Issue 84 Contents:

1. Bull Breeding Soundness Comes under the Spotlight
2. Presidents Report
3. Hereford Herd Tour - Northland National Hereford Tour 2007
4. Memo to NZPBB from ABRI
5. QA Systems may replace some TB testing
6. Hereford Prime News
7. Completing your Calf Registration forms
8. NZHA Registry Report

 

1. Bull Breeding Soundness Comes under the Spotlight

A recent Meat and Wool funded survey, covering beef bull breeding soundness, has confirmed field data that a disturbingly large percentage of both virgin and mixed aged bulls, used for herd mating, carry faults that are likely to affect pregnancy rates in our national beef cow herd.
The survey, which was conducted by Massey University and commissioned by Meat and Wool New Zealand as part of its initiative to improve our national calving percentage, revealed that 19% of virgin bulls (mostly rising 2 year olds) and 35% of mixed age (MA) bulls that had been used in service were assessed as likely to deliver a less than satisfactory mating performance. 175 predominantly rising 2 year old sale bulls and 240 MA commercial bulls were assessed for:

• Scrotal circumference and contents, including examination of accessory sex glands.
• Physical health and structural soundness
• Serving ability (not serving capacity/ libido)
• Semen quality, including a full morphology examination

Bulls that passed all the tests were considered sound for breeding. Those with abnormal scrotal contents and size, damaged penises, structural problems affecting their ability to serve or with semen defects were considered unsound for breeding. Bulls regarded as sub-fertile were those whose performance was likely to be affected as a result of structural problems and those possessing under 70% normal sperm.
The relative importance of each test undertaken on the bulls during the survey was determined by the percentage of the bulls in the two categories (virgin, MA) which failed each test.

The test which had the highest failure rate was the serving ability test. Of the 35% of MA bulls classified as unsound or sub fertile, 58% were detected using this test along with an assessment of structural and physical defects. This compared with the 26% detected in the virgin bulls. The significantly higher failure rate of bulls which have been used in service is most probably the result of age and the rigors of mating (bulls fighting, the mating process, land contour etc) in multiple-sire mating groups. While this test is important, the way in which it is conducted is becoming increasingly unacceptable, so Meat and Wool New Zealand have initiated a process to ensure its long term use and increased adoption. Structural defects, penile injuries, temperament and willingness to serve can be most easily assessed by observing the bull and his behaviour using this test.

While 12.5% of all bulls semen tested showed some form of abnormality, only 2.6% were considered unsound. These bulls generally had less than 50% normal sperm along with other major sperm defects, however it is possible that semen quality from these animals could improve over time. None of these bulls was identified as having poor testicular tone. The remaining 9.9% of bulls generally had between 50% and 70% normal sperm and other minor defects. It was advised that these animals be retested and it is likely that the semen from a percentage of these animals would improve with time.

Physical examination, especially palpation of scrotal contents and measurement of scrotal circumference detected only 2.7% of bulls as being abnormal. However this accounts for 9% of the bulls that were assessed as unsound or sub fertile and therefore should be an important part of a breeding bull soundness evaluation.

While 28% of all bulls surveyed were assessed as being unsound or sub fertile, it must be remembered that most of these bulls are not completely infertile. The object of examining breeding bulls is to try and reduce the risk of a poor reproductive performance in the herd. Sub fertile bulls are a significant risk where pressure is put on them to perform, such as in a situation where a compact calving period is required.
The survey has highlighted that no single trait can adequately describe bull breeding soundness and that the more relevant information that is gathered, the better will be the soundness assessment.

Bulls should ideally be tested twice a year. The first time soon after they come out of the cows to establish how many replacements are likely to be required for the next mating season; the second time at least two months prior to mating to allow for any bulls, whose semen quality (morphology) is suspect, to be retested.

Meat and Wool New Zealand are currently funding two other projects that have beef cow productivity as their focus. The second part of the above project involves surveying beef cow herds in an endeavour to identify factors that influence herd fertility. Another research project being conducted at Massey University is looking at the effects of different levels of feeding during pregnancy on calf birth weight and milk production of heifers calving as two year olds. A number of beef cow focus farms have been established throughout the country with improved cow productivity being their main area of interest, as well as endeavouring to assign a monetary value to the contribution the breeding cow makes to the performance of other stock classes.

