Australian farmers are being advised to breed healthy ‘green’ cows to meet community expectations and take a long-term outlook in their breeding program.
Genetics Australia chief executive officer Anthony Shelly said even with the advent of genomics, breeding was still a long-term process.
“The results of the sire selection decisions you make today don’t impact on your bottom line for another three to four years,” Mr Shelly said.
“If you make a directional change in your breeding and assuming a 20 per cent replacement rate, the transformation of your herd will be at least an eight-year project.
“So, when thinking about your breeding for this season, you need to think beyond the here and now.”
He said breeding healthy cows now and into the future was one area that won’t change.
“When thinking about the future, one thing is certain: the need to breed healthy cows that meet broader community expectations will be the order of the day.”
Mr Shelly spoke at the recent GA 2020 online conference series about the need to breed ‘the green cow'.
“We need to be thinking about healthy cows that calve easily, are less susceptible to disease, produce less methane, are efficient users of feed, are more comfortable in hot weather and are born without horns,” he said.
“We have the ability to breed for most of these things now.”
Genetics Australia’s breeding program is designed to produce bulls that address many of the emerging issues directly related to farming social licence.
Mr Shelly said across the Genetics Australia sire line-up, farmers will find bulls that will enable them to start their journey towards ‘the green cow'.
“Genomics and the dominant inheritance of the polled gene have allowed us to increase the number of high-profit polled sires available today.”
Bulls such as the homozygous polled sires, CFP and NIPIT, are among the highest BPI sires that produce 100 per cent polled calves.
Columbus, Tirano and Samaria all carry the polled gene and 50 per cent of the progeny of these high profit sires will be born hornless.
Mr Shelly said the introduction of the mastitis resistance ABV by DataGene was a great step towards breeding healthier cows.
“By combining a number of traits with Somatic Cell Count, they have created an index that best addresses both clinical and sub-clinical mastitis at a genetic level,” he said.
Even farmers in the southern parts of the country can benefit from breeding cows with greater heat tolerance, according to Mr Shelly.
“We have all the tools and the bulls to help you breed healthy ‘green cows’ today.
“It’s time to start thinking about the future.”