artificial breeding, as well as natural mating practices, provide plenty of opportunity for inbreeding to occur and it is the role of breeders and AB companies to ensure that systems and tools are in place so that inbreeding (beyond low levels) does not occur.

A good way to view inbreeding is that normal sound herd improvement principles result in genetic gain, and inbreeding is a handbrake that slows that rate of gain. The net benefit of genetic gain is around $300 million per year, and the handbrake effect of inbreeding is currently up to $10 million per year.

Another view is that inbreeding is the opposite of crossbreeding. The adverse effects of inbreeding (production loss, reduced fertility and reduced longevity) are the opposite of the beneficial effects of crossbreeding (hybrid vigour).

You may be familiar with the term line-breeding.

This describes deliberate closely related matings in the hope of doubling-up the genes that contribute to some desirable trait to further improve that trait.

Unfortunately it is just as likely to double-up on genes for traits that are undesirable.

Why should inbreeding be avoided?

As stated, inbred animals will simply not be as productive as animals which are not inbred – and they’ll be likely to suffer from the impact of recessive genetic defects. There are, of course, examples of inbred animals which perform at acceptable levels, perhaps contributing to the old adage that if the cow born from an inbred mating performs well it is ‘linebred’, if it disappoints, it is ‘inbred’. In reality there is no difference between these two terms.

How is inbreeding measured?

Inbreeding is expressed as a percentage – an estimate of the proportion of genes in the two parents that are common. The percent inbreeding figure is technically called the inbreeding coefficient.

It can be calculated by a computer programme that analyses the ancestry of both prospective parents and spits out the answer. For a father-daughter

mating it is 25%. For a half-sib mating (son over father’s daughter) it is 12.5%.

What is the cost of the inbreeding disadvantages?

The measured loss that results from inbreeding is known as ‘inbreeding depression’. Estimates calculated in New Zealand for the average losses from inbreeding per year amounts to around 0.1% production loss per 1% of inbreeding. The fitness traits of fertility and longevity also suffer with inbreeding, around 0.5% drop per 1% of inbreeding eg Milk 4.1 litres Milk Solids 0.36 kg Longevity 9.1 days These figures don’t sound very large, but soon add up when multiplied by 25 in the case of a fatherdaughter mating, and by another 5 to account for the 5 lactations of the average New Zealand cow.

The average lifetime loss of production from a father-daughter mating is: Milk 512 litres 45 kg Milk Solids @ $8.00 = $360 225 days less Longevity The production loss is from poorer performance, and does not include the production loss from the animal living around one lactation less. The shorter life simply makes the lifetime production numbers much worse.

The lifetime loss of production from a half-sib mating (son over father’s daughter) is half these figures ie $180 and 112 days shorter life.

There appears to be little or no effect on conformation as a result of inbreeding. There is a negative effect on fertility, but this negative effect is already accounted for in the loss in longevity days.

The other big downside that results from

inbreeding is the effect of recessive genetic defects.

These defective genes have to be carried by the cow and the bull for the defect to show in the calf. The more closely related the cow and the bull are, the more likely it is that the calf will receive the defective gene from both parents, and show the defect’s condition. Fortunately there are not many known in the New Zealand Jersey population but in the Holstein-Friesian breed there are several eg BLAD, CVM and Citrullinemia.

Inbreeding trend in New Zealand dairy cattle (female population) at Apr-2012

year of birth Chart 2

What level of inbreeding is considered acceptable?

Scientists recommend that the level of inbreeding should not rise above 6.25%. In New Zealand, the average level of inbreeding for cows in the national herd is in the 1% to 3% range — as shown in Chart 1.

The trend for crossbred cows is understandably low, at less than 1% because they generally originate from the two genetically different breeds of HolsteinFriesian and Jersey. The Holstein-Friesian is also at acceptable levels, around 1.5%.

The Jersey population, at around 3.5%, is at levels we would not want to see increase much further. The breed is small and is struggling to identify outcross genetics. The USA estimates the inbreeding in its Jersey population to be around 6.5% - levels which would be unacceptable in New Zealand.

The Ayrshire breed was trending up, like the Jerseys, until the late 1990s when the Finnish Ayrshires began to be imported, and they were sufficiently genetically different to arrest and reverse the Ayrshire upward trend.

Another trend worth monitoring is the percentage of the cow population that has inbreeding levels above the 6.25% threshold - as shown in Chart 2.

As can be seen, DataMate™’s ability to alert the technician to possible inbreeding by issuing a warning in advance of a mating, is playing an important part in limiting the number of inbred cows.

A good way to view inbreeding is that normal sound herd improvement principles result in genetic gain, and inbreeding is a handbrake that slows that rate of gain. The net benefit of genetic gain is around $300 million per year, and the handbrake effect of inbreeding is currently up to $10 million per year.

Percentage of female population where inbreeding ›=6.25% in New Zealand dairy cattle as at Apr-2012

% of population

Inbreeding is the term given to a mating between close relatives. The more closely related two parents are, the more DNA they will have in common and the more inbred their progeny will be.

Chart 1

average inbreeding (%)

PAGE 06

year of birth

Whose responsibility is it to avoid inbreeding?

In selecting young bulls to prove, it is the AB companies’ responsibility to ensure that excessively inbred animals are not purchased for progeny testing.

The mating programme LIC uses to produce the next generation of bulls, takes future inbreeding into account by generating bulls that are not themselves inbred or closely related to the cow population that will be around when the bulls are widely used.

Where frozen Alpha Nominated® semen is used, it is clearly the farmer’s responsibility to ensure inbred matings are avoided. LIC assists customers who use CustoMate Plus, because this programme takes both inbreeding and recessive gene management into account thereby protecting the farmer from these ‘evils’. Alpha Nominated customers who use LIC’s AB Technician service gain protection through DataMate. DIY Alpha clients gain protection too and farmers are able to get an Actuate Inbreeding Report, on request, from their LIC Customer Relationship Manager.

In the case of random matings using liquid semen such as Premier Sires®, LIC believes it is a

LIC AB technician with DataMate unit

shared responsibility of both the AB company and the farmer to avoid inbreeding. The farmer needs to take a responsible attitude to the issue, and the AB Technician must enter cow numbers into DataMate prior to insemination, to enable warnings to be generated.

Many farmers purchase Premier Sires for the ease and convenience of the product, and inbreeding control and deleterious gene management are part of that package.

How does DataMate control inbreeding?

DataMate contains a file of the farmer’s cows, plus three levels of ancestry (if available) for every cow. It also contains a file of bull AB codes plus three levels of ancestry.

DataMate checks the inbreeding percentage of the proposed mating, and a warning is issued if the inbreeding level is greater or equal to 6.3%.

DataMate also contains a record of the Long Last Liquid semen the AB Technician has been issued for the day, and the frozen semen in the bank, so if an inbreeding warning comes up and the Technician selects the ‘better semen available’ option, DataMate will display bull codes of bulls more suitable for use over the cow.

What are the alternatives when the warning comes up?

During the AB Technician pre-run the farmer will be asked what action should be taken if the warning comes up. Options include: • Use the next bull of the same breed in the team.

• Use current bull from other breed.

• Use farmer’s Nominated straw.

• Use Premier Sires backup.

• Ignore warning and inseminate anyway.

The farmer’s preference will be written down on the AB certificate book for reference and followed when the warning comes up. LIC estimates that around 80,000 inbred matings are avoided annually – that’s around two matings per Technician per day.

Semen allocation from LIC Newstead is managed to ensure that wherever possible, in a three day dispatch, the issued bulls will be by two or more sires. This way the next bull on the issue is unlikely to trigger a warning.

PAGE 08

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Harris says LIC will identify variations which are very closely associated with genes “so our prediction power will get very high. Basically in the longer term (10-20 years) it’s likely we’d see every replacement genotyped; that’s close to 750,000 animals every year genotyped for a select number of markers."

EARNING A PLACE IN BOVINE HISTORY Dr Richard Spelman

Dr Bevin Harris

between LIC and Fonterra biotechnology initiative ViaLactia and the sequencing work was boosted by a $10.5 million grant from the Government’s Primary Growth Partnership Fund.

Research aims

KiwiCross bull Scotts Northsea will go down in bovine history, not simply because he was the first crossbred bull to knock purebreds off the top of the Ranking of Active Sires list, but because he was the first bull to be sequenced in New Zealand.

That he was selected for this pioneering work is coincidental. It could have been ‘any of LIC’s top bulls’ but it happened to be an animal which fuelled demand for KiwiCross genetics.

