Dairy Beef Progeny Test: Call for Sire Nominations

Tuesday 6th June 2023

Invitation to submit bulls for the 2023-mating of the B+LNZ Genetics Dairy Beef Progeny Test.

B+LNZ Genetics and co-funders, LIC, are excited to call for sire nominations for the 2023-mating of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test at  Pāmu  Wairakei’s Renown farm.  Open for nominations from all sires and breeds.

This project aims to improve the quality of dairy beef calves in the industry by identifying and enabling widespread use of superior bulls for dairy beef. Top bulls can be used in AB programmes in the dairy industry and in breeding programmes to generate good bulls for use over dairy cows.

Entering bulls into the Dairy Beef Progeny Test gives breeders a potential path to market through LIC. Bulls can be submitted for entry and dairy farmers and dairy beef finishers will be able to see which bulls perform the best across the range of trait data collected.

The ideal bulls will add value to all stages of the dairy beef market, offering easy calving and short gestation length to the dairy farm, rapid growth for the finisher and superior carcase attributes for the processor. The calves will be recorded at birth, throughout rearing and the carcases assessed at slaughter.

There are two entry options

1) $1, 250 excluding GST

Grants LIC the right to purchase semen from the bull - a ‘First Right to Purchase’ bull (FRTP).

If the bull is selected by LIC, a minimum of 10,000 straws will be collected at $3/straw.
Bull owner grants exclusive rights to LIC to collect semen for the 12-month period following selection.
Bull owner cannot sell or dispose of a FRTP bull for the duration of the Progeny Test (one month after the carcase data of the FRTP bull is published) unless LIC releases the bull from the agreement prior to this date (reviewed at 3, 6, 12, 15 and 30 months after progeny are born).
Bull/s can be used for natural mating and straws may be used for the purpose of artificial insemination (AI) in registered beef stud cows, both domestically and internationally.

2) $11,250 excluding GST

Full cost of being in the Progeny Test.
All rights to the bull remain with the submitter.

How to submit a bull

Step One: Click the link below to open the form
Step Two: Fill out bull nomination details
Step Three: Click Submit
Step Four: Check your inbox for a follow-up confirmation email.

Nominations must be received by Monday 24 July, 2023.

Nomination outcome will be communicated by Friday 11 August and successful nominators provided with a Bull Owners Agreement for signing.

Important information:

Bulls must come from herds implementing industry best practice recording programmes and using genetic evaluation/EBVs.

Emphasis will be placed on: Gestation Length, Birth Weight, Calving Ease, 400 Day Weight, 600 Day Weight, Eye Muscle Area and Intramuscular Fat %.

Please note, this year only homozygous polled bulls will be successfully selected under the LIC ‘First Right to Purchase’ entry option.

Each bull selected will be used across at least 60 dairy cows. Note that in some cases semen might be used across multiple years, to contribute to robust links across years. A minimum of 45 straws will be used in the first year a bull is submitted.

Selection of bulls will be made by a selection panel, comprised of Science Project Lead Nick Sneddon (Massey University), representatives from Pāmu, B+LNZ Genetics and LIC.

The DBPT will not accept sires from farms under Mycoplasma bovis control. This includes infected properties, properties under restricted place notice, notice of direction and assessment.

B+LNZ Genetics will submit one semen straw from each accepted sire to an IANZ accredited laboratory (of B+LNZ Genetics choosing) where DNA will be extracted and stored long term. Once extracted, the DNA will be genotyped (by a laboratory of B+LNZ Genetics choosing) using a 100K SNP Chip product. The genotype will be owned and held by B+LNZ Genetics and can be made available to the sire contributor at their request.

The extracted DNA from each sire can be made available at the request of the sire contributor (and with permission from B+LNZ Genetics), for further DNA testing if required. (e.g. for Parent Verification and Genetic Defect if applicable).

One semen straw will be used for a post-thaw semen quality testing. If a bull fails this test, he will be excluded from the Progeny Test.