Lowering client herds’ footprint goal for Te Mania

It might not be a highly heritable trait, but Te Mania are pushing for gradual improvements in feed efficiency in their Angus genetics.

Edward Gubbins, Te Mania, Mortlake

Western District Angus breeders, Te Mania, are pushing their breeding direction towards a lower methane footprint.

This comes the industry increasingly focusses on its environmental footprint, and as a major processor, Thomas Food International, recently outlined the pressure it was facing from its customers and governments over the emissions in its supply chain, primarily methane produced by livestock.

Last week, Te Mania hosted a field day at their Merrang property, Hexham, showing producers its new feed efficiency facility.

The project will see 110 animals at a time tested on 16 Vytelle units which monitor each animal’s consumption of feed and the weight it puts on - or its feed conversion efficiency and linked this to its genetic profile.

Te Mania’s Edward Gubbins, who manages the Merrang site, said net feed efficiency was linked with methane output - having an 83 per cent correlation - so the better the animal was at converting feed to growth, the lower its methane output.

Te Mania’s strategy was to breed animals that reduced a client’s environmental footprint of their herd.

“We are quite excited about that, although it is very early stages,” Mr Gubbins said.

There was also the major benefit that greater feed efficiency lowered production costs - always in the mind of producers, and something that was even tighter focus during a year when many areas were struggling to produce good pasture feed, and supplementary feed costs were rising, he said.

“The heritability of Net Feed Intake is similar to traits like growth, meaning we can make good genetic progress by increasing selection pressure on net feed intake,” he said.

While there was much discussion within the industry about emissions intensity of different enterprises and management techniques, Mr Gubbins said emissions intensities were now generally worked out as a “blanket figure where each animal is treated the same”.

By delving into variations between each animal, Te Mania hoped to be “on the front foot” and able to select more efficient animals.

“Its on the radar for our clients, especially in these economic conditions where feed costs are high and people are also thinking about how that plays into the social license (space) re emissions,” he said.

Meanwhile, Te Mania’s will offer 113 bulls at Walgett, NSW, on August 13.

“It’s looking promising in that part of the world, there is a bit of feed around and herd numbers are building,” Mr Gubbins said.

Te Mania is conducting a net feed intake trial.

Margaret Hallyburton, President of the Western Victorian Angus Region attended a field day at Te Mania last week. Pictured with Tamás Pable, Net Feed Intake Manager at Te Mania Angus.