Summary

Bull breeding soundness is a vital and often neglected ingredient in achieving a good calving percentage.
An alarming number of both virgin and MA bulls (28%) have been detected as being unsound or sub fertile and are likely to contribute to a lowered calving percentage. Many of these defects are likely to be passed on to their offspring.
These bulls should be identified and ideally removed from the bull team prior to being introduced to the cows.
The Beef and Sheep section of the New Zealand Veterinary Association is developing a standardised certificate of bull breeding soundness.
Meat and Wool New Zealand are currently funding three projects that are designed to improve beef breeding cow productivity.
This and other articles written by the author can be found on the Meat & Wool New Zealand website at www.meatandwoolnz.com.
Russell Priest - Meat & Wool New Zealand Beef Genetics Coordinator
P: 06 323 4484 / F: 06 323 3878 / M: 0274 369 372
E: russell.priest@meatandwoolnz.com / W: meatandwoolnz.com

2. Presidents Report

With Spring now upon us and calving nearly finished, we certainly head to a more exciting time of the year. People are now busy planning their up and coming cow matings and the show season is fast approaching.
It is timely to remind all breeders that sires used in your 2006 breeding programme have a DNA profile on file with NZ Hereford Association office. Don’t leave it until it is too late and something has happened to your sire as there will be no dispensations, you have all been well notified of this rule.
It has been encouraging to note that the Spring bull sales have been well received and sales have been very consistent with good clearances and an increasing demand. I have heard of prices as high as $9,000.00, so looks like Herefords continue to lead the way. Well done!
Finally on a more sombre note, I inform you of, Donna Abbiss our General Manager, resignation to take effect from the end of November. Donna wishes to spend more time with her family and pursue a few other activities. We have been extremely fortunate to have had her over the last seven years and her professionalism and attention to detail and ability to take NZ Hereford Association to another level has been very much appreciated by the NZ Hereford Association Council. We wish her well in the future, with NZHA having the opportunity to employ her on a casual basis when required. We are currently advertising for a replacement and hope to make an announcement in early November.

Bruce Robertson
President, NZHA

3. Hereford Herd Tour - Northland National Hereford Tour 2007

Monday 19th – Friday 23rd March, 2007

Northland: the birthplace of the nation, where settlers planted the first grapes, olives and fruit trees; home to giant kauri forests, miles of stunning coastline, subtropical gardens and of course the home of many fine Herefords.

Monday 19th March
Assemble in Whangarei.
Tuesday 20th March
Visit Hereford Studs in the Whangarei area and travel to Warkworth.
Wednesday 21st March
You will be visiting studs in Warkworth, Matakohe and Dargaville enroute to Opononi and the Hokianga Harbour.
Thursday 22nd March
Cross the harbour by ferry and visit studs in Broadwood and Okaihau, arriving in Paihia in the afternoon. An evening cruise has been booked so you can experience the spectacular Bay of Islands.
Friday 23rd March
Visiting studs in Kaeo, Towai and Tangiteroria.
Final evening back in Whangarei.

More comprehensive information will be published in the December issue of “Upfront”.
Including registration forms.

Registrations forms are available on line – otengi@ihug.co.nz or
From the Secretary:
Mrs L Crawford,
RD 2, Hikurangi, Northland.
Tel: 09 4334837

Note: Early registration is essential as Northland has a very active Tourist season and accommodation will be limited in some areas.

4. Memo to NZPBB from ABRI

Dated 18th September 2006

Rapid increase in use of Breedplan in New Zealand
The increase in weaning weight recording in the top three breeds in New Zealand has been impressive, over recent years.

There has been very substantial growth in: Extra weights, Scans, Mature weights, Trait recording
Taken over all performance records, the increase in the last four years has been spectacular – from 39,302 records to 67,608 being an increase of 72%.

NEW ZEALAND PERFORMANCE RECORDING ON BREEDPLAN 2001/02 VERSUS 2005/06

This is very good news for NZ breeders however there is no room for complacency - the more performance data in the better! Watch the accuracy / creditability of your EBVs increase with additional performance data submitted.

5. QA Systems may replace some TB testing

18 September 2006

The Animal Health Board is consulting with beef and deer farmers in areas of low bovine Tb risk about a change of approach to herd Tb testing.
AHB Technical Manager Paul Livingtone says AHB proposes to stop regular Tb testing of the lowest risk breeding herds in Tb Surveillance Areas in exchange for farmers operating an approved quality assurance programme.
Dr Livingstone says AHB is floating a proposal for a Testing Equivalence Programme (TEP) for breeding herds of C5 or higher Tb status in areas which have a long history of freedom from wildlife infection.
“Provided the herd owner agrees to manage the herd in a way that absolutely minimises the risk of introducing infected livestock, then we could agree that the herd doesn’t need regular Tb testing.”
Dr Livingstone said to be eligible for entry into a TEP, a herd owner would have to sign an agreement not to source stock from lower status herds or from certain areas, and to take similar precautions when sending stock off farm for grazing.
“What we are saying is that we know these herds are not at risk from wildlife infection, so if the risk of contact with infected livestock is also cut off, then we shouldn’t need to keep on testing for Tb.”
While many low risk herds may be eligible to stop testing, some other herds will face more testing as AHB does away with sample testing in Tb free areas
“We have been allowing large herds in Tb Surveillance Areas to test just a sample of up to 250 animals. This isn’t good enough to detect say a single infected animal in a herd of 1000, so our intention is that all breeding stock over 2 years of age should be tested every three years in herds that aren’t eligible for the TEP option.
AHB has mailed a discussion paper to owners of beef and deer breeding herds in Tb Surveillance Areas and is inviting submissions on the TEP proposal. Tb Surveillance Areas include Northland, Auckland, East Cape, most of Bay of Plenty, Taranaki, parts of Hawkes Bay and Manawatu, Marlborough Sounds, mid Canterbury and parts of Southland. (see Map pg7).

