Gavin Falloon  

Gavin Falloon  

Gavin Falloon  

Gavin Falloon  

Gavin Falloon  

By now you should have a better understanding of  our programme,  why it works and how it works.  It is clear when you think about it that time is the essence and the more years that we go the further progress we make.  The theory says that we should begin to gather speed as we gather the high performing genes and add them to our population.

When I began, the geneticists informed me that he had no idea what was going to happened Because as far as he new it had never been done before all he knew was that it worked and he did not know whether other systems did!

There is a  research herd of Herefords at Miles City Montana that has been closed since 1935 thirty years ahead of ours and is still going strong with no indications of inbreeding levels becoming a problem.
Because we knew that is was going to take many years,  we went to great trouble to make sure that the foundation bulls were as physically and temperamentally as sound as possible

What has pleasantly surprised me is that the programme is producing better and better classical conformation animals.Both cows and bull are becoming  more bulkier probably in response to seasonal change and their necessity to adjust to their grasslands environment.

I shall continue on population genetics next month.

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A drought has been threatening on the east coast of New Zealand again this year, but in our district it has been narrowly avoided by light rain at crucial times.  We were becoming very concerned two days ago but it is raining today and it began last night. The country is already beginning to change colour and if the rain continues until tomorrow as predicted, then it will be a big help in flushing the ewes for this coming lambing. We require a good percentage of calves and lambs this year as product prices are continuing to retreat.
Like all countries the economic crisis is beginning to bite and I predict that it will get much worse.

American Ranchers continue to show interest in our breeding programme, we get a number of them turning up to see what is happening and what sort of cattle  we are producing each year .
We suggest that Americans or any other overseas cattle breeders  wishing to see the cattle should warn us, as Summer is a very busy time. It can take sometime to arrange for someone who knows the programme to be available with the cattle you wish to see.

My bit of research for the beginning of 2009 is “Population Genetics” which is what our programme represents.

We do not line breed because our whole population within a herd is one line, and is treated as such.  We do not mate son/mother and very seldom mate half siblings.
Our sire bulls come from anywhere in the herd, One of our problems is to use a top cow’s offspring sparingly, even though they are by different sires, . We must not tie ourselves to any particular female line because of the inbreeding co-efficient.

Every cow’s production covers the full spectrum of variability.   By this I mean that if you have a cow herd variability of, say 100 kilos between the best and the worst calf,.then every cow can vary that 100 kilos.Just because a calf is out of  your best cow it, does not  mean that it  is necessarily  a great calf .

Remember the Genetic Saying:

“Any animal demonstrating superiority for any characteristic, carries with it its heritability for that characteristic(as estimated) regardless of the performance of its parents.”

This theoretical point, negates the use of historical records used by the existing BLUP recording system,   and in fact, means that many high performing animals are lost to the industry because they are written down by BLUP.

I have quoted in the past our experience with a calf which at 200days weighed 100 kilos above the next best calf.  The BLUP programme wrote him to below average because of the past poor performance of his parents.

Regardless of BLUP we used the calf as a sire and he had a dramatic effect on the weaning weight of his progeny.Had we taken BLUP’s figures we would have culled the bull and he would have been a great loss to the industry.

What occurred, was what  happens rarely, in the sampling of the genetic material of both parents he happened to pick up all the high performing genes for preweaning growth.

Remembering that weaning weight is 80% the ability of the calf to grow pre-weaning and only 20% the milk of its mother.”

Gavin Falloon

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It is Christmas time again, just where did the last year go?  While you in the Northern Hemisphere are under snow, we are in a heat wave and in the beginnings of another drought. 

This will be  the third season in a row.  I cannot remember ever having drought of this frequency ever before. 

We had a smidgen of  rain last week and some more is predicted this week, but as the weatherman tells us that it is supposed to be raining now; his accuracy is in doubt.

Goodness knows how the poor old cows will handle another drought, it has certainly taken its toll. The Angus sales  held up reasonably well last year and do not appear to be affected, much if at all, by the economic  chaos we are all experiencing at the moment.

This week I am returning to animal breeding programmes and to show how and why they work.

Firstly you must set objectives.   They must be realistic and not be altered unless economic or some other equally important factor, forces a change.

Every populations has good and bad genes in it and these genes remain the same for each population until a successful and concentrated programme is implemented and has been running for some time.

