Dairy Beef Progeny Test: call for bull nominations

Friday 23rd May 2025

B+LNZ Genetics are excited to call for expressions of interest for the 2025-mating of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test. 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. 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.

Last year, the Progeny Test moved from Pamu’s Renown farm to five new host farms across three regions. These host farms are two Dairy Trust Taranaki farms, two Massey University farms and an owner-operated commercial dairy farm at Five Forks near Oamaru. The move to include more host sites was driven by a desire to include a better cross-section of farms across more regions and to better showcase the outcomes of the Dairy Beef Progeny Test. Bulls selected within the programme will be mated to Kiwi-cross cows, Friesian-cross cows and a 70-80 strong Jersey herd - with a mix of bulls used across the 5 sites. i.e not all bulls will be used on all the host farms.

Entry Costs

The price of entry is $2,500 per bull selected to participate.
Bull owners to organise semen collection (120 straws) at their own cost, to be delivered to either Xcell Breeding Services, Tararua Breeding Services or Animal Breeding Services.
All rights to the bull remain with the submitter.

Important dates

Monday 30 June - Expressions of interest close
Week starting 21 July - Nomination outcomes communicated and successful nominators supplied with a Bull Owners Agreement
Friday 12 September – Semen required at Breeding Centres

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 30 June.

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 %.
Bulls must be homozygous polled.
Selection of bulls will be made by a selection panel, comprised of Science Project Lead Nick Sneddon (Massey University), representatives from the participating dairy herds and B+LNZ Genetics.
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.

If you have any questions about the nomination process please email us info@blnzgenetics.com

USEFUL LINKS

Report: Dairy Beef Progeny Test Report - July 2024

Article: B+LNZ’s Dairy Beef Progeny Test enters new phase
Article: North Otago dairy farmers host B+LNZ’s Dairy Beef Progeny Test
Article: Dairy Trust Taranaki hosts B+LNZ Dairy Beef Progeny Test