The across-breed Beef Progeny Test uses Angus, Hereford (pictured) and now Simmental genetics to identify the performance of agreed-on traits. Photo: RNZ/Carol Stiles
One of the country's largest farms will be the first in the North Island to take part in a Beef and Lamb NZ genetics programme.
Lochinver Station on the Rangitāiki Plains near Taupō joins Pāmu's Kepler Farm near Te Anau as a progeny test site for the Informing New Zealand Beef (INZB) programme.
The across-breed Beef Progeny Test uses Angus, Hereford and now Simmental genetics to identify the performance of agreed-on traits.
Angus cows will be artificially inseminated at Lochinver in January 2023 with Angus, Hereford and Simmental bulls used at the North Island farm.
The seven-year programme is working to improve profitability and to enhance sustainability across the beef industry through the development and adoption of improved genetics.
It would also create easy-to-use tools to enable data to be efficiently collected, managed, analysed and used by farmers to make profitable decisions for their operation.
INZB science lead Jason Archer said the test would gather data which would allow the breeds as well as the bulls to be compared.
"It will enable us to demonstrate the differences and similarities between the breeds, along with the benefits of hybrid vigour, but the main purpose is to evaluate good bulls on the same base.
"Importantly, the expansion into the North Island will allow the inclusion of Simmental genetics into the test. It will give us more capacity to analyse these breeds together as a dataset."
Lochinver Station business manager Steve Smith said the farms team was excited to join the project.
"We have a large focus on beef production and are looking forward to being a part of something that helps build a stronger beef industry in New Zealand. The programme will provide tools to help evaluate across breeds and the data can be used to make more profitable on farm decisions."