In your own herd, you have a line of cows that you have, been selecting over years that are the best for your environment, under your management and all the things that make your farm unique.   Because all farms are unique, the objective is to collect the best, high performing genes out of your herd and build them in thus increasing their performance.

If you are purchasing bulls, then I would suggest that you select your own best bull and use him as a comparison to the purchased bull.   In this way you have always a check on the purchased bull.If you observe your own mob of bulls carefully, you will observe a bull that will stand out from the rest.

Remember the saying:   “Any bull exhibiting superiority for any characteristic, that bull carries with it the heretibility ( as estimated) for that characteristic regardless of the performance of its parents”.

In any mating, half the genes come from each parent , and this sampling is purely by chance.
That bull, that in your herd has happened by chance to get the high performing genes out of both parents making him superior.Is your purchased bull as good?

 The next year you do the same, but pick the best bull of that year.  

 If you are uncomfortable with this idea then just give your own bull a small number of cows, but they must be of all ages, preferable a random selection

Every time that you purchase a new bull, repeat this,   you will find it an interesting exercise.
You may not be as far behind as you had thought!

Happy Christmas to all readers of my Letters.

Gavin Falloon

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Spring has arrived at last and grass is growing and stock are picking up after a torrid two years of drought and low prices. 

Like the whole world we await what is going to happen the world food prices, but our dollar is weakening, so that should help to cushion any beef price crash.   The world has to be fed, now more than ever, and there appears to be shortages everywhere .

The last three years of drought has dropped production of sheep and beef over here and what with the acceleration of dairying, sheep and beef is only going to get harder to come by.   The dairy boom cannot last forever as of every thing markets are cyclical.  

Going to be interesting to see the country that is unsuitable to dairying come back into sheep after the very high conversion. There is going to be some big losses.
We shall just go on breeding our bulls and improving all their economic traits, slowly and steadily and let the world go on by.

Closed herd breeding must be approached with caution.  Firstly because there are these two problems which immediately come into focus.

First there is the “Bulmar effect”. This exhibits itself in a way that I cannot explain and as far as I know no one else can explain.

No matter what pressure that you put upon selection, you go backwards and you drop quickly.
How far you drop seems to be a factor of the herd , its previous history management and perhaps environment.It is not until you hit bottom that you begin to climb.

What must always be remember is that you can go just as fast backwards , if you make bad decision as you go forward , which means that data must be observed closely to check that you’re herd is going in the right direction that you have decided.

Overcoming the Bulmar effect can take up to 10 years.

The next and can be bigger problem is, as your inbreeding level begins, if you have any recessive material residing in your herd it begins to appear.   

If you disregard these recessives they become exacerbated, and more and more appear each year.  
 
I have pointed out that every time that you buy a bull or cows, you import any problems that herd may have.
I cannot exaggerate enough how important the bull is, because half the genes for that generation of calves come from that bull.

I shall stop there because there is enough for you who read my Newsletter to think about.   Because that is what they are for!

Put them in the back of your mind and when you have time ,get them out and think about them. If all my writings are not logical, do not accept them! One more Newsletter before Xmas!

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Spring is here and we have been having a succession of the most beautiful days   The grass is at last growing and all the stock are recovering from a most difficult Winter and last years drought. On the farm as yet we have not been effected to the same degree as overseas by the tumult of the world ecomonies. It  will be interesting to see if it begins to effect prices of stock in the coming season.At the moment all is fine and lets hope that it remains so.

Research

All populations are loaded with recessive genetic material.   These recessives occur more often or less often, but   because of the constant out crossings, seldom exhibit themselves unless breeders  begin to use sons across half sibs, or some other method of inbreeding or linebreeding.   Then the recessives come to the fore in various forms.

A geneticist looks at this problem and asks the following questions:

Once those three questions have been answered then he decides whether it is important enough to deal with .   Dealing with recessives takes a lot of time and can be  very expensive.Identification of the gene, of course, makes it much faster, and much cheaper, as only the only animal identified as carrying the recessive need be  culled. Some years ago , I was involved in the  control of a rogue gene.   The reason that this became important was that it was in humans as well as cattle,  so the experimenting could be done in cattle without upsetting people. The scientists collected 25 known carrier cows and two known carrier bulls to which the cows were mated.Because of my identifying calves at birth, I was given the job of calving them.Any calf that was born dead or died shortly after birth went straight to the university.  It was blood tested and had tissues taken.

