Business Rural Summer 2021

| 23 tech so farmers don’t have to MEAT & WOOL » Lanercost Farm “Methane heritability is about .25% which is more heritable than the reproduction traits we select for, but not as heritable as our growth rate traits. To see it happening in the real world on Lanercost might give farmers the confidence to choose to use rams who are breeding low methane offspring.” • Rapid Genetic Change Artificial breeding technologies will also be used on the Lanercost ewe flock, to test the feasibility of using them to speed up genetic gain in a commer- cial flock. The end-game is to be able to respond to consumer demand by rapidly changing a flock’s genetic make-up. “Consumer preferences are changing relatively quickly but genetics has historically been a slow game,” Dan said. “If we saw a big premium for ex- ample and farmers wanted to quickly get into that, it would be great to be able to capitalise on it.” To that end, they are AI-ing a selection of ewes using fresh semen from a ram collected on-farm. Both the AI and the semen collection have used a technique which farmers can do themselves with- out using technicians. “We did this on 100 ewes with a 46% concep- tion, which is about what we expected,” Dan said. “The other thing here is that we can use one ram over several days and he could realistically artifi- cially serve 1000 ewes in a cycle. “The next step will be to collect that semen and then to sex it. That’s the plan for this coming sea- son. So, people are looking at these technologies and how they can use it on a commercial farm.” Dan acknowledged new approaches like the Future Farm can time to build support, but it is close to delivering on its promise. “This is the first time we’ve invested in capital assets (livestock). So, there’s naturally been lots of questions around whether that’s the best way for the levies to be invested. But, we’re now getting towards the crunch time with these five projects – with more to come – and, I think there is a great opportunity for the Future Farm to give our farmers every confidence to try these technologies on their own farms.” As a farmer-owned industry organisation B+LNZ is put to a referendum every six years to test its popularity and relevance for its sheep and beef members. It recently returned a resounding 90% “yes” vote. “As an organisation we’ve got lots of things we’re trying to do. I like the idea where our future farm sits inside our suite of extension tools. “We do large scale events [with speakers for awareness], we have smaller scale events [50 or so farmers and get more detail], genuine workshops [where everyone sits down and do the work] and small groups [action group] who meet regularly in a discussion group-type setting and test one another and that’s where we really see the on-farm change happening. “We also have different pathways of information, including online offerings of webinars and podcasts that anyone can look into and learn from. I’d encourage everyone to check in and see what’s been happening.” For more information on B+LNZ, please visit www.beeflambnz.com or for the Future Farm’s projects, please visit www.futurefarm.co.nz AI programme at Lanercost Farm. Artificial breeding technologies will be used on the Lanercost flock. CONTACT: Sam Holland HEMINGFORD LTD Culverden, North Canterbury 021 181 4868 • 03 315 8689 E: vikiholland@amuri.net HEMINGFORD CHAROLAIS • ROMTEX • SUFTEX • T E XEL COMMERCIALLY FARMED TOUGH HILL COUNTRY GENETICS Charolais Bulls – Quiet & Grunty Romtex – Fertile Modern Maternal Suftex Texel – Multi-trait Dual Purpose Proud to support Lanercost Farm R AM S SOL D PRIVATEL Y ON FA R M IN DE CE M BER hemingfordgenetics Oldest performance recorded stud in the country (Sil no.2). Stud breeding in the harshest conditions. Hogget’s mated to ensure two tooth replacements are of high natural fertility. Ewes clip 5kg of quality wool High weaning percentages 85% Ewe Hoggets 160% Stud Ewes Breeding technologies to improve your bottom line: • Carla - Testing immune response to internal parasites • 5K - Genomic accuracies for various traits • Foot rot gene marker test •