Page 94 - Hereford Magazine 2022

Beef, our land and our future

Words: RD (Bob) Thomson, AgFirst NZ with the bottom stretches out to a massive 20% difference.
These differences demonstrate the progeny of the best bulls
eef farming in New Zealand will look very versus the worst will be different in their capacity to rear and
different in the future. finish, which suggests we must categorise calves to distinguish
There won’t be many beef cows, as their these differences. In the case of Herefords, the progeny from
traditional breeding ground continues to be both the top bulls and bottom bulls will have white faces,
Blost to production forestry and carbon farming. illustrating the point that a white face on its own is not a good
Ironically the business case for forestry being more profitable way to choose calves to rear and finish.
is predicated on sheep and beef farming. If the comparison Of note, the calves denoted with G+ are representative of
were made with dairy farming, less land would be lost from the top beef bulls identified through the Dairy Beef Progeny
pastoral farming. Test. These bulls afford a 15% improvement in the growth of
Within 10 years an additional two million bobby calves will their progeny.
need to be farmed, not killed. They will require considerable The D-Category calves will challenge the dairy farmer to
land to be farmed on, and if that’s not available from sheep change as they have no value to a beef finisher. A major
and beef farming, it must come from dairy farming. If you challenge in the process of eliminating bobby calves will be
had to winter these dairy-beef cattle twice to reach currently for dairy farmers to improve the quality of their dairy-beef
required carcass weight targets, then at the stocking rate of calves. Beef farmers can help by initiating and promoting
800kg live weight/hectare, but a year older and 400kg live the use of better beef bulls in dairy herds and purchasing the
weight, you need three times the current area. resultant offspring.
The 2021 Beef + Lamb NZ Farm Facts state we have 7.4 As dairy farmers improve the quality of their dairy-beef
million hectares in grassland – the additional 0.5 million calves, they’ll also need to accept they’ll be privileged to have
hectares for bobby calves would represent 7% of the current their calves taken for finishing under a bobby-calf-free policy.
grassland. A two-winter finishing policy will blow that out Even the highest quality A-Category calves will have a low
to 20%. By the time Farm Facts is next published, the area value at 5–10 days of age. As calf quality drops, farmers will
in grassland will have decreased based on current farm pay to have surplus calves removed. The dairy farmers’ other
conversions to forestry. Not all grassland available will be option is to rear and finish the dairy-beef calves by reducing
suitable for finishing cattle, which leads to the conclusion dairy cow numbers, but that would reduce farm profit. A
there must be a reduction in dairy cow numbers to logical conclusion is a reduction in the value of surplus dairy-
accommodate rearing two million bobby calves. beef calves with the margin transferring to the beef finisher.
WHAT IF BOBBY CALVES HAD TO BE TAKING ADVANTAGE OF SURPLUS
REARED ON DAIRY FARMS? DAIRY-BEEF CALVES
Let’s use ‘back of the envelope’ arithmetic and see the likely An analysis of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test shows big
impact. differences between beef bulls in their capacity to produce
There will be resistance to reducing dairy cow numbers: good finishing cattle. Table 11 from the 2021 report shows the
they are more than twice as profitable per hectare compared top 20 bulls for carcass weight.
with beef finishing. Inevitably some of the surplus bobby
calves will provide opportunities for beef finishers and may Matrix of Calf Breed Categories A - D
be available at competitive prices. Certainly the better quality Dam Dairy Sire Breed Beef Sire Breed
dairy beef calves are worthy of purchase and finishing. Breed Calf Sex Jersey Kiwi Friesian NoG AvG G+
Male C B A B B A
• Annual dairy cow feed demand = 5 tonne DM Friesian Female D C B B B A
• Annual dairy-beef weaner feed demand = 2 tonne DM Male D C B B B A
• Therefore... Kiwi Female D C C C C B
Every 2.5 bobby calves reared = 1 less dairy cow Male D C C C C B
• If 2 million bobby calves are reared (for just one winter) Jersey Female D D D D C C
= 800,000 less dairy cows Legend
A = High value calf for rearing to D = Little or no calf value
Currently the quality of dairy beef calves is subjectively finish NoG= Beef Sire with unknown genetics
assessed for suitability to rear and finish. A white-faced calf is B = Medium Value calf for rearing AvG = Beef Sire with average genetics
to finish
assumed to have been sired by a Hereford bull. Even though C = Low value calf for rearing to G+= Beef Sire proven with above
average genetics and probably AI
the Hereford bulls entered into B+LNZ Genetics’ Dairy Beef finish
Progeny Test have been selected as ‘the best’ for dairy beef,
there are large differences between bulls. Points to note:
When the top Hereford bull is compared with the bottom, • The Dairy Beef Progeny Test has operated since 2015. To
we find a 14% difference in carcass weight. That percentage date 150 bulls have entered the programme and each
difference drops to 10% when the top five Hereford bulls are year ~20 new bulls are added. The bulls’ breeders have
compared with the bottom five. If we expand our criterion to all selected them on merit and they’re better than the
bull breeds tested, then the progeny of the top bull compared average industry bulls.

92 HEREFORD MAGAZINE Year 2022