For further information please contact:
Paul Livingstone or Nick Hancox on 04 472 2858

6. Hereford Prime News

The highly successful ‘NZ Hospitality Show’ was recently held in Auckland, 8th – 10th of October. Zealfresh, Hereford Prime’s distribution agents in Auckland had a food stand at the Show, and jointly with Hereford Prime NZ, sponsored the ‘Feast for Famous Chefs’ gala dinner and the Torque D’Or cooking competition. Both of these events are staged in conjunction with the Hospitality Show.

Torque D’Or is a competition for Polytechnic Trainee Chefs throughout New Zealand. It is run by the New Zealand Restaurant Association for the very best of trainee chefs and trainee waitering staff. A team consists of 2 chefs and 1 waitperson - they are expected to prepare an entrée, main and dessert to serve to invited quests at a luncheon. This has to be prepared within a certain time frame and wines must be matched with characteristics explained for each course.

Hereford Prime Rib Eye cuts were sponsored by Hereford Prime and Zealfresh, and used for the main course by each team. This year’s winning team was from the Southland Institute of Technology (SIT). (The cost alone for Southland students to attend was $12,000 -flights, accommodation, excess luggage, rental cars etc).

Irene Lydell of Southland Institute of Technology (SIT) was already well aware of the Hereford Prime brand. Not only though sponsorship for the Torque D’Or competition, with meat supplied through Magills Meats of Te Awamutu, but also through Bowmont Meats in Southland who had supported a SIT fundraising dinner with the supply of Hereford Prime earlier in the year.
All 20 teams in the Torque D’Or competition i.e. 40 new chefs will head out into the restaurant field within the next few months as budding chefs, equipped with a new awareness of Hereford Prime Quality Beef.

The fantastic support for and the prestige that the Torque D’Or event holds is significant – a wonderful promotional vehicle for Hereford Prime. Hereford Prime was branded on Jackets, Aprons and Menus at the cooking event and was constantly announced through the luncheon and presentation dinner.

SIT Chefs, using Hereford Prime Beef.	Mark Wylie, Judge and at the Soul Bar Auckland. (A Hereford Prime Restuarant )	Feast for Famous Chefs dinner. Hereford Prime Fillet dish presented by Marc Soper.

Magill Meats; their latest acquisition

Michael Van der Hoeven proudly advertises Hereford Prime on his distinctive new ute - it has turned a few heads. He has challenged other Hereford Prime directors to do the same and to date Geof Brown has taken up the challenge and offered his Toyota ute.
The ute was proudly designed by Travis Holman, NZPBB Graphics Department.

Footnote: Magills apprentice butcher Ben Bain, was one of the eight regional finalists at the NZ Young Butchers competition held recently in conjunction with the NZ Food Festival.

7. Completing your Calf Registration forms

General Details
There are a few points to keep in mind; from a BREEDPLAN perspective, when coding the calf registration forms:
Include the birthdate and sex of the calf even if it was dead at birth - particularly if also recording birth weight, calving ease or cow mating details.
Record a calf as a twin even if one twin did not survive.
Complete the Forms and submit them to the address indicated on the Form as soon after calving as practicable. Early submission of this pedigree information allows time for any errors to be corrected and the Post-Birth Performance Forms sent to you for further performance recording. Where practicable, submit all calf birth details for a particular calving season at the same time.

Birth weight RECORDING
Keep the following points in mind when recording Birthweights for your calves:
Birth weight should be recorded for the whole calf crop, not just “difficult” births. Without comparisons to the other calves, “occasional” measurements are of no value and can actually be misleading.
Measure birthweight within 24 hours of birth. There are significant fluctuations in weights of calves over their first week of life.
Do not guess birthweights or use girth/chest size to estimate birthweight. Either weigh the calves, or don’t record birthweight.
If you record birthweight, also record the birth weight of calves dead at birth (plus their birth date and sex).
Put the calf in a separate birth management group if you believe the measured weight is affected by special circumstances e.g. low because the calf is premature, the dam was sick, etc.
Heifers on their first calf are automatically subgrouped from more mature cows for the birthweight EBV calculations.
Birthweights are correlated to the later weights and therefore birthweight EBVs can be estimated by BREEDPLAN from these later weights. If birthweight is not recorded, the birthweight EBVs calculated in a Group/Interim run will largely reflect these later weights.

