Page 7 - Hooked on Herefords Oct 2020

Technical Update Robert Peacock | NZH Chair of Technical

BREED OBJECTS update Syrup Urinary Disease). As such the importation rules and
male transfer rules, state you are required to test: “for all
NZH technical committee are still on track for a summer known genetic conditions for which there is a commercial
release of the new indexes. Reminder, that the indexes test available”.
are meant primarily as a tool to help commercial farmers The technical committee deliberately chose the words
make decisions. Stud breeders should be concentrating on ‘for which there is a commercial test available’ as there
individual traits that are needed to produce the genetics is no commercial test currently available for the newly
their clients need. Important to remember, for some traits, reported condition – Mandibulofacial Dysostosis (MD).
there can be too much of a good thing and don’t single This condition is predominantly in the States, so we urge
trait select for any trait. caution prior to purchasing semen from America. A current
list of American sires tested and found to be carriers
can be found on the American Herefords website under
MANAGEMENT GROUPS ‘Genetic abnormalities”.
Important reminder that rule 12a states all joining sires
Sometimes a large number of bulls or heifers might be born after 1st Jan 2019 must be SNP sire verified using
split into smaller groups for management reasons. If a minimum of a 50K SNP test and NZ Herefords council
this is done at random and the mobs are fed evenly then recommend that best practice is be to verify the dam as
it might be OK to call them one management mob for well. In addition male transfers must be SNP sire verified.
recording purposes. If they aren’t split at random or if one
mob is fed differently to another mob then it is important
to notify BreedPlan/Sam as their data is no longer We strongly recommend you take samples of bulls
comparable. An example of this would be if the smaller before they go out, as in the heat of the moment if
animals are taken off and fed more so they can hit target you have to replace a bull or send one to the works,
weights or if a couple of bulls are used as yearlings. you may forget.

For more information on this and other useful
information refer to the ABRI BreedPLAN
website: breedplan.une.edu.au under ‘Help Centre’. DAIRY BEEF PROGENY TESTS

Rebecca Hickson, (Research Lead Associate Professor) was
pleased to see an increase of nominated Herefords this
year. 14 Herefords out of 31 total were nominated, with 8
Herefords successfully selected out of 24.

BEEF PROGENY TESTS

Funding from the government isn’t 100% signed off, but
it is agreed in principle for a Beef Progeny Test. They have
found a farm (still to be confirmed) that runs about 450
Angus cows (including in calf heifers) and are looking
to expand up 600 if possible. The plan is to buy in up to
200 yearling Hereford heifers which will be big enough
for mating on 1st December this year. This farm will be
focusing mainly on proving the benefits of hybrid vigour
and work for their multibreed analysis.
If it is possible to buy registered heifers that would be
a bonus as that increases the information already on the
girls but the Angus cows currently on the property are
RULE update not registered or recorded (apart from regular weighing).
Next option would be to buy from commercial breeders
Each winter the rules are updated. For the latest rules, that regularly buy from registered studs and who either
refer to the NZH website, under Member Services/NZH do quite a bit of DNA testing or are closely linked to the
Rulebook. The rules which have been amended relate to genomic training population.
testing of genetic conditions since the Hereford Neogen Please contact Robert Peacock
genomic bundle tests include a test for MSUD (Maple robert@orarigorge.co.nz) if you would like to be involved.

Hooked on Herefords NZ Herefords Newsletter. October, 2020 | 7