His sequencing took place 11 years after the first human genome, all three billion genetic letters of it, was mapped.

And as he spearheaded a line of great KiwiCross bulls, so too his sequencing preempted LIC embarking on a project which would (at time of writing) sequence 500 bulls and cows creating one of the largest genetic datasets of information in the world.

In contrast to genotyping,

which analyses up to 750,000 markers (or pieces of DNA) across a genome, sequencing reads all three billion base pairs in the genome to identify variations which naturally exist in the national herd ie genes which promote or impede the expression of desired traits.

LIC’s General Manager of R&D, Dr Richard Spelman says “most living animals have between 10 million and 20 million variants in their genome – we ‘just’ needed to find out which ones are important.”

The multi-million dollar seven year research project was enabled through BoviQuest, a collaboration

It is only a little over 10 years since the first human was sequenced. It cost approximately $2 billion and took 10 years to complete. Contrast that with today when humans and cattle can be sequenced for less than $5000 each - and in a matter of weeks.

“The technology is relatively new and the ability to sequence large numbers of animals quickly meant that the first two years of the project were focused on developing a lot of new skills in how to handle, store and analyse sequence data," Spelman said.

“In 2012 we identified the animals that we wanted to sequence and sent their DNA off to the sequencing facility in the United States. That resulted in a deluge of sequence data at the end of last year and the LIC R&D team have been analysing it since then.”

Spelman says one of the objectives of the research is to improve the accuracy of genomic prediction used to select bulls for LIC’s Sire Proving Scheme and also to select bulls for the Forward

Pack team.

“Integrating the sequence data with the 8000 sires and 75,000 cows that have been genotyped is one of the challenges that face the research team. Utilising statistical techniques, the team is endeavouring to transform the genotyped animals to sequence, resulting in nearly 100,000 animals being ‘sequenced’.

“This large number of animals, all with breeding values for the important traits in Breeding Worth (BW), will enable us to identify genomic variations that influence BW. These variations will be placed on the genomic tool that LIC uses to select sires.”

Potential of genomics linked to trait expression Another member of LIC’s R&D team, Science Leader Dr Bevin Harris, says the potential of the genomic tool is linked to how a trait is expressed.

“In dairying the males don’t milk, so you need a prediction of what they’re going to do. So far we’ve used daughter information, but the ultimate would be to use DNA to accurately predict daughter information.

“You need a prediction for any trait which is only expressed in the females.

Hens for egg laying is another example – it’s a function

or trait which doesn’t get expressed in the rooster.”

In five years Harris says LIC will have made considerable progress in identifying DNA markers to provide better genomic predictions “thanks to this sequencing project.”

The co-operative will also be some way toward genotyping all young bulls and ‘cows of interest’, to the point where farmers could use the information on their own cows. This would make replacement selection highly refined and promises to further reduce inbreeding and associated health risks.

Harris says LIC will identify variations which are very closely associated with genes “so our prediction power will get very high.

Basically in the longer term (10-20 years) it’s likely we’d see every replacement genotyped; that’s close to 750,000 animals every year genotyped for a select number of markers.

“It would solve the parentage problem straight away, and give people a good idea of the genetic potential of their animals with better accuracy than we have now.

That’s the end game of all this.”

Discovering the cause of calf defects Another outcome from the sequencing project has been the discovery of variations that cause calf defects.

The first discovery was made early in 2013 with Small Calf Syndrome and Spelman says LIC has since been investigating another 45 variations that have been seen in the sequence dataset which occur in genes and are predicted to have a significant effect on the expression of the gene.

“To be honest, it is absolutely incredible what the sequence dataset is identifying for us. With genomic selection the sequence dataset is like adding another couple of chapters to the book. For calf defects the sequence data is a completely new book and it is fascinating reading.

“We now have these 45 variations that look interesting at the sequence level but don’t know what they do in the animals. We hypothesise that an animal that has two copies of the variation will either die inutero or not be retained in the herd due to some negative trait. To test this hypothesis we have genotyped over 10,000 cows to see if there are any animals that have two copies of the variations that are interesting. In addition, we are also looking at the matings of bulls that have one copy of the variation and

The LIC R&D team involved in the sequencing project Standing L-R Steve Davis (Senior Scientist), Mike Keehan (Senior Bioinformatician), Matt Littlejohn (Senior Scientist), Andrew Scott (R&D Project Manager) Vlad Obolonkin (Senior Scientist), Richard Spelman (R&D General Manager).

Seated L-R Ric Sherlock (Bioinformatician), Frances Creagh (PhD Student), Thomas Johnson (Research Scientist), Tania Law (PhD Student), Thomas Lopdell (Research Statistician).

comparing the number of empty cows resulting when mated to cows with one copy compared to cows that have no copies of the interesting variations.”

Spelman says the research has identified two variations which are being more extensively researched “that look like they cause embryos to be lost in-utero resulting

Q&A

What was the selection criteria for the 500 cows and bulls which were sequenced?

LIC sequenced all the high use sires that have been used over the past 15 years to build up a dataset of all of the variations that exist in the New Zealand dairy herd. In addition, a number of sires and cows that were part of the Friesian-Jersey crossbred trial, undertaken by BoviQuest in the 2000s, were also sequenced. These animals have been measured for many traits and will help LIC scientists identify which variations have an impact on the important economic traits.

What has the sequencing project delivered in terms of genes identified?

The sequencing was completed in early 2013 and the first major discovery from the dataset was Small Calf Syndrome. LIC had been researching this for a number of years and the sequence dataset made it possible to find the variation of interest.

LIC is continuing to harvest the dataset to identify other variations that cause calf defects and also in-utero embryonic losses. The dataset has also been used to identify variations with more subtle effects that increase fat and protein production.

These discoveries have already been shown to improve genomic predictions. Ongoing discovery of variations affecting BW traits, and their integration into selection methodologies, will be a key driver of future genetic gain.

in the cow being empty and which also influence the proportion of calves that are successfully reared. Once the finding has been confirmed LIC will release this information to dairy farmers.

“We expect this will be the first of many variations that will be released over coming years as we are starting a project to investigate more than 3000

What is the value of the work to the dairy industry?

New Zealand Animal Evaluation Ltd has estimated the value of genetic improvement in the New Zealand dairy industry to be worth $300 million per annum. Utilising discoveries from the sequence dataset to increase the accuracy of genomic selection has the potential to increase the rate of genetic improvement by another 5% or an additional $15 million per annum. The management and reduction of variations that cause embryonic lethals, and therefore affect fertility in the national herd, will add even more value to the New Zealand dairy industry.

What’s being done in other countries around the world?

This is the largest sequence dataset in the world for dairy animals. There is a 1000 bovine genome project that is combining sequence data from many countries and many beef and dairy breeds. The LIC project is comparable and is focused on dairy animals that are important to the New Zealand industry.

Does LIC share research findings with other breeding companies/ industries?

LIC openly shares the statistical and bioinformatic approaches used to analyse the dataset enabling learnings from other’s experiences. The discoveries, which will continue to be made for variations that cause calf defects and embryonic lethals, will be shared with other breeding companies and industries. However, any discoveries made to enhance genomic selection will be exclusive to LIC.

interesting variations.

“Utilising this information in the LIC breeding scheme will enable us to increase the fertility and survival of the national herd. Carrier sires for these new variations may be used in the breeding scheme, as LIC has done this year with the continued use of Howies Checkpoint who is a Small Calf Syndrome carrier.

“The rationale for retaining carrier sires is that removing elite sires from the breeding scheme will impact negatively on the rate of genetic gain and may have far greater impact on the financial return to the industry compared to any savings generated by removing the variation from the population."

SIMPLIFYING THE LANGUAGE OF GENETIC RESEARCH The language of genetic research can be as mystifying as the science, so here’s a simple explanation of more common terms:

DNA (Deoxyribonucleic Acid). DNA is the molecule that is the hereditary material in all living cells. It is a large molecule made up of small units called nucleotides strung together in a row making a DNA molecule thousands of times longer than it is wide. Each nucleotide has three parts — a sugar molecule, a phosphate module and a structure called a nitrogenous base which carries genetic information. Genes are made of DNA and so is the genome.

Genome. The genome is an organism’s hereditary information encoded in DNA.

The difference between genotyping and sequencing. Genotyping looks at a defined number of DNA bases, whereas sequencing decodes the entire DNA sequence. In LIC’s case up to 750,000 markers (or pieces of DNA) across a genome from a bull’s DNA sample can help assess its genetic merit.

