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IT’S A day-on, day-off working week for New Zealand’s best ever artificial breeding bull Howies Checkpoint. Farmers are lining up to use the ‘once-in-a-lifetime’ bull in the upcoming dairy mating season, but LIC says it has to make sure he doesn’t get worn out.
LIC’s general manager genetics, Peter Gatley, says the KiwiCross bull will mate more than a quarter of a million cows this spring.
“That’s a big workload for any bull but it’s made possible by using our fresh semen technology which delivers 10 times the number of straws as conventional frozen,” Gatley says.
“We are doing our best to ensure that every farmer who signs up for the KiwiCross team gets a fair share of him.”
Through the spring mating period, Checkpoint will be collected every second morning on LIC’s Newstead bull farm, creating up to 5000 straws of fresh semen to be inseminated into cows all over the country the following morning.
A bull as good as Checkpoint only comes along once in a lifetime, but we have to balance the temptation to overuse him, says Gatley.
“One of the challenges we have is to provide a variety of different bloodlines needed for genetic diversity. It’s been 40 years since the country has had a sire [like Checkpoint].”
The bull has a breeding worth (BW) of 327 (83% reliability), 60 BW ahead of the second placed sire Fairmont Mint Edition, also from LIC.
The average BW of the KiwiCross Daughter Proven team is 241 – 20 higher than the Holstein Friesian and Jersey teams.
Gatley says Checkpoint is 9/16 Holstein Friesian and is strong across all traits. He is a result of an LIC contract mating with a past top bull, Shalendy Amorous, and one of the best cows in New Zealand, the product of the GeneRate embryo programme.
When he was born, DNA analysis identified his elite status, but it was his daughters who proved just how good he really is when they came into milk in 2011.
“Sometimes an offspring will end up with an extraordinary selection of the best genes, surpassing both parents, and that is what’s happened here,” Gatley says.
LIC chief executive David Chin says meeting the revised methane reduction targets will rely on practical science, smart technology, and genuine collaboration across the sector.
Opening a new $3 million methane research barn in Waikato this month, Agriculture Minister Todd McClay called on the dairy sector to “go as fast as you can and prove the concepts”.
The Government has announced it has invested $8 million in lower methane dairy genetics research.
The first calves of a new crossbred dairy-beef offering are now on the ground at a Pamu (Landcorp) farm near Taupo.
Academic and former Fonterra director Nicola Shadbolt has been elected as LIC director.
Acclaimed fruit grower Dean Astill never imagined he would have achieved so much in the years since being named the first Young Horticulturist of the Year, 20 years ago.
The Ashburton-based Carrfields Group continues to show commitment to future growth and in the agricultural sector with its latest investment, the recently acquired 'Spring Farm' adjacent to State Highway 1, Winslow, just south of Ashburton.
New Zealand First leader and Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters has blasted Fonterra farmers shareholders for approving the sale of iconic brands to a French company.
A major feature of the Ashburton A&P Show, to be held on October 31 and November 1, will be the annual trans-Tasman Sheep Dog Trial test match, with the best heading dogs from both sides of the Tasman going head-to-head in two teams of four.
Fewer bobby calves are heading to the works this season, as more dairy farmers recognise the value of rearing calves for beef.
The key to a dairy system that generates high profit with a low emissions intensity is using low footprint feed, says Fonterra program manager on-farm excellence, Louise Cook.
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