DairyNZ | Future-focused animal evaluation

Background

In late 2023, the DairyNZ Board convened the Industry Working Group (IWG) to evaluate the current state of genetic improvement in the New Zealand dairy sector. The goal was to determine if substantial improvements could be made to enhance our competitive position in the global market.

The IWG's report, released in July 2024, highlighted that New Zealand's system for genetic gain was not fit-for-purpose, causing our genetic herd to lag behind other advanced dairy industries. Key issues identified included:

A significantly cross-bred dairy herd, requiring a larger reference population for genomic evaluation (estimated at 400,000 animals).
Decline in the quality and accuracy of New Zealand’s phenotypic data.
Lack of confidence among breeding companies and farmers in using genomically-evaluated young sires and sons of sires.
Limited selection pressure on the cow population.

The IWG made several recommendations to accelerate genetic gain for the benefit of New Zealand dairy farmers.

Read the full IWG report

The Future Focused Animal Evaluation (FFAE) Work Programme

Following the IWG report, DairyNZ, NZ Animal Evaluation Limited (NZAEL), Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC), and CRV Limited have collaborated to address the identified issues and enhance the animal evaluation system in the interests of the dairy industry. They formed a Governance Group to lead the FFAE work programme, comprising Chairs or governance-level representatives and their alternates, supported by their respective CEOs. The group is led by independent Chair Rebecca Keoghan.

The Governance Group aims to run this programme for two years, after which it will become business as usual (BAU). The workstreams are the way that the Governance Group is working to address the issues raised by the IWG, and are focusing on:

Establishing a forward-looking National Breeding Objective (NBO) process.
Developing an evaluation system which provides an industry wide, consistent assessment against the NBO (“OneBW”).
Implementing necessary verification processes to provide confidence in the system.
Improving phenotypic data collection to strengthen the accuracy of animal evaluation.
Accessing international expertise to confirm our approaches are technically robust.
Communication and extension efforts to help farmers and others understand the system and play their part in improving dairy herd genetics.
Addressing any commercial, legal, financial, and risk aspects to ensure the system operates effectively and are legally compliant.

Updates on worksreams

Establishing the process for a forward-looking National Breeding Objective (NBO)

Current status:
A new process for ensuring that the NBO is forward looking has been developed and includes representatives from major industry bodies (LIC, CRV, DairyNZ, NZAEL, Fonterra, International experts and farmers). Next steps are to investigate specific topics to determine if they could be included in BW to improve the NBO.

Developing OneBW

Current status:
Efforts are underway to create a BW index that is fit for purpose for the NZ context and that will be accessible to all and widely accepted across the industry. This will start with a prototype that is being developed with input from world leading geneticists.

Verification processes

Current status:
New verification processes will be developed as part of the technical work on the unified BW index to ensure the accuracy and reliability of genetic evaluations.

Improving phenotypic data collection

Current status:
Initiatives to enhance the quality and accuracy of phenotypic data collection are being explored.

Accessing international expertise

Current status:
Collaborations with international experts are ongoing and being woven through the other workstreams to bring the best practices and innovations to New Zealand.