Australian heat tolerance ABV attracts international attention
THERE has been “overwhelming interest” in the heat tolerance Australian Breeding Value in overseas markets.
THERE has been “overwhelming interest” in the heat tolerance Australian Breeding Value in overseas markets.
The heat tolerance ABV released this time last year by DataGene is a world-first and is garnering interest from breeders in China and the Philippines.
Genetics Australia export manager Rob Derksen said while the company was more proactive in selling genetics to other countries now, it had been speaking about the heat tolerance ABV and it has had a lot of interest.
For the past four years Mr Derksen said Genetics Australia had attended the largest dairy event in China and last year gave a presentation on the heat tolerance ABV.
Mr Derksen said traditionally China focused on genetics from the United States.
“Parts of China are hot and dry, and some of the US Holstein cows are big cows and they get very hot,” he said.
“We are doing a fair bit of export to China at the moment.
“They are looking for high BPI (balanced performance index) bulls, but heat tolerance is always in the conversation.”
“The Philippines is also showing interest in heat tolerance and I think Vietnam, Indonesia and Malaysia will have strong interest too.”
Mr Derksen said other markets he believed would have an interest in heat tolerance were Central America where they had similar conditions to northern Australia.
But like any new trait, Mr Derksen said it took time to breed for it and to get the reliability up.
“We will keep placing more emphasis on heat tolerance because it is world-class research,” he said.
“We’ve just got two large orders for Maebull genetics.
“He has a BPI in excess of 300 and good daughter fertility and while those were the main selling points, his high heat tolerance was a factor.”
DateGene’s genetic evaluation manager Michelle Axford said it made sense Australia was the leader on heat tolerance given the climatic conditions.
“The heat tolerance ABV means farmers can breed animals that are more tolerant of hot and humid conditions,” Ms Axford said.
She said the heat tolerance ABV was just “one of the tools” in the cool cows toolkit.
She said in their latest December ABV release, there were 195 elite genomically tested Holstein females with a heat tolerance ABV of at least 105.
That meant there was scope for breeding programs to accelerate breeding for improved heat tolerance.
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