The results was a perfect mathematical model.   25% clinicals, 50 % carriers and 25% skipped the gene and were clean.This perfection was most unusual with such a small number. It must be remembered that to have a clinical,   an exhibition of the gene, means that there are a number of carriers standing behind the parents.But these are easily identified once the gene is found and cattle can be DNA tested to find those animals that are carriers.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - September, 2008

Today is Saturday the 13th of September and it is the most beautiful warm Spring day. Weather forecast is for it to remain so until at least the middle of next week. Lets hope that Spring has arrived at long last.   The Weather has been cloudy, cold, and persistent rain for the last 3 weeks.   Because of the cold there has been very little grass growth.   The vagaries of the weather that us rural farmers have to put up with, uncomplaining of course.   If we get the weather as predicted, then Spring will be well under way

The price of beef and lamb is rising, either because of our dollar weakening or else due to demand.   Probably because of both. 

 It means that sheep and beef farming , with any luck will return to profitability. 

 It may even stem the decline in sheep and beef numbers both of which have been under serious decline

My bit of research this month, is the second of two articles by Russell Priest on the breeding cow and how to raise profitability…

 

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - August, 2008

 We must have recovered all the water missing from last summer drought.  All we need now is some sun to bring on some growth.  

Stock generally through out New Zealand is light this year as there has been little growth since the drought broke. Most of the supplement feed has been taken up by the Dairy Industry which is on a very prosperous high.

In fact a lot of the previously used fatten land has been converted to dairying bringing with it a distortion in the sheep and cattle farms.  Out here, most of the high and steep country is used for the breeding of the lambs and beef calves while the better low-lying country was used for finishing.

Now that has all changed, because of dairying and the finishing of sheep and beef has become more difficult.

Predictions are for the price of proteins to rise in this coming year and that will be a welcome relief.  It always surprises me what a strange animal humans are.

Surely the production of food is the most vital of all careers.  After all we can do without fast cars, yachts etc. Yet if we run out of food people begin to complain.  

People will spend a fortune on a race horse, and all they are doing is to buy the right to spend another fortune on training entering it in races.

Yet they will spend a minimum on a bull which effects their production for a hundred years.

It has always been my belief that the first responsibility of any government is to protect and improve its soils, and educate those who are responsible for their care.

As part of this months newsletter, I include the following article, reproduced with permission from Russell Priest, Meat & Wool NZ's Beef Genetics Coordinator.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - July, 2008

When winter comes,  spring is not far behind. We are past the shortest day and so far it has been a kind winter. There has been little growth but it looks as though we will make it, and come out of it in reasonable shape.

We are currently receiving good rain and so this should fill the water table and the dams for next summer. The big South Island lakes are still low in water so this affects our hydro electricity. Not funny when a country like ours with all this valuable water should run out of electricity just through Government inaction and incompetence.

This month I am going to run through the equation that is the basis of all animal breeding. To begin with “ a Geneticist is a mathematician” so every thing he does has to be  completely logical.

So here is the equation the maxims amount of progress in any breeding programme is govern by:

“The heritability of the characteristic or characters that you wish to improve multiplied by the selection differential, and divided by the generation interval”.

 So let me explain what this means.

Heretibility means the amount of a character transferred to the next generation. In the case of growth, which is a quite a  simple characteristic, it is 48% or near enough to 50%.

So if you are using a bull that is 20 kilos above average in your herd, this bull’s progeny will be 10 kilos above herd average.

The trouble is that when you buy a bull you do not know whether it would carry with it its superiority in your herd, you do not know how it has been fed, or the environment that it was produced under, compared to your own.

There is a genetic saying “bulls reared under a low environment will perform just as well as though reared under a high environment when subject to a high environment.

But the reverse is not true. How often do we see highly fed bulls collapse under normal farming conditions, often never to recover.