The bovine genome has around three billion bases, and each cell contains two copies of DNA sequence, one inherited from the dam and one from the sire. A genotype describes the DNA bases present at a specific location in the two copies. Genotyping assesses a certain number (1 to 100,000s) of specific DNA changes.

DNA sequencing reads all three billion base pairs in the genome giving insight to the order of DNA bases, or letters, over a larger area of the genetic code rather than focusing on specific locations. In some cases, sequencing is used to look at the genetic code within a single gene.

DNA sequencing reads the more than three billion letters in the DNA sequence, determines their order, and detects subtle DNA changes, or typos, at almost every position. If the DNA letters change, the words within the gene change sometimes with the instructions they provide.

PAGE 11

Recessive In the diagram on the previous page, the circled link across the DNA molecule has two ends. These ends are called alleles, one labelled A and one B. Most genetic defects in cattle eg BLAD, CVM, and Small Calf Syndrome are recessive. What this means is that both the A and the B end have to be faulty for the defect to show in the phenotype (observable traits) of the animal. If only one end carries the fault, the animal is called a carrier, and will show no symptoms of the condition at all.

Let’s assume the A end is the faulty allele. In the ovaries of the female, when the DNA halves to produce the egg, the resultant egg could have the A allele and be a carrier egg, or have the B allele and be completely normal. The same occurs in the testes of the carrier bull; half his sperm will be carriers (have the A allele) and half will have the B allele and be normal. It is only when the offspring is the result of a carrier egg and a carrier sperm that the offspring will have two of the A alleles, and show the defect.

The mating of two carrier individuals is represented as follows:

Earlier this year American actress Angelina Jolie made headlines when she announced that she had tested positive for a faulty BRCA1 gene, increasing her risk of developing breast and ovarian cancer. She opted to have a preventive double mastectomy to reduce her personal risk.

COW

BULL A B

A new mutation is where an animal has a small difference in its DNA, and that difference was not present in the DNA of either parent. This was the case with the dairy sire Halcyon; neither of his parents carried the mutation. Once formed, however, mutations can be passed on from one generation to another. This was the case with Halcyon who passed the mutation to his son, Matrix.

Where do mutations come from?

There are many causes of genetic mutations: • Radiation. There is background radiation everywhere and this can cause mutations.

Radiation can be deliberately applied to an animal to cause more mutations than would occur naturally.

• Viruses. The presence of a virus at a critical moment of cell division can cause mutations.

• Errors during the formation of sperm (in the testes of the bull) or eggs (in the ovary of the cow).

• Errors when DNA is replicated. Think of this in terms of photocopying, the copy is sometimes not quite as good as the original.

When you look at the complexity of DNA, it is not surprising that small errors can be made during the halving process (meiosis) which occurs in the ovaries and testes.

How common are mutations?

Very. Each human has approximately 100 new mutations, ie small differences in their DNA that were not present in their mother or father. This

Are mutations good or bad?

They can be good or bad, but most are neither.

Most mutations are neutral, ie they don’t have either a negative or positive impact on the animal.

Occasionally the mutation, even though it may be very small, (ie one of the 3.2 billion base pairs is different) will have a large effect. This was the case with Halcyon and his son Matrix. One base pair was different, in a part of the DNA that tells the cell how to make a particular and important protein. So the protein making 'recipe' was slightly wrong.

In the case of Halcyon, the particular protein was important in at least three areas of function of the animal, hair regulation, temperature control, and milk synthesis. Because the protein was not of the normal structure in half of the offspring of Halcyon and Matrix, they had unusual phenotypes — hairy, poor temperature regulation and poor milk production.

Some mutations are beneficial. The easiest example to illustrate this is a butterfly population that relies on camouflage for survival. If a mutation causes a slight change in wing colour that makes that individual more conspicuous, a predator will likely eat it. The mutant DNA is removed from the population. If on the other hand the colour change improves the ability of that butterfly to better disguise itself from predators, it will survive and breed and the DNA change that proved to be beneficial will survive and increase in the population.

These beneficial mutations are part of the natural process of species improvement, or natural selection. In the human timescale, the process can appear slow, but over thousands or millions of years, it is what has powered evolution.

Beneficial mutations tend to be retained within

the population due to better survival characteristics.

These are the ones LIC seeks to multiply through our bull breeding programme. Mutations that cause undesirable characteristics tend to drift out of the population.

In some places along the DNA molecule, variations or differences may cause no noticeable change in the function of the animal at all. In other places, tiny variations along the DNA molecule can cause very important changes between animals.

B

AA AB

AB BB

25% offspring AA

Affected

50% offspring AB – carriers 25% offspring BB – non carriers

Normal

Table 1

How come the LIC Sire Proving Scheme does not identify all recessive defects?

Let’s assume that a recessive defect allele is present in 10% of all cows, and one of the Sire Proving Scheme bulls also carries the defect allele. The Scheme uses around 450 inseminations to generate the 80 daughters in a proof, from about 180 calvings.

In our example, 18 (10%) of these calvings are from recessive carrier cows. Using Table 1, 25% of the 18 will show the defect, ie around four of the births, two females and two males. This is why it is hugely important that Sire Proving Scheme farmers are meticulous record keepers and why, if the recessive defect allele frequency in the cow population is low, the defect in the bull may not be identified in the Sire Proving Scheme.

Dominant

If only one of the parents is a carrier (in this case the bull) all of the offspring will be phenotypically normal, but half will be carriers.

A

BULL B

B

AB

BB

B

AB

BB

50% offspring AB – carriers 50% offspring BB – non carriers

Normal

A dominant defect is one where only one copy of the allele is required for the defect to show its phenotype. Dominant defects are far less common than recessives; LIC has identified only three dominant genetic defects in 60 years of bull breeding. In the simple dominant situation, there are no carriers.

The most recent example of a dominant defect was in the bull Halcyon and his son Matrix. Only one base pair was different in a part of the DNA that tells the cell how to make a particular and important protein. So the protein making ‘recipe’ was slightly wrong. Even though there was only one copy of the

mutation, because it was dominant that was enough to cause the unusual phenotypes – hairy, poor temperature regulation and poor milk production.

When the defect is dominant, and the bull is mated across normal females, 50% of the offspring will show the defect:

BULL (affected) A B B

AB

BB

50% offspring AB

Normal

B

AB

BB

50% offspring BB

Affected

(normal)

(normal)

Table 3 This was exactly the proportions of affected offspring LIC found in the case of Halcyon and Matrix.

Unfortunately the half of Halcyon's offspring that were defective were not noticed by their owners as being significantly abnormal until they were around 2 years of age, by which time Halcyon’s son Matrix had received wide use.

How should our industry better equip itself to handle the increasing knowledge around mutations?

The position around defects is not getting worse.

There will be around the same number as there has always been. It is just that in the past, systems and science didn’t pick most of them up. Systems and science are evolving to the point where we are at last getting a much better handle on mutations and becoming better placed to manage them.

From the farmer’s perspective, the more accurate your records, the better the position you will be in to avoid the cost of wastage from defective calves.

DataMate has served us very well over the last 15 years in the management of inbreeding and defects.

In its current form, it will not be able to cope with the ever increasing complexity of managing mutations.

LIC is working on developing a more powerful DataMate platform to manage the ever-increasing amount of knowledge in this area.

Table 2 Small Calf Syndrome is a recessive defect, ie for a calf to show the small phenotype, both parents must be carriers, and even then, only 25% of the offspring will be small. Three quarters of the calves born to carrier parents will be normally sized.

A

How does LIC protect farmers from carrier to carrier matings of recessive defects?

B

A representation of a tiny fragment of DNA. This fragment contains about 15 base pairs. The complete DNA in each cell contains 3.2 billion base pairs.

LIC tests all its bulls for all known defects for which a genetic test is available. One easy way to avoid carrier to carrier matings is to eliminate all carrier bulls from the bulls we buy and this is what we have done in the case of Small Calf Syndrome.

This, however, is not practical in all cases. As DNA knowledge improves, many more recessives will be discovered, and there will come a time where, if all carrier bulls were removed, we would not be able to field a team of bulls that are non carriers of all known recessive mutations. There has to be another strategy.

If a bull is a carrier of a known defect and in the top one third of his year group, he has a greater chance of being selected as a Sire Proving Scheme bull than if he were lower down the ranking.

Photo: Waikato Times

What is a mutation?

means you are a mutant. Get used to it, it is nothing nasty or abnormal.

A similar number of mutations are likely to be present in every calf. A single mutation can be very small, affecting only one of the 3.2 billion base pairs that make up the DNA of a single cell, or can be larger, affecting a small chunk of DNA.

COW

BRCA1 is a mutated gene, albeit an extreme one.

