New tool helps commercial sheep farmers source best-fit genetics

IMAGE: The work is ongoing to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our pastoral sector and one of the more exciting developments is the identification of low methane genetics in sheep.

With ram buying season upon us, Beef + Lamb New Zealand Genetics has launched a new tool to help commercial farmers find the best rams for their operation.

WORDS BY DAN BRIER, BEEF + LAMB NEW ZEALAND’S GENERAL MANAGER FARMING EXCELLENCE

Dan Brier, B+LNZ’s General Manager Farming Excellence, says nProve will ultimately replace the old SIL tools FlockFinder and RamFinder and unlike SIL, which is primarily aimed at ram breeders, nProve is a tool that all commercial sheep farmers and ram breeders can use. “It is essentially a web-based tool that helps commercial farmers identify breeders making progress in traits important to them.” By using a series of buttons and slider scales, farmers can identify exactly what they want from their ram team and nProve will generate a list of breeders whose rams tick those boxes. “Our tag line is ‘Discover genetics fit for your purpose’ and this is exactly what nProve does.” Dan says nProve uses the wealth of objective data that stud breeders feed into the worldleading genetic engine and turns it into information that commercial farmers can use to drive the productivity and profitability of their sheep flocks. It is free to use and there is no need to register. “Feedback from farmers who have tried the tool has been really positive. They have found it easy to use and it is fun to have a play, tinkering with the sliders to prioritise different traits and experimenting to see which breeders nProve comes up with.” He encourages farmers to engage with their breeders and discuss what they need from their genetics in their particular environment and farm system. “Ram breeders should be at least a couple of generations ahead of their commercial clients and so they are well-placed to help their clients move in the direction they want to go.” Dan says genetics are critical for sheep farmers operating in an increasingly complex environment. “Farmers have to meet the needs of consumers both locally and internationally as well as maintain a social license to operate and comply to a raft of government regulations.” Recent research by Dr Bradley Case at Auckland University of Technology (AUT) has shown that NZ sheep and beef farmers are close to being carbon neutral, due to the woody vegetation on their farms off-setting between 63% and 118% of their agricultural emissions. “This study reinforces that NZ’s red meat is amongst the most sustainable in the world and it could potentially give our farmers and exporters a competitive advantage with our consumers.” While this is great news for the sector, Dan says work is on-going to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from our pastoral sector and one of the more exciting developments is the identification of low methane genetics in sheep. “This means Kiwi farmers are the first in the world with the ability to breed low methane sheep.” A research breeding value for methane emissions was launched in November 2019 and was the outcome of a 10-year breeding programme funded by the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGGRC) and the New Zealand Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Research Centre. Scientists identified a 11% per unit of feed eaten difference in methane emissions between high and low emitting flocks, but most importantly, it appears there is a no difference in the health, productivity or profitability between low or high emitting sheep. “In fact, there was more lean growth, carcass yield and wool production in the low methane sheep without any negative trade-offs. We also confirmed that methane emissons are heritable which is allowing a breeding value for the trait to be incorporated into SIL.” Stud breeders have been embracing the opportunity to measure the methane emissions in their stud animals through AgResearch’s portable accumulation chambers. Each animal spends 50 minutes in the chambers twice within a 14-day interval. The resulting measurements are used to calculate a methane breeding value. Breeders will pay for the measurements and for a short time, the Pastoral Greenhouse Gas Research Consortium (PGGRC) is providing a 50% cost off-set for eligible breeders. PGgRc is encouraging stud breeders to take the opportunity to have their rams measured and to start making use of the breeding value.

Dan Brier Beef + Lamb New Zealand’s General Manager Farming Excellence