NZM and Beef + Lamb New Zealand have developed good practice guidelines for the on-farm slaughter of sheep, with input from the Ministry for Primary Industries, Massey University and Young Farmers.
Contact Monica Schwass to request a copy of the guidelines (or download a copy here).
NZM was proud to join other Primary Growth Partnership (PGP) programmes at the annual PGP Expo in Wellington on 1 November 2016. The annual event celebrates PGP efforts to accelerate market-driven innovation to boost productivity and value across the primary industry value chain.
Close to 100 people from the NZM grower community joined us in Omarama on 25 October 2016 for the NZM Open Day & AGM.
The Open Day included updates on:
Click here for the handout from the central progeny test site visit.
As part of the FeetFirst project (which is co-funded by NZM, Merino Inc and the Ministry for Primary Industries through NZSTX) we have undertaken an evaluation of the Lincoln footrot gene marker test (LFGMT) in collaboration with AGBU and AgResearch.
A summary of the results can be found here. In this document, the relationship between the LFGMT and the incidence and severity of footrot in rams and their progeny is explored.
The positive news for the industry is that the wider FeetFirst project is showing that there is exploitable genetic variation in the resistance of fine-wool sheep to footrot in the New Zealand sheep population. By shifting the focus from a gene marker test to a breeding value, the New Zealand fine-wool industry will soon have a more accurate tool to successfully breed for increasing tolerance to footrot. For more information, contact Dr Mark Ferguson.
NZM's three-year collaborative Sensing Wellbeing project aims to utilise smart-sensor technology to remotely monitor sheep behaviour, health and wellbeing. While the trials are only in the early stages at the moment, the longer-term aim is to monitor animal welfare in real-time across an extensive farming situation.
If successful, Sensing Wellbeing will deliver a whole new level of understanding about sheep behaviour, and will make it possible to detect animal welfare issues (such as misadventure, injury or illness) earlier than is usually possible in extensive production systems.
The first phase of the project is focused on identifying reliable (and measurable) behavioural patterns to determine the wellbeing of sheep. The next stage involves developing and trialling monitoring systems with the potential to be scalable in extensive sheep production systems.
The on-farm work is supported by consumer insights research that highlights the animal health and welfare issues that matter to consumers.
Monitoring ewes and lambs as part of the on-farm parturition trial.
Will Gibson, NZM's Area Manager for Canterbury and the manager of the fine-wool central progeny test (CPT), won the Ballance Agri-Nutrients Sheep Industry Emerging Talent Award at the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Sheep Industry Awards in Masterton on 6 July. Congratulations from all of the NZM team, Will!
The New Zealand Grassland Association's Hill Country Symposium showcased research from across the industry, generating wide-ranging discussions about the future of hill country systems in New Zealand.
The pastoral industry Forage Strategy Steering Group was launched as part of the symposium. The group aims to increase the productivity of New Zealand grazing systems, and key players from across the pastoral sector are investing in the group.
Click here for the papers from the symposium.
NZM's Production Science Manager Dr. Mark Ferguson spoke at the Lincoln University Foundation's South Island Farmer of the Year field day held at Omarama Station on 26 February 2016. Click here for a great article from stuff.co.nz featuring his presentation.
San Jolly from Productive Nutrition in South Australia spoke with the Red Meat Profit Partnership in February to share her insights into how better livestock nutrition drives profitability. Click on the Nutrition page to hear more.
In this video and case study, we caught up with Mark and Liz Hutton from Charles Hope in North Otago, and found out how a breed change from strong to fine-wool sheep, along with investment in forage development, is transforming their farming experience - and their bottom line. Click here for more information.
In this video, Dr Mark Ferguson and Professor Herman Raadsma give an update on the FeetFirst project – the New Zealand fine-wool industry’s mission to find a new genetic solution for footrot. Click here for more information.
The two key objectives of the FeetFirst project are:
The data being generated by the fine-wool central progeny test (CPT) is crucial to achieving both of these objectives.
We recently collected foot score data for the progeny from the 2014 CPT (following a footrot challenge in the wether progeny). The sire averages ranged from 2.50 to 3.43 (on a 0 to 4 scale), showing the variation between sires in their genetic resistance.
The 2014 CPT sires included seven of the top-performing rams from the ram footrot challenge trial undertaken in 2013-14. These seven rams ranked 2nd, 5th, 6th, 11th, 14th, 19th and 22nd for footrot resistance out of the 41 sires in the 2014 CPT, demonstrating the heritability of genetic resistance.
Visit the central progeny test page for further information about the fine-wool CPT managed by NZM.
NZM would like to congratulate Richard and Annabelle Subtil of Omarama Station for their success in the Ballance Farm Environment Awards. The Subtils and their stock managers, John and Kirsten Mathias, are putting into practice the principles that underpin NZM’s production science programme. They are committed to improving each aspect of their farming operation – from genetics to nutrition, to their on-farm systems.
In this video we speak with Richard and Annabelle about the steps they are taking to lift performance and profitability at Omarama Station - from breeding and feeding, to using new technology to track their progress. Click here for more information.
Lewis Frost (genetics consultant to AllFlex) and NZM’s Production Science Manager, Dr Mark Ferguson, were guest speakers at the Omarama Station field day held on 6 November 2015. They spoke about how estimated breeding values (EBVs) can be combined with electronic identification (EID) to build a high performance Merino system.
