The scale of the number of bobby calves was unique to New Zealand, Beef+Lamb New Zealand beef on dairy engagement and relationship manager Lucy Coleman said.
At a field day on Tim and Justine McRae’s dairy farm, she talked about her role in the nearly $21 million, four-year, Dairy Beef Opportunities programme launched in March.
The programme was a joint initiative between DairyNZ, B+LNZ , the Meat Industry Association and members of the Dairy Companies Association of New Zealand, with support from the Ministry for Primary Industries.
The aim was to do dairy-beef better including getting more dairy farmers to use better sires, improve dairy-beef rearing and finishing systems as well as integrating farm businesses and supply chains better.
"It is all about creating competitive dairy and beef sectors for New Zealand."
Programme work ranged from extending lactations of cows to reduce bobby calf numbers to creating new products and markets to add value to dairy-beef.
"If we end up rearing a whole lot more dairy beef we need somewhere for them to end up."
B+LNZ’s beef on dairy progeny test was launched about a decade ago.
Objectives included how well beef breeding values predict dairy-beef performance and ways to get good beef bulls to market for dairy farmers to use.
More than 5700 calves from more than 200 bulls across 19 breeds had been monitored.
Measurements recorded include calving, growth and carcass traits.
"We are measuring everything across the system to get a picture of how those sires perform for everybody."
A key learning was there being genetics from sires available which could work for a dairy farmer and a beef rearer.
The breeding value data worked, she said.
However, it was better to look at data on the 600-day weight of dairy-beef progeny, rather than its 200-day weight data.
Farmers should choose a bull, rather than a breed.
"There are good bulls within every breed."
There was a lot of performance variation within a breed.
For example, at a 600-day weight there was a difference of 52kg between the heaviest and lightest Hereford being monitored.
The same variation applied for gestation length.
"Just because one bull is short gestation length, doesn’t mean the entire breed is."
For example, a Hereford bull being monitored provided a 13-day shorter gestation length than another Hereford bull in the test.
The weaning-age of calves at 75kg across all breeds in the test had a difference of 22 days.
Calves requiring 22 more days of milk before weaning came at a cost to farmers, she said.
Calf birth weights did not signal future growth rates, she said
"Just because a calf is born light and easy, doesn’t mean he has to stay light for his whole life.
"We do have some curve-bending bulls out there."
Data compared about 35kg birthweight calves to about 40kg birthweight calves and the difference at 600-day weights was very similar all of them, she said.
"You can get a bull that does everything."