Calving Ease RECORDING
The calving ease codes are listed below and are printed on the forms as well.
Blank unknown
1 no difficulty
2 easy pull
3 hard pull
4 assisted surgical
5 abnormal presentation
Try to be as accurate as possible in recording calving ease and keep the following points in mind:
If you regularly check your cows (e.g. on a daily basis), it is reasonable to assume that a cow that calves without assistance between visits can be considered as unassisted (no difficulty) even though you did not see her calve. That is, it is important to record this as “no difficulty” rather than not observed - otherwise valuable data is lost.
Record the whole calf crop rather than just difficult or easy births.
A “no code” (blank) means no measure rather than a “no difficulty” code.
There needs to be some level of calving difficulty in the herd for this data to be useful in the analysis. i.e all scores of 1 will render the information worthless in an EBV analysis.
Calving ease is considered a ‘categorical trait’ because it is subjectively scored (i.e. the individual breeders ‘opinion’) rather than objectively measured - like weighting animals on scales. Because of this, CE is analysed in a separate analysis in conjunction with birth weight and gestation length as correlated traits.

Al Joining Dates
Where AI joining dates are recorded, the information can be used to calculate gestation length EBVs.
GL EBVs are expressed in days and are calculated from the joining date and birth date records for calves achieved by AI or Hand Mating.
Shorter GL is generally associated with lighter birth weight, improved calving ease and improved re-breeding performance among dams. In addition, calves born with a shorter GL are often heavier at weaning due to more days of growth. Consequently, lower or more negative GL EBVs are considered to be more favourable.
GL records for ET calves and twins are excluded from the analysis. Also excluded are contemporary groups where there are less than 3 calves in the group.

Twins and calves reared on another dam
It is important to record all twin calves as twins even if the second calf did not survive.
In BREEDPLAN, twin calves are analysed if there are other twin calves born around the same time and are of the same sex.
If a twin or any other calf is fostered onto another dam, record this information on the calf registration forms and include the rearing dam herd book number for processing.

Embryo Transfer Calves
Calves born from Embryo Transfer (ET) programmes are given special consideration in the BREEDPLAN analysis because the cow that gives birth to the calf is not normally the genetic dam of the calf.
Societies require notification of calves born from embryo transfer programmes for pedigree and ownership verification checks within their system.
BREEDPLAN also needs to know this information so that the analysis allows for both the genetic (donor) dam of the calf as well as the bearer (recipient) dam. In natural breeding programmes, both these important maternal components are attributed to the one cow.
Generally, the method of recording ET calves is to indicate it on the Calf Record and Registration Form in the relevant column. Recipient Dam Information Forms will then be sent to you by the Registry Centre. Details of the recipient dams of these calves should be coded onto these forms and returned to the Registry Centre.
However, when performance recording your ET calves, it is very important to remember the following points:
information on the recipient dam breed is required before an ET calf can be analysed. Additional information on recipient dam age and identification is also required.
ET calves are only directly compared against other ET calves.
The usefulness of performance information is greatly reduced if all calves in an analysis group have a common parent.

8. NZHA Registry Report

DNA
When having DNA profiles processed, please inform your technician, of the animal details including, Herd Book number, name and sex, date of birth, breed to ensure clarity of the DNA certificate. (Insufficient data will deem a certificate unacceptable.) Perhaps print off the animal details from the Hereford website and attach them. A certificate reference number must be printed on each certificate for office use.

GROUP RUN CUT OFF
If you have 400-day weights or scanning to be processed for inclusion in the November Group Run, they will need to be at the office no later than FRIDAY 27th OCTOBER 2006. Any other weights, which have not been processed, should also be sent in at the same time.

ADLs are due back at the office by Tuesday 31st OCTOBER 2006.
In order that calf entry forms can be posted out early November, there will be no extra time allowed for late ADLs. If you have not returned your ADL you will be billed for all females three years old and over that are prelisted.

AI SIRES
Please check your AI Sires are registered and have a DNA with the Association prior to using, purchasing, selling or advertising semen.
This can be done by checking in the Hereford Herd Book on page 63, checking the Hereford website, or by contacting the Office.
Artificial Insemination and Ova Transplant regulations are documented in the Herd Book.

CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE forms are available from the Office for completion when calves are begot by bulls not owned by the Stud applying for the registration.
Linda Shailer, Registry

Linda Shailer
Registry

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