Agriculture and Forestry Minister David Carter said today $20 million would be split between the New Zealand Forest Owners Association, the Foundation for Arable Research and the New Zealand Merino Company (NZMC) reports The ODT. At slightly over $15m, NZMC will get the lion’s share of the funding, and with their own funding input included, the three government-industry partnerships will be worth over $45m.The government funds will be received over five to seven years and Mr Carter said the economic spin-offs could amount to billions of dollars “if the proposals’ scientific and market research and product development are brought to fruition”.

“These proposals are of a very high quality, and stand to deliver enormous returns on investment,” he said.”When the PGP was launched in September last year, the aim was to transform great ideas into research, development, and ultimately products, jobs and growth.”Since then, industry participants have been working hard at refining business plans to provide evidence of how their proposals will add significant value to the New Zealand economy.”

Seven other organisations have to date gained funding under the PGP, which was set up after a $190m commitment from the Government in last year’s budget.

He talked to about 100 stud and commercial farmers, as well as beef industry stalwarts, at a Beef Expo celebratory breakfast, in Feilding, last week reports The Manawatu Standard.Professor Goddard said EBVs work, but there are unknown factors.”We know how EBVs work. But the genes that contribute to them – we don’t know.”He said there were many genes that contribute to factors such as growth rate, meat yield, and fertility, for example, but only one for colour.As if that is not enough of a problem, when it comes to beef breeds, markers need to be relevant across many breeds.

“The problem is that we are measuring a marker, not the actual gene that causes the effect. The marker might be a good predictor for the gene in Hereford, but not in Angus.”Prof Goddard said that means markers have to be really close to the causative gene, that way they have more chance of working in other breeds.People buying bulls for commercial use don’t need to know about DNA at all, he said, rather they could just buy based on EBVs as they do now.”But for stud breeders, they have to decide whether it is worth getting DNA tests for their bulls or cows in order to get more accurate EBVs.”

Getting DNA tests could allow breeders to ascertain whether an animal is good far earlier than usual, Prof Goddard said.”If you want to select a bull whose daughters are fertile, for example, at the moment you have to do a progeny test on the bull and that takes years. Whereas the DNA test is available at birth, so if you had a good test for female fertility, you could select bulls for that when they were calves.”"At the moment, tests are about $200. Our calculations say if it was reasonably accurate, that would be worthwhile.”He was hopeful the cost would come down as the test becomes more common in the future.

From the Livestock Improvement Corporation’s (LIC) website, the dairy industry is using DNA results to come up with better dairy cows.

Dr Ledgard said the 1.9kg of CO2-equivalent produced for each 100g portion of lamb exported to Europe, was “broadly consistent with other international studies of products derived from farmed, ruminant livestock reports The ODT. His study found 57% of the sheep carbon footprint was generated by the natural process of animals utilising pasture and producing methane during digestion, but it was a figure that has been decreasing.

Our analyses showed that this component of the carbon footprint has decreased by over 20% during the past 15 years, as farmers have made large gains in efficiency of converting pasture to meat.” Dr Ledgard said in an interview the survey allocated emissions from a typical mixed sheep and beef farm and also took into account wool production. The study would help meat companies satisfy carbon footprint questions from customers, and provide a starting point for sheep farmers about to face an emissions trading scheme.

A recent report on the dairy industry concluded that total emissions from NZ dairy farms were substantially lower than those in Europe, and a Fonterra-commissioned report found the life-cycle carbon footprint of New Zealand ingredient and consumer dairy products was 940g for each litre of milk. Dr Ledgard was part of a team which compared the energy and greenhouse gas efficiency of NZ farming systems with those in Europe.

The team concluded that NZ was more efficient, even taking into account shipping products to Europe, which only contributed 10% of the total energy use.The study warned that intensification of dairy farming risked diminishing NZ’s comparative advantage. Dr Ledgard’s study showed that most gains from reducing emissions would come from the most complex task, that of changing the natural biology and behaviour of animals.

