Can we breed better cows?

Associate professor Jon Hickford, Lincoln University, says to create new and unique dairy products New Zealand must improve the diversity of its dairy herd, probably using the genes sitting there now. 

You can’t make genetic gains unless you’ve got diversity, he says. And he points to the need to breed traits into our cows to ensure they cope with the changing environment in which they are farmed.

“Currently one of the biggest problem is the distances cows have to walk on bigger farms. These farms are more efficient economically but the cows are walking vastly longer distances and I don’t think we are yet breeding genetics that can cope with that. 

“We’re breeding genetics in Waikato, for example, for herds that walk only a couple of kilometres a day at most. But when they go to Canterbury and Southland they are walking 10-15km a day and I don’t think we have got our heads around that one yet.”

Hickford also sees an issue with lameness and mastitis, and he questions how cows can cope on hilly terrain on which some are farmed. He’s not sure how well some will cope with the present genetics. “But I don’t want us to move away from having that BW base and using that to give us the production.”

Hickford points out to his students that the cow has not changed much over centuries compared with, say, the dog.

“I tell my students… we have Chihuahuas right up to Alsatians and Great Danes. Dogs are effectively common wolves and the genes are identical but we have bred that diversity by mating fathers to daughters and doing that sort of thing. It’s had a genetic cost but we’ve got a huge amount of diversity.”

Hickford says it’s possible similar diversity may well be in cows as well.

“There are possibly traits sitting there we never thought about that we might need in the future that we can draw into our industry. Our industry is very homogeneous with dominance by Holstein Frisian genetics and it’s working. 

“But maybe as markets shift we need a little bit more diversity. Take for example the Guernsey cow. The milk is yellow and you get a lot more butterfat with the Guernsey. But there may be a market opportunity there that one-size-fits-all genetics and breed can’t provide.” Hickford says if New Zealand is to go down a pathway of differentiated and unique branded products  and move away from bulk commodity trading, we may have to see what some new genetics can offer.