Every living being has around 100 genes which are ‘different’. Most will never make their presence known.

In the recent past the term ‘genetic mutation’ was associated with an LIC bull called Halcyon and his son Matrix. Here, LIC Genetics Consultant David Sellars gives a layman’s guide to what ‘mutations’ are in the bovine population and what ‘form’ they come in.

A

CVM is a case in point and LIC has marketed some bulls that are CVM carriers provided they have other very desirable characteristics.

Farmers do not normally test their cows for known defects. The DataMate unit used by LIC AB Technicians has all cows of the technician’s round loaded into it, and from the ancestry of the cow’s sire line, we have worked out the chance of that cow being a CVM carrier. If the cow has a greater than 15% chance of being a CVM carrier, and the bull is a CVM carrier, then a warning shows up on the DataMate and suggests an alternative sire.

We have all got used to bull teams containing bulls who are carriers of something or another. The secret is to have your cow identification as accurate as possible, to ensure DataMate is able to accurately provide its protection in your herd.

COW

PAGE 10

Mike Keehan, LIC Senior Bioinformaticist studying pieces of reads of DNA that are meant to be close to each other but that actually seem to come from distant parts of the genome.

PAGE 12

PAGE 13

INVESTING IN THE NEXT GENERATION OF SCIENTISTS

One of the downsides of New Zealand’s relatively small population is a shortage of young people stepping into the quantitative genomics research field and, as a consequence, many of LIC’s current team of geneticists originate from other countries.

Kathryn Hempstalk

In the past, LIC has helped science

students

refine

HEAT DETECTION MADE EASY

and extend their sphere of knowledge through financial support of their PhD studies.

Two

recipients

support

are

Dr

of

this

Richard

Spelman and Dr Bevin Harris both of whom continue to work for LIC – Spelman as

General

Manager

of

L-R Chad Ha

orges rland and Dr Michel Ge

Research and Development and Harris as Science Leader – but there has been a hiatus between their PhDs and now.

It’s a void LIC is addressing through a more concentrated sponsorship

programme,

in part supported by the Government’s

Primary

Growth Partnership Fund.

Richard Spelman says the cutting edge science dataset which has resulted from LIC’s sequencing work is allowing four,

and

possibly

more,

PhD students to undertake

Chad Harland University of Liège in Belgium Chad Harland is studying under the tutorship of one of the foremost livestock geneticists in the world, Dr Michel Georges at the University of Liège. He is primarily looking at the specific question of how many new mutations occur each generation in the bovine genome. This work has been researched in humans and his is the first study undertaken in bovine.

Chad’s PhD will harvest the LIC sequence dataset to understand the basic mechanisms of the genome. It is hoped that this research will give greater understanding of the probability of animals having new mutations which may affect progeny.

Prior to embarking on his PhD, Chad worked for LIC in the GeneMark™ DNA analysis laboratory and as a member of the R&D team.

different fields of study and develop a range of skills which will be invaluable to the dairy industry.

The purpose of a PhD is to allow students who have already

attained

L-R Frances Creagh and Tania Law

Frances Creagh University of Auckland Frances Creagh recently commenced her PhD at the University of Auckland, under the supervision of Professor Russell Snell and Dr Matt Littlejohn. She will use DNA sequence data to look for deleterious (harmful) variations which cause defects in calves or in utero.

Frances will combine sequence data with reports from farmers who have identified animals which have obvious physical defects and then relate those defects to known variations in the genome.

The output of Frances’ study will be an additional pipeline of variations which LIC will use to manage and reduce unfavourable variations in the dairy cattle population.

Before commencing her PhD, Frances worked for two years in the LIC R&D team as a research assistant.

Masters

Tania Law

Degrees to specialise in a topic which has scientific

University of Auckland

credibility and to develop skills that will have a positive impact on the (in this case) dairy industry. Students select their own topics so they have

L-R Professor Dorian Garrick and

Melanie Hayr

a degree of independence to

Melanie Hayr

think freely and conduct in-

Iowa State University in the United States of America

depth research.

The four PhD students LIC is currently supporting are Chad Harland at University of Liège, Melanie Hayr at Iowa State University, and Tania Law and Frances Creagh, both at Auckland University.

Melanie Hayr is based at Iowa State University under Professor Dorian Garrick who is one of the leading livestock quantitative geneticists in the world. Formerly she worked for LIC’s R&D team in New Zealand and is currently completing her Masters ahead of beginning her PhD at the end of 2013.

At this stage her PhD will focus on how to utilise the sequence data to increase the rate of genetic gain through breeding.

Tania Law is six months into her PhD at the University of Auckland, also under the supervision of Professor Russell Snell and Dr Matt Littlejohn. She is looking to gain more knowledge of what has, in the past, been referred to as ‘junk DNA’.

Protein coding DNA makes up 2% to 3% of the three billion base pairs of the genome; whereas the function of the rest of the genome is largely unknown. Until recently this non-coding DNA was known as ‘junk DNA’ because it was thought to have little influence over the way an animal performs. In the last five years, however, scientists have become aware that this DNA has a role in regulating and modifying the expression of nearly all genes in the genome.

Tania will aim to identify functional, non-coding DNA in the bovine genome, and look to relate these regions to important dairy production traits such as the amount of fat and protein produced in milk.

LIC scientist Kathryn Hempstalk was brought up “a world away from cows” as a city girl in Tauranga who enjoyed playing computer games, and she certainly never thought about a career with cows - but four years later, the award-winning scientist has certainly made her mark as the brains behind a uniquely Kiwi automated heat detection system for dairy cows.

Called ProtrackEZHeat®, it is part of LIC’s farm automation systems, and includes a camera that will identify if a cow’s heat detection patch has been activated as she enters the milking shed platform. The camera takes a photograph, and notifies Protrack™ to draft her at the end of milking for artificial insemination.

Kathryn said she likes to think of the system as her baby.

“It is the ultimate noncontact method of heat detection, farmers don’t have to apply extra devices to the cow, just a heat patch above their tail, and the rest is all done in the shed during milking.

“When I came to LIC in 2009, they’d done a bit of work and had a few photographs to go off but it really wasn’t going well at all.

It was a clunky machine that was prone to hardware failure and they were about to scrap

the whole thing until I came along and proved that I could achieve greater accuracy with the same photographs.

“I wrote the algorithm which makes the automated camera (which is a bit like a web cam attached to a computer) recognise an activated or missing heat patch, and had a hand in making the hardware smaller, lighter and more durable. We also made sure the patches were exactly right in terms of stick-ability, patch colour and dye release.

“Most cameras aren’t really designed to work in the cow shed environment and get covered in cow poo all day, but the EZHeat® hardware is built for that purpose, so they’ll last out on the farm.

“These new, improved prototypes were installed on five farms in 2009, and in 2010 a trial at the Lincoln University Dairy Farm with DairyNZ the EZHeat system successfully detected 90%

of cows in the herd as being on heat.

“It detected the same number of actual heats as the farmer, who is arguably one of the best at picking cows on heat, so he was really pleased. Milk progesterone tests were also performed to check the accuracy, and activity collars were put on the same animals too but EZHeat was more accurate, and animals on heat were missed more often by the activity meters.

“There will always be 5-10% of animals you won’t pick because they have silent heats, but if the camera can see the patch and take the photograph, it will make the right decision.”

Arriving at LIC fresh out of university, with a Bachelor of Computing and Mathematical Sciences from Waikato University and a PhD in typist recognition, Kathryn was put straight to work on EZHeat. This turned out to be successful not just for LIC and its dairy farmer customers, but also for herself, as she was recognised for her work by her peers and named ‘Emerging Scientist’ at Waikato’s prestigious Kudos science awards in 2012.

“It was humbling, certainly looking at the other scientists up for awards, and an honour to even be considered for the same category. Also being so young and fresh out of a PhD, it was a big deal and I felt like I made a difference as most emerging scientists tend to be recognised later in their

science careers.

“The previous year a medical scientist won, so I was honoured to be nominated and although I was obviously very proud of my work, I wasn’t overly confident because you really can’t dispute the value medical science makes to society, whereas working on a camera which is labour saving and could save cows' lives if they don’t miss a heat, well, it’s not exactly the same is it – but yeah, I was stoked, but the reality too is that there were a lot of people working on the project.”

Now promoted to a senior scientist with the cooperative, Kathryn has no regrets about her choice of employment.

“My upbringing and study was a world away from cows, but now I work very closely with them. I’d never even really been on a farm, until my first day at LIC and that was a massive learning curve for me.

