Homing in on top cattle traits in New Zealand

A recent survey conducted by Beef + Lamb New Zealand, in collaboration with the Ministry for Primary Industries and the New Zealand Meat Board, through the Sustainable Food & Fibre Futures partnership INZB programme, has revealed that New Zealand beef farmers place a strong emphasis on cattle traits such as fertility, functionality, and feed efficiency. The survey, which gained responses from over 700 farmers and rural professionals, aims to guide the direction of the INZB programme in creating a genetic evaluation system tailored to the New Zealand beef industry. Additionally, the programme plans to develop user-friendly tools to facilitate data management and decision-making for farmers, and will incorporate New Zealand-specific indexes to ensure industry sustainability and profitability. The survey also indicated a positive response towards the use of breeding values and indexes, highlighting the importance of advanced genetic evaluation methods in improving herd performance and efficiency.