The focus at Omarama Station is on selecting the right replacements (both rams and ewes), and managing their progeny to help them reach their genetic potential. This means selecting their rams based on both visual appraisal and EBVs for the traits that drive profit, then tracking how those genetics translate into ewe flock performance, using EID.
Already the Subtils are finding that EID can help them separate the passengers from the performers. For more information, click here.
Monitoring the body condition of your ewe flock at key times throughout the breeding cycle – weaning, mating, scanning, set stocking and tailing – is a quick and effective way to ensure that the right ewes are getting the additional feed that they need.
In this video, NZM’s Production Science Manager Dr Mark Ferguson shows how condition scoring is done. Click here for more information.
In collaboration with Murdoch University in Western Australia, NZM is studying how reducing mob size at lambing can lift lamb survival and pay dividends at weaning.
Initial results show that the difference, in twin-bearing ewes, between a mob size of 250 ewes and a mob size of 100 ewes is 16 extra lambs weaned per 100 ewes! To put this in perspective, the average condition score of the ewes would need to be lifted by about 0.5 of a condition score (e.g. from 2.5 to 3.0) to achieve a similar result.
We are collecting lambing data from across New Zealand and Australia, as well as undertaking mob size trials on selected properties. Thank you to those who have already contributed their lambing results. If you would like to be part of the study, contact the NZM Production Science Team.
In this update, NZM’s Production Science Manager, Dr. Mark Ferguson, talks through the scanning results from the 2013 CPT ewe progeny, who have been mated naturally as two-tooths. The scanning data shows how the sires of those ewes have impacted on the reproductive performance of their daughters. Click here for more information.
By body condition scoring your ewes at scanning, and allocating the best feed to twin-bearing ewes with a lower condition score, you can dramatically increase lamb survival and weaning percentage.
Click here for a fact sheet about boosting your overall lamb survival by priority feeding twin-bearing ewes – particularly those in lighter condition.
In these two videos, NZM’s Production Science Manger, Dr Mark Ferguson, speaks about the genetics of footrot and why we are developing a new genetic test to build more resistance to the disease in New Zealand's fine wool sheep, as well as giving an update on the FeetFirst project (including the development of a genomic breeding value (gBV) for footrot resistance and the expanded central progeny test).
There are three key things that need to come together in order for a footrot outbreak to occur on a farm – there needs to be a host (and, unfortunately, our fine wool sheep are one of the more susceptible hosts in the sheep world), the bacteria that causes footrot (Dichelobacter nodosus), and the right environmental conditions (sufficient warmth and moisture for the bacteria to multiply).
Both the environment and the presence of the bacteria are very difficult to control. However, through breeding, we are able to select sheep (the potential host) that are less susceptible to footrot infection. This is why the aim of the FeetFirst project is to build a new genetic test that will enable us to shift the fine-wool sheep population over time to be more resistant to the disease.
In terms of resistance to footrot, there are many attributes that contribute – from the the sex and age of the animal, to the breed of the sheep and the different genetics within that breed, to the interaction between the sheep’s genes and its environment.
Many genes across the sheep genome are associated with footrot resistance. Therefore, looking at a single gene marker will only ever give us a limited picture of an animal’s genetic resistance to footrot.
The new genetic test will be in the form of a genomic based breeding value for footrot resistance. The test looks at the whole genome and tells us which sets of genes contribute more to resistance (or susceptibility).
The focus is not on finding an individual animal that is resistant to the disease; it is about moving the whole fine-wool sheep population to a state that is more resistant.
This does not mean every animal within that population will be resistant to footrot – it simply means that, on average, the population will be more resistant than it is currently.
We would like to acknowledge the great support from the industry for the FeetFirst project – our growers who contributed through DNA sampling of their sheep, all the vets who assisted with sampling, and our co-funders Merino Inc. and the Ministry for Primary Industries (through the New Zealand Sheep Industry Transformation (NZSTX) project).
We have collected DNA samples from several thousand sheep on commercial farms – both sheep that did and did not get footrot under a challenge – and analysed the DNA to get a genotype from each animal.
This first dataset allowed us to make an initial prediction of the heritability of footrot resistance in fine-wool sheep of between 20 and 30 percent. That is, approximately 20 to 30 percent of the variation between individuals is explained by genes. This represents an opportunity for New Zealand’s fine-wool sheep industry to make some significant gains.
A second dataset, which consisted of sire genotypes only – it was unknown whether the sires were resistant to footrot or not – was compared to the first dataset and we were able to predict the likelihood of those sires (and their progeny) getting footrot (see graph below).
The third dataset we have is the central progeny test data. A large number of progeny have been bred from a range of industry sires nominated by the stud sector. We have challenged the male progeny with footrot and scored each of the individual feet. That information has been utilised to validate the initial dataset and again we found that the predicted heritability of genetic resistance to footrot is between 20 to 30 percent in fine-wool sheep.
The results show a big variation in the genetics out there for resistance to footrot. Our aim is to help the industry identify the animals that are more resistant to the disease. This will provide ram buyers with greater access to rams that are more resistant and, over time, make their own flocks more resistant to footrot.