‘I’m good at programming and problem solving, and I thought I was just going to do computer programming jobs – but now I’m here, I really enjoy what I do; I’m surrounded by so many awesome people here and I’m constantly learning. No regrets.”

LIC’s farm automation manager, Garth Anderson, said it’s nice that Kathryn is so humble, but LIC wouldn’t have EZHeat without her.

“Farmers had asked for a system that makes heat

detection less labour intensive and more automated because it can be a real challenge and a very time consuming task to maintain accurate heat detection

during

mating,

especially with large herds of up to 1000 cows, and it’s a very costly thing to get wrong, too.

“So the idea was that it would work with Protrack Vantage,

which

identifies

the animal in the shed via its electronic ear tag, and automatically drafts her at the end of milking if needed – but it just wasn’t going as well as we had liked.

“Software

development

is all about trials, fails, and fine-tuning,

but

it

wasn’t

good enough. Then Kathryn came on board and pretty much worked it all out.

“She’s one clever cookie, and

she’s

done

a

great

thing for our dairy farming customers.”

Following

the

trial

period and limited release programme to 30 farmers with Protrack, the EZHeat system has continued to be improved and refined over the last 18 months and will be made available to New Zealand

dairy

farmers

in

2014, with the co-operative’s Protrack

Vantage

farm

automation system for rotary cow sheds.

PAGE 14

PAGE 15

MINDA ----- TO THE ----WEB

will be made as required, but any significant changes will be held off and considered for the new platform.

LIC recently began launching mobile ‘apps’ to farmers – why, and will there be more?

A huge range of mobile apps have been released by a large number of organisations around the world in recent years and most have one simple role – to make regular, repetitive tasks easy, so you can do them wherever you are.

We went to farmers and asked what apps you need on farm and the top scorer was calving. It’s a stressful enough

MINDA (Management information for dairy animals) was introduced by LIC in 1985. In those early years, herd records were paper-based becoming electronic in the 1990s. And now MINDA is about to ‘go virtual’ on the worldwide web. What does this mean for farmers?

Before answering that question, it's worth recapping why herd records are so important for today's dairy farming.

We all need or want to stand out from the crowd.

Whether it’s our cows, our children or pets, we need an identifier which aids recognition, or response, and the same goes for dairy cows.

For as long as farmers have been milking cows, they’ve kept records. It’s not that long ago that the size of herds meant many cows had individual names, and scrutiny of herd test reports show a proliferation of names like Alice, Betty and Cindy. But herd recording practices changed as herd sizes grew and as technology evolved, so too did farmers’ desire for an ever-increasing amount of information about their animals.

Today, almost 10,000 New Zealand dairy farmers use MINDA to keep track of their animals, record progress, monitor performance and make informed decisions for each animal.

The system is about to undergo its biggest evolution with all herd and farm information to be hosted in one place, on the internet, at www.minda.co.nz.

The first stages of this evolution are already available, with herd testing

results, pasture management and young stock weights, MINDA smartphone apps and new Protrack systems – but how will it work when all your herd information is on the web, when will that happen, and what does it mean for herd recording in the future?

LIC General Manager Farm Systems, Rob Ford, answers farmer questions.

Why is MINDA moving to the web?

Because it opens up so many opportunities for us to provide a better herd recording service that will deliver more value to your business.

With MINDA on the web, farmers will have access to their information anywhere, anytime, and on any device with an internet connection – even when you’re away on holiday.

Information will move with you, whether it’s by logging in at www.minda.co.nz, or with the MINDA apps which you can expect to see more of as we continue to build the MINDA web platform.

The web also provides a universal platform, so it won’t

time of the year without having to ‘fish around’ for a yellow notebook or dry piece of paper to jot down calvings as they happen. That app was delivered in June.

Next up, farmers want to be able to look up animals wherever they are — on the farm, at the vets — and MINDA Lookup was launched recently.

Plans are underway to deliver more apps to provide you with the most-used parts of MINDA on your mobile device.

With everything going mobile, how can you ensure data integrity?

All MINDA apps integrate

with MINDA on the web, so any data entered is sent to www.minda.co.nz to be checked and approved before updating full herd records.

We eventually intend to make this an optional step, but it will remain as an option so farmers have a chance to check and ensure no mistakes get through into their records, especially where multiple staff are using the apps.

Why didn’t you just replicate MINDA Mobile to other devices?

We could have, but the beauty of apps is that you can choose to download the ones you want, perhaps at

a certain time of year, and they don’t occupy much space on your device with the majority securely hosted at www.minda.co.nz.

Having said that, we are

What mobile phones will LIC apps work on?

Why won’t the latest app work on older Apple or Android devices?

We’ve chosen to develop the apps to work on the most popular mobile devices, and currently around 90% of users have an Android or Apple device, so those are the platforms we’ve chosen. We understand this disappoints farmers with Windows phones but the reality is that, as a co-operative, we have to do what’s best for the majority of our shareholders.

LIC SHAREHOLDER COUNCIL –

YOUR VOICE

LIC General Manager Farm Systems, Rob Ford matter what operating system your computer runs, whether it’s Apple or Windows, because it will work on them all; information can also be shared, while still secure, because you can grant access to other members of staff or advisors, and updates will be much faster and will basically just happen instantly over the internet. So no more waiting for a CD to arrive in the mail, or having to wait for a new version to download over the internet.

When will MINDA move to the web?

It really can’t happen soon enough, and that’s pretty much our motto – but it does come with its challenges and the speed and availability of broadband internet for our farmers is certainly one of them.

We’re aligning this transition to the web with the implementation of the Government’s rollout of broadband to rural areas.

What will MINDA on the web look like?

It’ll have a whole new look and feel with tools that are much more intuitive and easier to use – similar to what you can already see at www.minda.co.nz.

It’ll also be more visual,

in contrast with the lists and screeds of data that many of you will be familiar with.

There’ll be more graphs which present data in a way that is more usable and easier to interpret so you’ll be able to see what you need to know at a glance, with detail available when needed.

Overall it should help you make more informed and effective on-farm decisions.

Will there be any difference for farmers putting data into MINDA? Yes. Data entry will be easier with the new MINDA system and there’ll be a builtin help system which will be carried through all parts of the website, doing-away with the need for a phonebook-sized manual to read; just tips and tutorials where and when you need them.

Will my information be as safe and secure on the web as it is currently?

Absolutely. We have robust systems to protect your data; access to the information will be up to the owner or manager whose name is on the MINDA account.

Have farmers been involved in this move to the web?

Yes. Feedback from farmers plays an important part in everything we do – either direct at events like the Mystery Creek National Fieldays®, through the LIC Contact Centre or sales team.

Once we start development, we have a process which ensures the farmer voice remains loud and clear throughout, so we can make sure we get things right. We hold a number of user groups to seek feedback and also implement testing phases before a product is completed and launched.

We’re grateful for how generous farmers are with their time and advice in this area, and over the years we’ve had tonnes of feedback which we work through to make sure things are built with the farmer in mind.

We can’t do everything though, so as it is on-farm, we have to prioritise to the things which will add the most value to the most farmers.

What happens to MINDA between now and the web?

MINDAPro™ will largely stay as it is as we build the new web-based platform.

Minor improvements and fixes

keeping a close eye on this and would look to change this plan if Windows phone usage dramatically

increased.

Building apps is a costly exercise, and we work hard to spend your money wisely.

The

speed

of

technology

enhancements is incredible, with new models of phones constantly being released the reality is that we cannot afford to build systems for old technology.

PAGE 16

PAGE 17

Insight) for a number of years to not only operate animal evaluation, but to continue to develop and improve the animal evaluation system.

LIC will continue to contribute to the development of animal evaluation. Cow Breeding Worth (BW) is the currency of choice within the New Zealand dairy industry and LIC, NZAEL and DairyNZ are committed to ensuring that BW and the National Breeding Objective continues to reflect the needs of New Zealand dairy farmers.

Will NZAEL produce Cow BW as well as Sire BW?

CORE DATABASE ON THE MOVE

The New Zealand dairy industry is revered around the world for the quality of its farmers, its herds and its database of herd information. At the centre of this herd information system is the Core Database, otherwise known as the National Database. This mine of raw information will move from its creator and custodian, LIC, to DairyNZ in June 2014 – but on-farm, nothing will change.

Today, LIC maintains the Core Database in a custodian role on behalf of the dairy industry. Raw data from all herd testing, mating and calving events is sent to the Core Database by herd records providers, checked against historic records to ensure data integrity, and updated. Access to the core database is governed by an autonomous industry good body known as the Core Database Access Panel.