“Dr Jones is booked years in advance, so having her speak for a whole morning at the ”Farming Soils – Starting Today” workshop is a real honour,” she said. “She will be talking about the big picture; how the carbon, nitrogen and water cycles are intrinsically linked.  I think farmers will respect her years of experience working with landholders to restore water balance, increase biological activity and improve productivity”.

Ms Prew said all the speakers at the two-day conference are well versed in sustainable farming, including farmers who had made the switch to innovative soil-based production. “The aim of the workshop is to empower the farmer with enough knowledge to make the best decision to suit his own farming system. Integrity Soils will be giving a farmer-friendly, in-depth explanation of the simple on-farm score-card system for assessing soils. Landcare Research will be talking about greenhouse gas emissions and soil carbon issues.”

Ms Prew said the workshop will give participants all the information they need to start farming their own soils. “It really is a one-off opportunity for South Island farmers to access a high level of expertise in biological farming which is not often brought together, especially in the far south.” Co-organiser Ray Annan, from Sustainable Growing Solutions, said he had been working with different farming industries for seven years in Otago and Southland.

“I’ve seen outstanding results in my work with dairy farmers, beef and sheep farmers and vineyards. Once you get the soil working for you, everything else starts falling into place. Stock temperament and health improves, fertiliser use is enhanced, and soil structure and depth is improved. The water holding capacity of the soil is also increased, reducing water run-off and taking the pressure off rivers and streams.”

Data was collected on nearly 50,000 cattle from 18 Iowa feedlots over eight years, to 2009. Using a six-point scoring system, calves were grouped into three categories – docile (DC), restless (R) and nervous to very aggressive (NVA). Calves in the study had similar arrival weights, but the DC and R calves were on average 10 days younger than the NVA calves. DC calves made up for their age, gaining 1.45kg/day compared with NVAs 1.36kg and outweighing them by 17.69kg in final liveweight.

Mr Fike said docile calves ate more and gained weight faster as they were spending more time feeding and did not react to every disturbance.The gains were also reflected in the carcass. There was a 30.7-point difference in marbling score between the most and least docile cattle. After accounting for quality, yield, cost of grain, death, loss and treatment costs, the DC calves showed an average profit of $46.63 per head, while NVA calves made $7.62.

The plant was introduced in the United States in the 1930s to minimise soil erosion. Adding the patented dry hay and pelleted forms of this plant to animal feed thwarts the reproductive cycles of gastrointestinal nematodes that are in the digestive tracts of goats and sheep. It is particularly effective in controlling the barber’s pole worm (Haemonchus contortus), a nematode that attaches to the animals’ abomasal (true stomach) wall and feeds on their blood. Female worms can produce more than 5,000 eggs per day that are shed in the animal’s manure.

After hatching outside the animal, H. contortus larvae moult several times, resulting in a more developed and infectious larval form on grass leaves that animals consume during grazing. Once the infectious larvae are inside the animal, they suck the animal’s blood, potentially leading to anaemia, weakness and even death. In the southern United States, goat production for meat or milk is an attractive alternative business for farmers because of the comparatively low cost of breeding stock, the high reproductive rate of goats, and the animals’ ability to thrive on native pastures or brushland that is unsuitable for cropping. This parasite causes large economic losses for farmers around the world, and the worm has developed resistance to chemical interventions.

Meat and Livestock Australia (MLA) sheep geneticist, Dr Alex Ball, Armidale, told the gathering the correlation between fat covering (PFAT) and intramuscular fat (IMF) was far greater than anybody had imagined – in fact, three times greater than the link in beef.“Up until three months ago we (the industry) didn’t know what it was doing (to tenderness),” he said. The data had come straight out of the sire nucleus (comprising every bloodline available to commercial producers), half of which fell within the dry-eating-to-tough territory.

The sire nucleus had provided the data for researchers to collate the eating quality of 190 sires from 2007 to 2008. And this had potentially wide implications for commercial breeders.“There is not a bloodline you can buy this year we don’t know about,” Dr Ball said.From previous studies the industry had found the best eating lamb contained between 4.4 per cent and 5.1pc IMF, with lower concentrations requiring more shear force (ie, chewing).

