Meat wellness, well done
Newly published research shows overseas consumers have a strong interest in improving their wellbeing through eating red meat, highlighting opportunities to achieve a premium for products with proven health benefits.
Hot, muggy conditions this year were a pointed reminder to dairy farmers to breed animals more tolerant of facial eczema (FE) and more resistant to the disease long-term, says CRV Ambreed.
The company’s genetic development strategist Phil Beatson says R&D in the past four years by its staff and AgResearch allow identification of FE-tolerant bulls.
Sires now entering CRV Ambreed’s progeny test programme are challenged for FE tolerance, and targeted genetics are available to help farmers beat the disease long-term.
Beatson says the firm’s genetics for dairy cattle will typically breed offspring that are 25% less reactive to a FE challenge than an average bull.
“It isn’t an overnight fix though. A dose of facial eczema tolerant genetics this season will help minimise the loss of milk production in the progeny in years to come,” Beatson said. “Farmers need to consider the genetic option to combat facial eczema, and they need to get on the bus now and stay on that bus.”
Cattle in many parts of the North Island and upper South Island were hit by FE this year. Higher humidity increased the number of toxic spores in pastures and resulted in a spike in the number of FE cases.
Clinical cases of FE are easy to spot; skin loss and lethargy are clear signs. In extreme cases FE may cause an animal’s skin to fall off and even kill it. But invisible subclinical symptoms cost the dairy industry more through the loss of milk production.
FE tolerance is a heritable trait and the right breeding programme can reduce the severity of the disease CRV Ambreed says.
Sheep farmers have shown the dairy industry how the disease can be addressed long-term: sheep today are up to six times more tolerant to a FE than sheep were 30 years ago.
A vet is calling for all animals to be vaccinated against a new strain of leptospirosis (lepto) discovered on New Zealand dairy farms in recent years.
Two major red meat sector projects are getting up to a combined $1.7 million in funding from the New Zealand Meat Board (NZMB).
Angus Barr and Tara Dwyer of The Wandle, Lone Star Farms in Strath Taieri have been named the Regional Supreme Winners at the Otago Ballance Farm Environment Awards in Dunedin.
OPINION: The distress that the politicians and bureaucrats are causing to the people of Wairoa and the wider Tairāwhiti is unforgivable.
Dairy
Rural banker Rabobank is partnering with Food Rescue Kitchen on a new TV series which airs this weekend that aims to shine a light on the real and growing issues of food waste, food poverty and social isolation in New Zealand.