In June 2014 the ‘Core Database’ will be incorporated into the Dairy

Industry Good Animal Database (DIGAD) under the auspices of industry good body DairyNZ but — from a farmer’s perspective — the changeover will be seamless.

On-farm, raw data will still be sent to their herd records provider. It’s at that point that change happens, with the herd records providers responsible for ensuring completeness and integrity of data before it is sent on to DIGAD. Access to core data in DIGAD will continue to be managed by the autonomous

Core Database Access Panel.

Herd records providers will maintain databases of their customers’ data and, in LIC’s case, this will continue to be added to one of the largest animal databases in the world — the LIC Database — which contains millions of animal records dating back to the 1950s. It’s been said that were this information to be printed onto A4 pages, it would create a mountain taller than Everest. The LIC Database is where LIC Intellectual Property (IP) has been added to raw

data, creating value-added products and services which are delivered back to farmers for use on-farm; things like genetics, MINDA herd and animal reports etc.

The operation of animal evaluation, currently provided under contract by LIC, will also transfer to DairyNZ subsidiary, New Zealand Animal Evaluation Ltd® ® (NZAEL ) in February 2015.

Why is the Core Database moving to DairyNZ? In 2008/2009, DairyNZ convened a review committee, headed by Professor Robert Anderson, to undertake a comprehensive review of the New Zealand dairy industry’s animal database.

The Committee sought and considered submissions from a number of organisations and individuals, and released a range of recommendations, two of which were to transfer the Core Database and animal evaluation function from LIC

to the industry good body, DairyNZ. Since that time, LIC has been in negotiation with DairyNZ, and in August 2013, signed a formal agreement setting out the terms of the transfer of the Core Database from LIC and the licensing of LIC’s IP to DairyNZ to enable DairyNZ to operate and develop the New Zealand animal evaluation system.

What is contained in the Core Database?

The Core Database contains 46 fields of core data prescribed in the Dairy Industry (Herd Testing New Zealand Dairy Core Database) Regulations 2001 and which relate to raw data generated by herd record providers and New Zealand dairy farmers who herd test. The data relates to calving, mating and production events. The Dairy Industry Restructuring Act 2001 regulated LIC to be the custodian of the Core Database with access to raw data made via the

independently appointed Core Database Access Panel.

As custodian, LIC currently carries the entire cost of operating the Core Database.

to the Core Database Access Panel, or reach commercial arrangements with others, to access data that sits outside its database.

How is this different from the LIC Database?

Will LIC be able to access other companies’ core data from DIGAD?

The LIC Database contains many thousands of other fields of non-core raw data and LIC developed and owned derived fields. The transfer of the Core Database to DairyNZ does not affect the LIC Database, which will continue to hold our farmers’ core and non-core data.

Will LIC’s business be impacted by the transfer of the Core Database to DairyNZ? There will be some impacts for LIC, one obviously being that LIC will no longer store all the industry’s core data in its database, and will therefore need to either apply

As it is today, all organisations wishing to access data from DIGAD will have to apply to the Core Database Access Panel, satisfying it that the data will be used to benefit the dairy industry or at least not harm the industry.

Will LIC continue to contribute to the development of animal evaluation?

LIC has traditionally been the research engine behind animal evaluation and has been contracted to DairyNZ (and its predecessor Dairy

The production of Sire BW is dependent upon the production of Cow BW. As a result, NZAEL has agreed to not only produce, but also to distribute to LIC, the cow outputs from animal evaluation relating to LIC enrolled cows. Cow outputs include Cow BW (and Breeding Values), Production Worth and Lactation Worth, which are solely owned by LIC and are currently generated as part of the operation of the animal evaluation system.

This removes the need for LIC to operate a parallel system and independently produce such outputs. This will also ensure that only one version of the national animal evaluation outputs is generated.

Will non-LIC farmers be able to access Cow BW? While LIC retains the exclusive right to provide the Cow BW to its MINDA clients, it also has the right to provide it to other parties on a fee paying basis. NZAEL has agreed to distribute, on behalf of LIC, Cow BW for non-LIC enrolled animals to other parties under terms agreed with LIC.

Why has LIC agreed to provide data for industry good research?

LIC currently provides DairyNZ and others with noncore data for both animal

LINK Keeping you in touch with your Co-operative

evaluation-related and other industry good research. LIC and DairyNZ have taken this opportunity to clarify the data LIC regularly supplies, the purposes for which the data can be used and the conditions on the publication of the outcomes of that research. This will reduce the time spent negotiating agreements with DairyNZ in the future. It is a significant development and major achievement for LIC, DairyNZ and the dairy industry in general that this has been agreed between LIC and DairyNZ and not imposed by regulation, as was sought by some in the industry.

Will the agreement with DairyNZ impact on LIC’s ability to innovate?

No, the agreement is about the transfer of the Core Database and animal evaluation only. The agreement does however explicitly state that LIC can continue to develop its own cow evaluation indices (for example using genomics).

LIC can also use the term gBW (genomic BW) or other derivatives of BW. Notwithstanding any regulatory or legislative changes, LIC will remain free to share data with universities, Crown Research Institutes and other companies in order to conduct research and develop products.

Does the transfer of the Core Database affect the Breed Societies?

The transfer of the Core Database to DairyNZ and the provision of core data directly to DIGAD in the future by other herd record providers, will ultimately result in the data traditionally accessed by the Breed Societies, through LIC, being held in multiple databases. LIC, CRV Ambreed and DairyNZ are fully aware of the impact this could have on the Breed Societies, and are working to find a pragmatic solution that will support the Breed Societies going forward.

is written and produced by LIC to take our shareholders behind the scenes, so you have a greater understanding of what drives your co-operative. Published at six monthly intervals, LINK is mailed to all LIC shareholders and customers. If you would like additional copies for your farm team, let us know. And if you have feedback or suggestions of topics you would like covered in future editions, don’t hesitate to contact us. LIC Communications • Phone 07 856 0700 • communications@lic.co.nz

Brian Aspin

… MEMORIAL …

SCHOLARSHIP Brian Aspin was a passionate dairy farmer with a 38 year association with LIC. He was an AB Technician, an AB Supervisor, Liaison Farmer and a member of the Shareholder Council. He died of cancer in 2011.

Brian’s widow, Alma, has very generously asked for his legacy to LIC and the dairy industry to continue through a scholarship designed to build scientific knowledge which will benefit the dairy industry of the future.

LIC is humbled and privileged to match the $5000 donated by the Aspin family generating a total scholarship of $10,000 per year for two post-graduate students for either Honours or Masters for up to two years study.

Students are required to undertake study at either Massey or Lincoln Universities.

The Scholarship will be administered

by LIC and full details, and application forms, will be available on the LIC website in February 2014.

PAGE 18

PAGE 19

Reproduction Solutions Advisor Amy Horrell with Dunsandel dairy farmer Peter Aitken

CO-OP FOCUS ON COW FERTILITY What’s herd reproduction got to do with LIC? Everything.

A new LIC team, focusing on the reproductive performance of dairy cows, may have raised a few eyebrows with farmers around the country who see the co-operative primarily as a genetics business - but the truth is, since 1909, LIC has been, and is, an organisation focused on enhancing dairy cow performance.

Reproduction Solutions Manager, Greg McNeil.

“I’m often asked about why LIC is in this space,” said Greg McNeil, Reproduction Solutions Manager, “but it’s pretty simple really — LIC is a herd improvement company, that’s our grass roots, and farmers need

good reproductive outcomes to ensure this year’s herd is better than last year’s.

“Farmers need high numbers of AB calves so they can choose to keep only the best, they need a low empty rate so they can cull

poor performers, and we know farmers hate seeing their best 2 or 3 year olds fall out of the herd because they’re empty."

A key measure of reproduction and farm performance is the 6 week

in-calf rate or, in other words, how many cows get in-calf within the first 6 weeks of mating, but with the industry’s target at 78% and the national average around 65%, it leaves a gap that represents dollars — in farmers’ bank accounts and the country’s GDP — and LIC is working with shareholders and the industry to bridge this gap.

“The good news is that there is something farmers can do about all that and it comes down to their 6 week in-calf rate which isn’t a quick win but it can have a big return, even a few small changes can have a big impact on the bottom line of their business.

“We believe we have a shared responsibility to help our farmers achieve improvements and we’re teaming up with farmers, DairyNZ, vets and consultants all over the country to spread the word.”

with genetics, bull selection,

More than ‘just genetics’

principles which may have

McNeil said the work of today’s LIC is wider than it’s ever been, and the formation of the Reproductive Solutions team in 2011 kick-started a refreshed focus for the cooperative, which sees them working collaboratively with industry partners and farmers on both sides of the semen straw to get more of the country’s cows in-calf, quicker.

