Business Rural Autumn 2021

| 21 Genomic products a powerful tool Kim Newth MEAT & WOOL » Zoetis Genetics PHOTOS: Cattle sampling (top) and discussing results with a customer; Amy Hoogenboom, NZ Beef Genetics Area Manager; South Island Area Manager Sheep; North Island Area Manager and Technical Lead – Sheep; Sheep sampling (bottom). age reports offer peace of mind because the DNA doesn’t lie. It’s also a guarantee to your customer that the pedigree of that ram or bull is correct.” Equally, Zoetis offers powerful tools to select for the best genetics. As Dayanne observes, it’s not enough today to simply judge a ram or bull on how good it looks and there are risks in making breeding decision on that basis. “What is the cost to you if you buy a bull thinking it’s fantastic because of how he looks but a year later you realise the progeny was not that good but you’ve already used him and have many calves by him?” Genomic tools enable farmers to identify geneti- cally superior animals earlier, thereby saving a lot of time and money. “We know, for example, thatflocks using 5K go nearly fifty per cent faster towards their goals, compared to industry average and we know that because years of research have gone into validating that finding.” Zoetis Genetics – Working to help farmers and breeders predict the future now. 0800 228 278. Z oetis Genetics is working closely with New Zealand sheep and beef farmers to support and enhance their stud operations and stock management. The Zoetis team offers a range of genomic prod- ucts and provides customised solutions, tailored to individual farmers and designed to maximise their return on investment. “The breeder will come to us wanting to find out more about DNA and looking for something to make life easier on the parentage recording side,” explains sheep, beef and deer farmer Dayanne Almeida, who is Zoetis’ North Island Manager for sheep genetics and the NZ Sheep technical lead. “They are sick of tagging lambs at birth or com- promising a large area of the farm for single sire mating so they want to know what else they can do to identify dams and sires of lambs. Some want to simplify their systems while others want to know how to achieve faster genetic gains.” Dayanne and her colleague Amy Hoogenboom, who is Zoetis’ Beef Genetics NZ Manager, specialise respectively in sheep and beef, and Anna Vaughan is also on the team as South Island Area Manager, Sheep Genetics. “The concepts behind our products for sheep and beef are similar with, for example, SireTRACE® being the tool we offer for tracing sire and dam parentage in cattle while for sheep we have Shepherd PLUS and Shepherd ULTRA. For Angus producers, we have HD 50K to deliver high density genotyping, and for sheep breeders Sheep5K® and Sheep50K®will help them make smarter decisions to accelerate genetic gain. “With every farmer I meet, it starts with a conver- sation about what they are currently doing and what they would like to achieve. We offer a fresher look into their breeding programme and if they are ready for the technology we come up with a plan. Some will need more support than others, especially com- mercial farmers totally new to recording systems. We can give them a hand from sampling to training so they feel confident to do it for themselves next time.” One of the big advantages for farmers working with Zoetis Genetics is that this is just one arm of a bigger parent company, Zoetis New Zealand, which offers a diverse portfolio of products, services and animal health solutions. “We have a field team available and can provide the full package of animal health, such as drenches and vaccines, together with genetics and farm consultancy.” Fundamental to the success of any breeding programme is being able to know exactly which animals are used annually within that programme. Dayanne says parentage reporting solutions offered by Zoetis can provide that certainty. “It’s about chasing accuracy. It’s so important. If you get the wrong dam or sire, everything that comes after that will be wrong too … DNA parent- Every drop means quite a lot when it’s from Peters Genetics CLAYTON PETERS 03 204 8817 027 222 4421 TERS MORGAN PE 03 204 8849 027 440 7411 JUSTINWALLIS 03 976 6509 027 225 8330