Skip to content
LIC (Livestock Improvement Corporation) brings more than a century of farmer‑led innovation to this task. With deep scientific capability, a rigorous Sire-Proving Scheme, and unrivalled scale, LIC delivers a practical pathway to better herds and better business outcomes for Australian farmers. Here’s what sets LIC genetics apart.
Farmer-owned, farmer-focused
LIC’s foundation as a farmer‑owned co‑operative matters. It carries a responsibility to deliver value where it counts: on‑farm. Decisions are considered carefully by balancing the needs of farmer shareholders, and the organisation’s priorities (genetic merit, fertility, efficiency, and reliability) by ensuring they align with day‑to‑day realities rather than theoretical models. For Australian farmers, this gives assurance that LIC is built on a strong platform dedicated to genetics, services, and data tools designed to be practical, measurable, and commercially relevant.
Scale that delivers quality and reliability
Few organisations in the global dairy industry operate at LIC’s scale. In New Zealand, LIC conducts approximately 3.6 million inseminations annually, covering around three out of every four cows. This scale is supported by the dispatch of more than 100,000 straws per day at the peak of the season, and a network of up to 1,000 AB Technicians.
This scale is not just a statistic; it’s a quality assurance mechanism. High volumes enable robust logistics, repeatable processes, and continuous improvement.
For Australian farmers, that means reliable supply, consistent performance, and a service model refined by decades of seasonal pressure.
A Sire Proving Scheme built to find the elite
Genetic progress depends on choosing the right sires – and LIC’s sire proving scheme is renowned for its scrutiny and selectivity. The pipeline begins with the analysis of some of the best cows in the country, identified through database data. Contract matings are then organised to produce bull calves each year, which are genomically screened. From this group, only around 10% ultimately graduate to market. This intentionally narrow funnel ensures that only elite bulls – validated by both genomic information and real‑world herd performance – reach farmers.
The Sire Proving Scheme is amplified by embryo and contract mating work. Each year, LIC organises 5,000 contract matings and produces over 2,500 embryos to enhance the breeding of the next generation of elite bulls.
This disciplined, multi‑stage selection process improves the quality of that next generation, and gives farmers confidence in LIC’s breeding scheme.
Learn more about the Sire Proving Scheme
Innovation that drives faster genetic gain
LIC’s R&D focus targets the traits that matter most on farm: fertility, efficiency, robustness, and sustainability. The programme spans genomics, reproduction, animal health, and climate‑relevant traits such as heat tolerance. Notably, the adoption of genomic selection has materially accelerated progress; LIC reports that genomic technology lifted annual genetic gain from about 9 gBW (2012– 2016) to about 16 gBW (2017– 2020), and that more than 50% of straws since 2021 have been from genomic bulls. For farmers, that means today’s sires are not only better than yesterday’s – they get better, faster.
Australian herds face diverse pressures – heat events, variable pasture conditions, and farm sustainability issues. LIC’s work on genomics and heat‑tolerant genetics in particular, aligns closely with these pressures, offering pathways to herds that can perform consistently in challenging conditions while keeping pace with productivity expectations.
Efficiency: converting feed to milk – profitably
At the heart of LIC’s breeding philosophy is production efficiency: more kilograms of milk solids per kilogram of liveweight. In practical terms, the most efficient cows produce more, weigh less, conceive more reliably, and emit less per unit of output.
LIC’s long‑term focus has lifted production efficiency from ~55% in the early 1990s to around 80% today, underscoring a sustained, compound improvement in how effectively cows turn feed into saleable milk.
For Australian farmers coping with rising input costs and tight margins, this matters. Efficient cows require less feed to achieve the same (or better) output. They also tend to have superior fertility, reducing empty rates and replacement costs. Over time, those efficiencies accumulate – helping with the cost of production, making on‑farm tasks more manageable via predictable conception and calving and strengthening the farm’s overall resilience.
Data as a decision engine
Better genetics start with better information. LIC supports data‑ driven decision‑making through herd testing, genomic profiling, and economic modelling. The philosophy is simple: measure, rank, act.
Herd testing: Individual cow milk sampling identifies top performers and under‑achievers. This granularity enables precise culling and breeding decisions.
Animal health and genomic testing: Disease, pregnancy, and genotype information reduce uncertainty and improve selection accuracy – especially useful when rearing replacement heifers from the best dams.
MINDA to rank and report: LIC’s herd management software (MINDA) helps farmers rank animals and visualise herd structure by genetic merit, making selection lists and mating plans clearer and more objective.
These services feed directly into our breeding programme, enhancing its accuracy and robustness, and ultimately supporting better bull selection decisions that benefit farmers. While some of these products may not be directly available to Australian farmers, the data collected from them strengthens the reliability of the bulls we supply in the Australian market. Additionally, LIC places a strong emphasis on validation.
As the volume and diversity of data grow, the accuracy of predictions improves, sharpening the reliability of on‑farm decisions season after season.
Translating LIC’s strengths to Australian conditions
While LIC’s heritage is New Zealand, its solutions travel well – especially to pasture‑based systems common across Australia. Here are four practical ways Australian farmers can leverage LIC genetics:
1. Target fertility first: Improved conception underpins everything – calving pattern, lactation length, and replacement planning. Selecting sires with proven fertility traits shortens calving spreads, reduces non‑productive days, and stabilises production curves.
2. Prioritise feed‑to‑milk efficiency: In regions where pasture growth varies by season and water availability, efficient cows deliver more milk solids per kilogram of liveweight. LIC’s focus on efficiency helps farmers protect margins when feed is tight or costly.
3. Plan for heat stress: Heat events depress intake and reproduction. Genetics with better heat tolerance can mitigate performance dips and support steadier reproductive outcomes across warm periods.
4. Build replacements from the top of the herd: Breeding your best cows with elite LIC sires over successive seasons will lift the herd’s average genetic merit through your replacement heifers, compounding gains in production and fertility.
A practical roadmap for adoption
To capture the full value of LIC genetics, treat breeding as a managed, data‑rich process rather than a seasonal purchase:
Establish a clear breeding objective: Define the balance of traits you need – production, fertility, efficiency, robustness – anchored to your farm’s system and market.
Measure routinely: Commit to measuring milk production and where possible, health screening. The more often you measure, the sharper your selection decisions will be.
Rank and select: Rank animals by genetic merit and lifetime performance. Mate the best cows to the best sires; use beef or SGL Compact® semen strategically on the bottom end.
Review annually: Revisit results each season, updating trait priorities and sire selections in line with farm performance and conditions.
The bottom line
LIC’s combination of co‑operative purpose, industrial‑scale capability, rigorous genetics, and data-first decision support gives Australian farmers a dependable partner for herd improvement.
The organisation’s track record – millions of inseminations, tens of millions of milk samples analysed, and a sire proving scheme that markets only the top ten percent – creates a simple, compelling proposition: genetics you can trust, backed by systems that deliver.
For farmers aiming to build herds that are efficient, fertile, and suited to a warming climate and evolving markets, LIC genetics provide a practical, proven path to progress.
With clear objectives, routine measurement, and disciplined selection, the benefits compound – animal by animal, season by season – into a more resilient, more profitable dairy business.
Get in touch with your local district manager today to explore the right genetics strategy for your farm.