At LIC Australia we utilise the highly successful New Zealand dairy animal evaluation system to help farmers wherever they are in Australia, whether it is in Tasmania, Victoria or Queensland to maximise genetic gain on farm.
Our experts first introduced this system to Australian farmers over 20 years ago and since then we have helped improve the long-term performance of dozens of dairy herds in all Australian states.
New Zealand Animal Evaluation Limited (NZAEL) is an independent organisation and is a wholly owned subsidiary of DairyNZ, that manages animal evaluation for the New Zealand dairy industry.
NZAEL aims to improve the genetic merit of the national dairy herd by identifying the animals whose progeny will be the most efficient converters of feed to farmer profit. This is expected to deliver over $300 million in profit gains to the New Zealand dairy industry over the next 10 years.
How NZAEL works
NZAEL captures, analyses and applies real animal data to the New Zealand dairy cattle database. Both male and female cattle are evaluated for their genetic merit.
Daughters of bulls are assessed and ranked within their contemporary group for a set of important genetic traits that drive profitability. These traits are shown in the graph.
Information collected by the industry is used by NZAEL to estimate breeding values (BVs). Records utilised include: milk production, somatic cell count, liveweight, body condition, mating and calving, removals and traits other than production (TOP).
Farmers report management, or workability traits, while trained inspectors report dairy conformation and type traits. Approved milk recording companies contribute milk production records.
Breeding Worth (BW)
‘Breeding Worth’ ranks male and female animals for their genetic ability for breeding replacements (NZAEL).
Breeding Worth combines selected genetic traits with the economic contribution of those traits to farm profit. Trait breeding values (BV) are multiplied by economic values (EV) in the formula.
BW = BV X EV
The resulting profit index is Breeding Worth (BW), measured in dollars and reported relative to a Genetic Base benchmark, which is set at zero.
For example: A bull has BW $200 his offspring receive half of his genetic merit and are expected to earn the farmer, on average, $100 more than the genetic base cow per annum.
Breeding values
Eight main traits make up the national breeding index Breeding Worth (BW). These are categorised into production traits (protein, fat, volume and liveweight) and robustness traits (fertility, somatic cells, body condition and survival).
These traits are all relevant to dairy herds in Australia and the requirements of local dairy farmers.
Economic values
Genetic trends
In a successful breeding programme, the genetic merit of the population should continually improve. Called genetic gain, this improvement is both cumulative and permanent, with each generation building on the genetic merit of the previous one.
The rate of genetic gain in New Zealand is BW $10/ year, on average, as animal efficiency increases. Average per cow production has increased by 50 kg milksolids in the past 10 years, while liveweight remains relatively static. Researchers estimate 40% of this production gain is due to genetic improvement.
For more detail on genetic trends view the NZAEL website.
TOP traits
In addition to production and robustness traits, it is desirable to see genetic gain for other important non-production traits such a temperament, udders and dairy conformation.
These traits are called ‘Traits Other than Production’ and fall into two categories: Management Traits and Conformation Traits, which are reported on the NZAEL website.
Management traits include adaptability to milking, shed temperament, milking speed, overall opinion, heifer calving difficulty and cow calving difficulty. These traits are farmer scored.
Conformation traits include dairy capacity, rump width and angle, leg, teat placement and udder related traits as well as dairy conformation. These traits are inspector scored. More details available in the TOP booklet.
These traits are all beneficial to herds across Australia, as they all contribute to longer lasting, healthy cows that are important to the Australian dairy farming gene pool and industry as a whole.
The Genetic Base
When ranking within a population it is useful to have a ‘benchmark‘ to which everything is referenced. In animal evaluation, this reference point is called the Genetic Base, also known as the ‘Base Cow’.
The Genetic Base is made up of a group of well-recorded cows from a selected year. Their profitability is set as the reference point ‘0’ and all animals are reported in relation to this group. If the animal is more profitable than the ‘Base Cow’ the BW value will be positive, if less profitable, the BW value will be negative.
The Genetic Base is updated every five years. A new group of cows used as the Genetic Base are selected from a year-group 5 years on from the previous ‘Base’. Their BW is set as the new zero reference point, although they are genetically superior to the previous ‘Base’.
The result is a national herd ‘reset’ with an overall drop in BW seen each base change year due to the new Genetic Base being closer to that of the current population.