I shall continue with the explanation next month.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - June, 2008

 

The universe is dominated by Nature ( or call it what you will). Man thinks that he can decide what the world requires, what he wants, and can control it. Then along comes some disaster and in one moment in time it demonstrates just how puny man is, intellectually as well as physically. Man is just an animal just the same as any other animal and he forgets this at  his peril Many of his actions and many of the things that he constructs come slap up against Nature and so are destroyed by either disasters such as earthquakes weather or by environmental deterioration.    The universe is not static but is constantly changing as are the animals the  weather and all things in it . These changes may not always be visible but none the less they are occurring If man hopes to achieve anything in his short lifetime , then he should realise that he must work from within the  environment rather then against it.    Many cattlemen are constantly asking what size should my cows be? And of course this question is very important. If you select an animal that is outside its environmental suitability, then the first thing that will suffer will be fertility. You can then change its environment by supplementing it, but this can be expensive and you may not end up breeding an animal that your country wants Thus Nature demonstrates her resistance.

 Why not let your environment decide what the best cow size is on your land and your environment! In fact you do not need to wait while you try, to see what evolves. If you have a recorded herd of cows all you need to do, is to bring the nutrition of your herd to what you will require in the future, then find a number of cows that have calved every year and they will represent the size and shape of cow best suited to your environment.  Then you must purchase or use bulls that represent that shape and size!  You will find that if or as you improve your environment, either by fertilizer grazing or what ever the stock will increase in weight.

 I have been accused of saying that we breed the best Angus in the world.  “Nothing “ could be further from the truth.  I have no idea where we lie in the averages of the Angus breed in New Zealand, and neither do I care. All I do know is that what we are doing works, and that each year the cattle are superior to the year before.  That we are slowly building the high performance genes from out of our population, that these genes are those that perform best under grassland production.  That under our system the theory says there is no end to the improvement. But it is very slow, but it is cumulative    What may have confused breeders, is that I state at the beginning of our website that given our maxim use of “Generation Interval” and “Selection ‘ Differential” gives our herd a lead that cannot be overtaken !!  This just refers to the system that we are using, where time is the essence I All that we are doing in our Breeding Programme is, working within the environment and speeding up evolution.  There is no such thing as a perfect Angus or anything else for that matter. The main object is to keep the variability as high as possible so that the breeder can change the population in any direction at any time that environmental or economic situation’s demand.  Because it is the variation that you use to make progress but also to change direction as if necessary

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - May, 2008

Drought has at last broken and we have been having ideal light rain off and on for almost a month. Grass has begun to grow albeit slowly as soil begins to cool. Hopefully the soil temperature will remain high enough for at least a month to allow us to get some grass ahead of the stock. There is a warm tropical depression coming down from the North arriving next week.   If that comes it should provide us some warmish rain, which would be the best thing for the district.   If my lawn is anything to go by, grass is growing well.

I have told you about the problems in closing your herd. Although these problems may not seem very difficult to overcome, between them they are long term and very expensive. To overcome the “Bulmar” alone can takes about seven to twelve years plus. This is not an expensive time because it requires no culling or reorganisation.

But you must be able to recognises the bottom when you get there and  it is important, for this reason, that your recording  be accurate. Closing your herd means that you do not purchase any bulls and that bulls come from within your own herd. You can however purchase cows. Cows only represent one calf per year in a breeding programme and so have little or no effect. In fact they can be of some value in showing you whether you have made progress or have lost ground.

Recessive genes are different altogether.It can be very expensive as it requires heavy culling and the chances are that you have recessives that you did not know you had, but are building in your herd.This occurs when you purchase a bull carrying a recessive that neither the owner nor you realse that the bull has. When this happens 50% of the bulls progeny will carry the gene in recess.

If you happen to mate two interviduals both carrying the gene, then one in four will be a  clinical.   In other words will exhibit the gene.Two will carry the Gene and one will skip the gene altogether.  In the normal herd that carries recessive material then those recessives will go up and down.   As the number of cows carrying the recessive rises then clincals begin to appear.   The breeders destroys those clinicals and so the level in the herd drops.   He may cull both Dam and Sire of the exhibited clinical.   This will lower the level even further.Making him think misguidedly that he has eliminated it.   Still those animals carrying the gene in recessive remain.

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Pinebank Newsletter - April, 2008

 

We remain very dry and have had no significant rain since the last newsletter.   Going into Winter in these conditions could be difficult as we have no buildup and no reserves of grass. It has always been my experience that stock do far better in the dry than they do in one of those wet flush seasons where the grass goes straight through them.   My theory is certainly being put to the test this year but no rain at all is going a little over the top!