As one of the largest AB companies in the world, which inseminates threequarters of New Zealand’s dairy cows each year, McNeil says providing the goods to get cows in-calf has always been a vital part of business, and they’re always looking to fine-tune the service and technology to maximise the conception rate on-farm.

“We removed the breed stain from the Long Last Liquid semen diluent this year, after it was found that it could improve the conception rate by 1% on-farm – and that may sound small, but improvements at that rate can have a big impact over years.

“There’s a lot we can do from the bull to the cow

sizes increased.

semen

technology

with

diluents and AB technicians — but in reality we’re on both sides of that straw, and part of the farm’s entire cycle.”

Back to basics On the cow side of the straw is where the team comes in, as they work to bring the basics of cow reproduction back to farming.

They’ve

also

developed

a free programme to help farmers apply a year-round focus

to

improving

reproductive of

their

Week

the

performance

herds.

The

Challenge,

6

which

supports the DairyNZ InCalf programme,

encourages

farmers to enlist support from a trusted advisor, vet, or farm consultant to help them remain focussed and achieve their goals.

McNeil

said

the

programme goes back to the basic herd improvement been

overlooked

as

herd

“Life has changed for New Zealand’s dairy cows since the 1990s, and the reality is if they’re not in optimum condition at mating then they will have trouble getting incalf.

“Some farmers are quick to tell me that nothing has changed on their farm, with the same seasonal pattern and twice a day milkings - but when you talk about herd size, production, stocking rates, bigger cows, higher Breeding Worth, feeding systems and

Seven people with one thing on their minds Growing up on a dairy farm in Woodville, and as a trained dairy cattle veterinarian, Greg McNeil says he’s always had a passion for the dairy industry, and he’s put together a group of like-minded people for LIC’s ‘Reproductive Solutions Team.’

Located around the country, he says the team are working to spread the 'repro' message and provide assistance to farmers and rural professionals where possible.

“We’re all pretty passionate about herd reproduction and spreading the good word about the opportunities that are available from improvements — but it isn’t really about us, it’s about the farmers.

“They are the ones who will make the changes, so they can see the benefits – we’re here to support them and help them get there.”

Having a specialised team for reproduction means they have one thing on their minds, all the time, McNeil said.

“A big part of our job is to provide support, advice and guidance internally at LIC to help staff see the linkages between good reproductive performance and herd improvement, and how it essentially allows our farmers to get the most out of their investment with us.

“That includes LIC’s Customer Relationship Managers all over the country, and providing them with the training and information they need, so they can discuss herd reproduction with their farmers.”

They’re also working to support vets, farm consultants and DairyNZ, and have setup a number of ‘case

study’ farms around the country, with regular meetings held to host other farmers from the area for discussion around the farm’s performance, practices, and any challenges and learnings.

And in this day and age, McNeil said technology can play a part to improve herd reproduction too, and they are providing input into the development of new tools in MINDA so farmers can interpret their own data more easily and identify where they could improve and take action.

A new area in the web-based herd recording programme, called ‘MINDA Reproduction’ is planned and follows the introduction of MINDA Weights last year for young stock rearing and liveweights.

McNeil said tools like these make it easier for farmers to keep track of their herd’s reproductive performance, and interpret their data from a range of information and fertility reports.

The team Greg McNeil, Manager Nicole Priest, Analyst Joyce Voogt, Advisor (Waikato) Jair Mandriaza, Advisor (Waikato) Peter Presland, Advisor (Bay of Plenty) Amy Horrell, Advisor (Canterbury and Upper South Island) Jude O’Neill, Advisor (Otago and Lower South Island)

earlier calving and mating periods, you start to see that a lot has changed.

“Farms have more staff now too, perhaps with less experience in this area – and anyone of these things can place increasing pressure on the cow to perform, produce, and can impact on her ability to get in-calf at mating time.

“Performance may have only slipped slightly each year but when you multiply that by 20 years, you’ve got a problem and that’s where many farms are

today,

whether

realise it or not.”

they

Understanding the repro lingo Six week in-calf rate: Cows that became pregnant in the first 6 weeks of mating.

Target = 78% Three-week submission rate: Cows that received at least one insemination or mating in the first 3 weeks. Target = 90% Conception rate: Inseminations that resulted in a pregnancy. Target= 60% Empty rate: Cows that failed to become pregnant by the end of a mating period (or not-in-calf rate).

PAGE 20

PAGE 21

SHAREHOLDER FORUM Each year LIC invites shareholders to visit Newstead for what’s known as the ‘Shareholder Forum’ – an opportunity to go behind the scenes and learn more about their co-operative. Two Forums are held each year – one in November, the other in March, so shareholders can choose a time which suits them best.

In November 90 shareholders spent two days with LIC, many saying highlights included seeing a semen collection, tour of LIC’s 260ha bull farm and the Diagnostics laboratory.

The camera was out to capture a few shareholders with their host Regional Managers.

NORTHLAND: L-R Ian Douglas, Graeme Edwards, LIC Regional Manager Nick de Ridder and Tim Douglas

DAY IN THE LIFE OF A COW TOLD THROUGH TECHNOLOGY

The next forum is scheduled for March 2014. Any farmers interested in attending should speak with their LIC Customer Relationship Manager.

WEST WAIKATO: L-R LIC Regional Manager Stu Davidson with Kelvin and Judith Reeves

EAST WAIKATO: L-R LIC Regional Manager Jon Lee with Sharon and Graeme Martin, Geoff Ralph and Jocelyn Everest

New Zealand’s dairy cows live a relatively simple life – eating, making milk, calving, mating and drying off – but the availability and evolution of farm technology is allowing greater insight into what a cow experiences as she goes about her day, because those events ultimately have an impact on her production and her health.

BOP/SOUTH WAIKATO: L-R LIC Regional Manager Lester Deighton with Dean Peterson

UPPER SOUTH: L-R Geoff Lindsay with LIC Regional Manager Nathan Robinson and David Lindsay

TARANAKI: L-R Margaret and Allan Ryan with LIC Regional Manager Tracey Polson

CENTRAL SOUTH: L-R Geoff Baker with LIC Regional Manager Robyn Bennett

WELLINGTON/HAWKES BAY: L-R LIC Regional Manager Colin Barriff with Elise and Clarence Stolte

LOWER SOUTH: L-R Grant Taylor and Mark Hamill with LIC Regional Manager Grant Jackson

LIC is undertaking a project on its 104ha Innovation Farm to gain these insights.

The 340-cow herd was recently fitted with noninvasive sensors - a rumen bolus in one of the cow’s stomachs to measure core temperature, and a lightweight pedometer around her neck to measure movement and walking distance.

Data is also sourced from other on-farm technology which records production, milking order, signs of oestrus, milk temperature, weather, and paddock location.

Dr Richard Spelman, LIC’s General Manager of Research and Development, said the amount of information collected is fascinating,

particularly over mating time.

“It tells a great story of what a cow gets up to in a day, especially during mating when we know the behaviour changes if she is on heat.

“For any cow in the herd, at any time, we can see when her temperature spiked in her core and in her milk, how far she’s walked in a day, how much milk she produced, what place in the herd she was milked and if her heat detection patch had been activated – and it’s all automated by products which are already on the market for farmers.

“A lab was setup at the farm so we could collect milk samples from every cow, at every milking during mating. These samples were

frozen and will eventually be tested for hormone levels, comparing those results with what our heat detection methods told us, and generally evaluated with the other data collected on that day.

“The data we’re collecting from the cows is just part of the information we’re gathering at the Innovation Farm providing a wealth of information that will ultimately help to guide future development of new products and services for our farmers.”

