Rewarding farmers who embrace sustainability
Winners of DairyNZ’s Sustainability and Stewardship awards in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards have their eyes firmly fixed on progressing a positive future for New Zealand dairy.
DairyNZ received the award for its Improving Dairy Fertility Genetics research project.
The project determined new ways to select inherently fertile cows and has demonstrated that genetic selection for cow fertility will improve herd reproduction.
“It is tremendous to receive this award recognising the value of the research,” said project co-leader Dr Susanne Meier.
The Improving Dairy Fertility Genetics project used a genetics approach to achieve herd reproduction targets by increasing the fertility breeding value’s accuracy.
“The ability of cows to become pregnant each year to calve in a seasonally concentrated period is critical to the profitability and sustainability of New Zealand’s pasture-based systems,” Meier said.
The second phase of the research is currently underway, focusing on validating the results of the study on a larger scale.
“When we get that validation, we can recommend the industry use the puberty trait and other novel measures for better fertility,” said project co-leader Dr Chris Burke.
The work is part of DairyNZ’s Pillars of a new Dairy System research, which is funded by both DairyNZ and the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE).
Further support has been given by AgResearch, Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), CRV Ambreed and AbacusBio.