“Anything less than four per cent and consumers will call it tough and anything less than 4.3pc is getting a little dry – half the sire nucleus falls into this territory,” Dr Ball said.“If you want to know how tough four is, take off your boot and bite the end of it.”One sire had returned a 3.7pc IMF.Dr Ball said the trend was potentially damaging.“Consumer surveys tell us if someone eats a tough piece of lamb they won’t try it again for six months,” he said.

Liberty Genetics and Animal Breeding Services (ABS) initiated a trial to evaluate the use of sexed semen in the dairy industry. 4600 inseminations were carried out in the 2009 spring mating period and further trial work is planned. Results from the trial are promising and Liberty Genetics Managing Director, David Hayman, says, “There have been valuable lessons learnt through the trial process, particularly with regards to what is required to achieve acceptable conception rates with sexed semen.” ABS is implementing the use of sexed semen in embryo production and can see several promising applications.

The technology provides farmers with the opportunity to accelerate the rate of genetic advancement of their herds. Semen‐sexing technology gives farmers the ability to demand female semen from the best bulls for the top 25% of their herd and get enough replacements from the very best genetics. The outcome of this being a heifer calf from a known sire X dam combination will contribute significantly to productivity and profitability. This also offers the ability to tighten the calf rearing period.

The technology also has enormous potential for bull beef farming as well as New Zealand’s horse breeding industry, in particular Standardbreds, according to Dr Lee Morris of Equibreed. “We have had very good results in a fertility trial this past season using fresh sex‐sorted semen and look forward to using sex‐sorted semen in our client mares in the upcoming season.Dairy farmers looking to take advantage of sex sorted semen should inquire through their artificial breeding service provider.

We are talking the late 1970s and the mid-1980s,an era when research results were passed onto farmers with encouragement to try them out. There were farm advisory officers whose mission was to help farmers understand and use the research. Agricultural science leaders such as Dr Jock Allison believed getting research results out to farmers was just as important as the results. To his mind it was crazy leaving them on the shelf.

In 1986 when research was landed with user pays and MAF was split up with research eventually going to a new beast called a CRI (Crown Research Institute) Overnight the importance of farmers was replaced by the importance of making money for the government. Two decades later Allison is still rattling cages. Technology transfer between researchers and farmers is minimal. Information that does get through the PR machine has a commercial spin. This lack of objectivity is inevitable when CRIs are tied into joint ventures with commercial organisations.

These alliances mean research results are owned by the investing company, which has no commercial incentive to share information. This is the so-called ‘competitive funding model’ in action. Since the introduction of user-pays, highly skilled scientists spend weeks putting in applications for research work. To keep costs down successful contracts seldom have funding for serious extension work. Where there is information, it’s difficult to separate good science from company spin.

Peter Walters, who farms at Otorohanga, said his trial paddock of AR37 had a level of 60 beetles per square metre.”After two years of growing AR37 it’s destroyed.” DairyNZ scientist Chris Glassey said AR37 was not as resistant as first thought. “The larvae still feed on the roots of AR37, it only protects against adult black beetle,” he said.

DairyNZ consulting officer Wayne Berry told farmers: `You are not listening to our biggest message. “We are in the Waikato, which is predisposed to the black beetle, and we have got to spray the buggers out. “We have been using AR1 and the black beetle has been having a merry old party at our expense. “Identify the worst four or five per cent of the farm. Get a chemical spray, like Round Up, and put it on. Then spray it out come spring, planting chicory, maize or turnips,” Mr Berry said.

“It’s not going to stop the black beetle unless we all get on board. “It’s getting frustrating for me, as a consulting officer, because the message is not getting out there.” Kevin Robinson, who farms on the Hauraki Plains, said RD1 was still selling AR1 but “not pushing it like they used to”. Meanwhile Hauraki Vet Services vet Neil Haywood reminded farmers to continue dosing their animals with zinc as a precaution against facial eczema because the weather hadn’t cooled down enough to kill the spores that caused the disease.