Technology on-farm: • Accelerometer around each cow’s neck • Rumen bolus in one of the cow’s stomachs • Farm weather station

• Inline milk meters on each bale of the 34 rotary shed • Protrack Vantage farm automation system • EZHeat automated heat detection camera • MINDA • EZLink™ herd testing • GPS collars on two cows, to report location every four hours

Data collected about every cow in a day: • 96 temperature measurements (one every 15 minutes) • Two Protrack EZHeat photographs (one in the morning, one in the afternoon), and any oestrus events automatically determined from these • Thermal images (two at each milking, one looking at the cow’s back, the other pointed at the vulva) • Hourly step totals (offloaded from the pedometer at each milking) • Two sets of milking data - one set per milking,

containing: yield, fat %, protein %, flow rates and conductivity for that milking • Cell count measurement at, approximately, every second milking • Milking order and time (at every milking) • Milking duration • Mating events (if any for this animal) • Location for two cows which have GPS collars, reported every four hours

Also record: • Daily weather from a weather station on farm (rainfall, temperature, soil moisture, soil temperature) • NIWA weather daily summaries • Cow shed temperature and humidity • Pasture covers on a weekly basis • Supplements fed to the cows • Fertiliser/effluent application on farm • Fonterra milk records (daily vat composition and milk yields)

PAGE 22

PAGE 23

STRATEGIES FOR CROSSBREEDING

DAVID CHIN, LIC Lead Key Accounts Manager

There are many herds in the country that are highly crossbred with a wide variety of cows in them, from Jersey cows (J16), first cross cows (F8J8) to Holstein-Friesian cows (F16). This is more accentuated with new herds where lines of cows have been purchased on the market and trade-offs have been made between the type of cow (breed composition) and the quality of cow (genetic merit).

In my job I often get asked 'what sort of cow should I be breeding' and this is always followed by 'how do I breed for that sort of cow'. For instance, in the South Island, there is generally a preference for a three-quarter Holstein-Friesian cow (F10 to F12), but breeding a F10 to F12 cow is not a straightforward task especially on a big farm and when your herd has a large variation of breed 16ths.

When putting a breeding plan in place you want to consider a number of things:

1. Liveweight of the herd and liveweight per hectare I t is really critical to understand the liveweight profile of your herd and what the implications are if you start down a particular breeding path. For instance if you start breeding a more HolsteinFriesian style cow, you’ll be adding more liveweight per cow and after three or four years you would have added a considerable amount of liveweight per hectare to your farm; and this will require changes to either your stocking rate or your feed budget. This is compounded by the fact that you’ll want to increase the genetic merit of your herd and the productive performance of the herd at the same time, and all factors will require more feed.

he quickest way to get a gauge on your T liveweight is to look at your Herd Breeding Values (BV) Averages Report and look at the liveweight BV for your herd and yearlings (add 503 kg to the BV and this is the genetic liveweight of your herd). Comparing the herd liveweight BV with the yearling liveweight BV will give you a trend for where your previous breeding decisions have taken you.

2. Compactness of breed split aving a tight breed profile has massive H advantages for a number of reasons. The main one for me is the management of young stock.

Grazing young stock is so much easier with an even line of animals. If there is only 30kg difference between the genetic liveweight of your lightest and heaviest calves the grazier has an easier time managing them. If there is 100kg difference (which is very common) then the grazier has a much bigger challenge on his or her hands, especially if all the calves are run together.

3. What sort of cow suits your current farm system and future farming goals? his sounds simple, but walk into the paddock T where your cows are and write down the numbers

of the cows you like milking – pick 10 cows. Go back to the MINDA records and look at their breed 16ths, Breeding Worth and Production Worth and see if there is a pattern. At this point it is useful to remember that 50% of the hybrid vigour is still preserved if you put a crossbred bull over a crossbred cow. So if hybrid vigour is an important part of your breeding plan, KiwiCross bulls still play a significant role.

Once you have sorted out the type of cow you want to breed, you need to put a mating plan together.

In the following scenario, I’ll take a fairly standard crossbred herd and put a plan in place to generate a tight line of calves that average F11J5.

• Mating a Holstein-Friesian cow (F16) to a Jersey sire (J16), the resulting calf will be a F8J8.

that are F12 to F16 to KiwiCross sires. The resulting progeny group are provided in Table 2.

The progeny group is still distributed across a number of breed 16ths but it is a lot tighter around

the type of cow that we want to milk. The use of two bull breeds is essential to achieve this.

In summary, before putting a breeding plan together, make sure you understand where your

Table 1

Table 2

Distribution of Herd in F16ths

Expected Distribution of Calves

120

120

100

100

80

80

60

60

40

40

20

20

0

0

herd is at now in terms of liveweight and spread of breeds and then think carefully about the type of cow that suits your farming system and do this by consulting your MINDA and herd test records.

1

2

3

4

5

6

7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 Breed F16ths

Mate these cows to Holstein-Friesian Sires

0

0

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Breed F16ths

Mate these cows to KiwiCross Sires

• Mating that F8J8 cow to a Holstein-Friesian sire will result in an F12J4 calf. So it takes two generations to get close to our ideal cow.

• The other way to get there would be to mate our Holstein-Friesian cow (F16) to a KiwiCross sire (J8F8). This will result in a F12J4 calf in only one generation.

So for a herd with a breed distribution like the herd in Table 1, the mating plan I would recommend to get to an F11 progeny group would be to mate cows J16 to F11 to Holstein-Friesian sires and cows

Disclaimer Livestock Improvement Corporation Limited (“LIC”) has made all reasonable efforts to ensure that the information in this publication is as accurate and up-to-date as possible. The information is provided in good faith with no guarantee as to the accuracy or currency of any information, and LIC its employees, agents, and all other persons associated with the compilation, writing, editing, approval or publication of, or any other kind of work in connection with, the information: 1. disclaim any and all responsibility for any inaccuracy, error, omission, lateness or any other kind of inadequacy, deficiency, or flaw in, or in relation to, the information; and 2. without limiting (1) above, fully exclude any and all liability of any kind, on the part of any and all of them, to any person or entity that chooses to rely upon the information.

The information provided in this publication is only intended to be general information. It is not intended to take the place of other sources of information available to you regarding your business and before acting on any information you should take specific advice from qualified professionals.

Reference to any specific commercial product, process, or service whether by trade name, trademark, manufacture, or otherwise does not constitute an endorsement or recommendation by LIC.

PAGE 24

There is no better time than Christmas to say thank you for choosing to deal with LIC during 2013, and we look forward to working with you in 2014.

The LIC team wishes you, your families, and all those essential to your happiness and prosperity a safe and very merry Christmas.

URGENT CONTACTS FOR LIC OVER THE CHRISTMAS HOLIDAY BREAK LIC officially closes for business at midday on Tuesday, 24 December and reopens on Friday, 3 January 2014.

However, farming’s a 7 day a week business, so if you need to contact us at any time over the Christmas break, don’t hesitate to ring the appropriate person, listed below.

AB AB Field Operations Manager, Colin Corney 027 520 3320

Contact Centre 0800 264 632 Monday, 23 December 7.00am-5.00pm Tuesday, 24 December 7.00am-12.00 midday

0454 12/13

Wednesday, 25 December CLOSED

Thursday, 26 December CLOSED

Customer Relationship Managers

Friday, 27 December 8.00am-5.00pm

NORTH ISLAND Northland

Monday, 30 December 8.00am-5.00pm

Regional Manager, Nick de Ridder 027 492 2839

Tuesday, 31 December 8.00am-5.00pm

East Waikato

Wednesday, 1 January CLOSED Thursday, 2 January CLOSED Friday, 3 January 8.00am-5.00pm Normal hours resume on Monday, 6 January 2014 Mondays to Thursdays 7.00am-9.00pm Fridays 7.00am-6.00pm

Outside Contact Centre Hours MINDA synch and animal identification issues Farm Systems Support Manager, Eileen Healey 027 270 2126

North Island Sales Manager, Neville Maindonald 027 442 2258 Bay of Plenty/South Waikato Regional Manager, Lester Deighton 027 681 1270 West Waikato Regional Manager, Stu Davidson 027 495 8082 Taranaki Regional Manager, Tracey Polson 027 442 3559 Wellington/Hawkes Bay Regional Manager, Colin Barriff 027 233 2059 SOUTH ISLAND All South Island enquiries should be directed to Field Assist, Diane Swain 027 705 0054

Farms

Herd Testing

NEWSTEAD, RUKUHIA AND MANAWATU Farm Manager, David Hale 027 270 8194

All Depot numbers will be manned during the Christmas period Northland 09 435 5681 Bay of Plenty 07 308 7268 Waikato 07 889 6778 Taranaki 06 755 9057 Wellington/Hawkes Bay 06 357 5591 Upper South Island 03 344 0470 Southland 03 213 5200

FarmWise® 0800 FarmWise

Diagnostics – GeneMark™ and Animal Health Diagnostics Manager, Geoff Corbett, 027 207 3980 or Diagnostics Operations Manager, Garry Udy 027 270 5602

General and Media Queries Communications Manager, Clare Bayly 027 499 8862

Protrack Support Specialists 0508 PROTRACK

Genetics

Share Registry

General Manager Genetics, Peter Gatley 027 488 4617

Manager Shareholder Engagement, Pauline Hodges 027 271 3531