We have just had the National Angus Herd Tour here in the Wairarapa. Our province, demonstrated just how good Angus cattle are at.handling very dry conditions and what great forages they are when put under pressure. The weather must break sometime, all we have to do is to hang on in there, until it happens.  The trouble is that if it comes too late there will be very little grass to help farmers through the Winter.

This month I will explain stage two of the closed herd problems. This is recessive genetic material and how as the closed herd progresses these recessive  genes begin to emerge. If the bull is carrying a recessive gene and he is mated to a clean herd of cows,(ie none of the cows are carriers of the gene , then 50% of the progeny of those cow’s calves will be carriers of the gene. If the bull is then mated to a cow already carrying the gene then one in four will be a clinical,(ie exhibiting  the gene ).  Two will be carriers and one will skip the gene. This is not a lecture in population genetics but rather to explain what happens when you close a herd. Every time  you purchase a bull and use him in your herd, you bring in all his recessive genes if he has any.Plus all the problems that may be inherit in that herd.

In the closed herd any recessive genes exsistant in that herd  will appear over time, and have to be delt with.   You do this by culling all related  progeny plus dam and sire. It can be a very expensive exercise and takes about 10 years before all recessive genes dissapear. In one year 80% of our sale bulls we culled on bad feet and legs. I said to our geneticist “we can not afford this”   He replied “Hang on in there and we will go over the top” and we did, the next year we had no bad feet, and we have had very few since.

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Our district has remained very dry.  No decent rain fell last week although N.Z. got some good falls in other areas.   Most of the stock in our area is now being supplemented and there appears to be no relief in sight.We are now back in a big high and weather has become hot again.   The Govt is just beginning to accept that the situation is becoming serious

 The Pinebank Programme is not   “Linebreeding” but is “Population Genetics”.   They are quite different.   Linebreeding sets out to improve the same bred selected lines of animals in your herd.

Population Genetics sets out to lift the performance of the total population of the animals that you are breeding.. Its objective is to gather together the high performing genes for all the characteristics that you wish to improve and build them into the population. As the genes gather so does the performance improve.   This is why it is an ongoing process and it is time, which is the essence.

In terms of improvement the 43 odd years that we have been going, is just a breath.   As I have said before the programme was originally based on 120 years .  After which we can just move sideways and go for another 120 years.

 Lets hope that my descendants have the vision and determination to carry it on.   Undoubtable there will be  challenges in the future as there were in the past, .but it is  interesting and rewarding.  

Linebreeding  has a large percentage of inbreeding, and inbreeding carries with it its problems.   When your inbreeding gets too high the first thing that suffers is  fertility ..   If you continue then your variation begins to disappear.

I often hear the comment that I want my bulls as even as peas in a pod!You do not, because as I have mentioned in the past variation is the means to improvement.   No variation, , no improvement possible.   The bigger the variation the more and faster improvement can be made.In our herd, the top of the variation in bulls is used each year.   Now lets look at what happens when you close your herd.   Make no mistake this is a long and expensive business, and that is why we do not recommend it.

The first happening is that you go into what is called the “Bulmar” effect.   It is a phenomenon that does not appear to be clearly understood.   At least no one has been able to explain it too me.

You go backwards.   No matter what you do your performance in your herd drops.   How far you drop, no one knows, but it is thought to be to the average level of the population of that breed in your country.

But let me again say that no one seems to know..   Because it is of no interest in the production cycle, then, as far as I am aware no one has done research on it.Anyway the Bulmar can take anywhere from 7 to 10 years to hit the bottom, then you are on your way to a very slow and steady improvement.The big thing about it, is that it is calmative and additive.   I think that there is enough in this letter for you to think about ! But it is only half of closing your herd so I shall continue next month

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - February, 2008

Dry,dry, dry.  Most of the country is in the grip of a  big drought.   With many areas being designated a disaster area.   No rain in sight either, when will it end no one seems to know. In our area we have been missing even the small showers that have in many places kept the supplementary feed crops going.   Farmers have no way of killing stock, as the killing works are jammed full with lamb kill.   Most of the lambs are being killed at lower weights due to lack of feed.   Even the dairy districts are complaining and have been included in the drought.   Something that is unprecedented.  Australia was worse then we were but now they have mostly had good rain, even floods in some places

I promised, this month,  to explain to you how closed herds work. But before I do,. there are some basic facts that you must get your head around.

The first one is: 

“That every bull or cow is only as good as the average performance of its progeny”.

 We cannot move until you have grasped that fact, and when you do then:.

“Therefore his best son is better than his sire ”.

If the best son is 10 kilos ahead of his sire and he mates an average cow,   he will leave sons 5 kilos better then his father.   Simple as that. 

You must get your head around that, because it is the basis of all productive breeding.

Now having grasped that simple fact after some considerable thought, we have another problem:

 “For every year that you use the same bull, you remain on square one.”

You are contributing the same set of genes into your population.   Now you have not a very long life, so if you are going to make any progress, you have to do something about it. You must change your bulls every year, making sure that each year’s bull is superior to last years.

Trouble is that there are big problems in doing so. Do not miss next month’s newsletter when I shall explain closed herd breeding much more fully.                                                                                   

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - January, 2008

The first Newsletter for 2008 and I wonder what the year will bring.   One thing is sure that the weather must be wetter then the drought of last year.   It is drizzling while I write this but we have had very little rain so far.   Everything is crossed that we get more. All the stock prices are down and dropping and the Slaughter Works are playing hard sell with the schedule.

Farmers out here will have to get control of their products past the farm gate.  We are under the control of Companies that not only can not run a business but whose marketing is abysmal.  The only certainty is that the cattle breeding programme will go steadily on and progress one more year.  It is nice to have this certainty.

Last newsletter I was telling you about Computer breeding Programmes and how in a simple Recording system, all calves were bought to being born on the same date, out of the same age dam  so they are directly comparable.

The next system is a herd Improvement Programme which is designed to improve certain characteristics in a predestined direction.   Added to all the calculation is its heritability, repeatability, approximately economic value and many more, plus in the present B.L.U.P. the performance of the animal’s ancestors are included.   All this is done in the cause of making the calculation more accurate.The BLUP stands for “Best Lineal Unbiased Prediction” which sounds very complicated, and is, but is also very sophisticated.

The big advantage of such a programme is that any part of it can be used separately, if that is what you wish to improve.

Its limitation is that it is of necessity ridged and in my experience “   For six years I was doing all the calculations for about 800 cows, and all the bull selection for  four herd.. I was selecting over 20 sires a year..It was before there were any breeding computer programmes”. My biggest problem was that I could see inaccuracies creeping in and I was constantly trying to adjust for them.It probably was not important in a population of that size, but it certainly was important, if I missed a good sire through one of my distortions.

But there is a bigger problem: the theory says “any animal exhibiting a characteristic carries with its heritability ( as estimated), regardless of the performance of it parents”Now if this is right then it is not only possible to have an “outlier bull,” that has such bad figures that it would not be used because its parents were not high performers. In fact this was our experience, where we had a bull that was 100 kilos above any other bull calf of his year at weaning (200days) but because his parents were not high performers he was heavily penalised.

Regardless we used the bull and he was a great success.   He would have undoubtedly have joined the A.I.team had he not had a small fault on one claw. I said it was an, injury.  William suggested it could have been genetic.   We continued to use him more then we use most of our sires.  His progeny test came out very well as we knew it would, and continued to rise each year of his use.

He was eventually sold commercially.   Last year we went to recover him to use him again but he had had an accident and had been destroyed

In a population like the American Angus Association there must be many of these outliner bulls being produced each year. The trouble is that most are unrecognised and are sold on to another herd, probably commercial and so are never used to their full potential.

Our first outliner bull appeared some 6500 bull calf matings after the herd was closed.   The second one arrived approximately 4500 bull calf mating after the first.   The third one came after approximately 3500 matings.

There has been some 6 outlier bull been produced so far and Pinebank 41/97 is of course one of them.

There is another one waiting in the wings which will replace 41.

As the closed herd progresses the length of time between these bulls appearing is deceasing.  I suspect that some time in the next ten years we will get one each year. As each bull appears, the herd makes a leap forward above the standard gain that we make each normal year.

Next month I shall explain how a closed herd works and can and does continue to make improvement.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - December, 2007

Near the end of the year, and it has been as turbulent a year as we have ever had.  Dairy prices have gone through the roof at the same time as sheep and beef prices have dropped dramatically.

The result is that much of the land in the past that has been used for fattening lambs has gone into dairying.   The lift in dairy prices has carried with it a rise in cost across the whole agriculture industry.

Add to this the problem of the weather for the sheep and beef farmers, of which many do not have access to irrigation and many of the sheep and beef farmers could go out of business this year.

Government appears to have no idea of the problems, which is not surprising, as there is no one in Government that knows anything about farming.!!

We began with a unprecedented dry Winter and then we have continued into our normal dry months with no rain.  Lower areas of the East Coast that we are on, and below us into the South Island are already very dry with no prospect of rain.  Goodness knows where we are heading!!.

This month I am going to talk about Recording Systems, their uses and their limitations.

If you are interested in Stud Stock breeding and wish to improve your population, then some sort of Recording system is vital, as it is possible to go backwards as fast as you hope to go forward, if you do not have some method of checking what is happening.

A Recording system Brings every animal to a directly comparable bases.  It is a good system that tells you much about management, direction for selection, what to cull, and as far as I know you can get just as much progress using a Recording System as you can using one of the more complex programme available today

In 1965 when I began our present closed herd programme, there were no recording systems.

Dr Chand did all the calculations in the first couple of years and then taught me to do them so I took over my own calculations.  It became a very interesting exercise. For a period of about three years after the group was formed I did all the calculations, selected all the bulls that the group was going to use and did all the mating.

I found during the period all the limitations of all recording systems.  Computer programmes, are, by necessity ridged.  That means that allowances are static regardless of season and other variability.

 i.e.  18 month heifers get an addition of 15%, 2year cows get 10%,  three year cows get 5%, and any cow older is on her own.

If you are running a constructive breeding programme and making progress, then your 18 months heifers are the most modern part of your programme, they should be well ahead of the 15%.  In fact they are a good indication if you are making progress and how much.

I always adjusted to what I called an environmental adjustment..  I averaged all the yearling heifers and then added what the average adjustment.  I did this with all of the three ages of cows.

Next month I shall talk about The B.L.U.P.  Programme and what I see of its limitations

Happy Xmas to all my readers and a more prosperous New Year.

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Pinebank Newsletter - November, 2007

Green drought continues which means that the country looks vivid and green but there is no grass.  Weather is still cold which is surprising for this time of the year and we are still about 20% down on rain.  North westerly winds keep blowing and continues to dry up the little moisture that we have.  These conditions are from the bottom of the South Island right through to Gisborne.   Rain is predicted for tomorrow but I shall believe it if I see it.  Predications have been way out so far to date.  Capital stock is well down on the East Coast and freezing works have not opened as yet because of the lack of stock.  This makes the stock position worse as farmers cannot kill surplus stock and so they are left holding surplus stock that should go off the farm I remain sure that the government has no idea what is going on as there is no one in Government that has any experience in farming.  Imagine having an economy that is agriculturally based and having a government that is totally ignorant on agriculture.

My little bit on research..  If you select from a low environment, animals produced will perform just as well as those select from a high environment when put on a high environment.    But the reverse is not true.  In other word if you select from a high environment and then put them on a low environment then they will not perform. This finding has a lot of application when breeders are selecting their bull from the highly fed stud stock industry.  How many times have we all experienced highly fed stud bulls collapsing when they come onto breeders farm’s.   Unfortunately this carries on to his progeny.

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Pinebank Newsletter - October, 2007

Very dry Winter right through until September.  Then a little rain but not enough.  Still getting bits and pieces of rain but still need more.  Moving into Spring. A little feed around but little for the cattle.   Cows have finished calving near enough and for some reason the calves are looking very well.  

Cows appear to lactate better when they are lighter but the problem comes when you need to put them on a rising plane of nutrition when they go to the bull.   We appear to be having little trouble with our conception rates even when our cows are light.  The question is how light before we get into trouble, but calves would be suffering I think before conception rate would be seriously affected.

This month I am going to talk about the mating of yearlings heifers and calving them successfully.  We have been mating them for thirty years and so have been through the whole gamete of problems.

I began mating them in the 1970's as Dr Chang told me that as the industry was eventually going to demand it. I had better learn how to handle it and to breed cattle that were capable of calving.

There are many advantages in calving yearling heifers.  Firstly you identify any female whose fertility is doubtful.   Then every female is producing every year and so you have a much more efficient herd.   Fertility is the most important character in herd efficiency.  No calf no money no evaluations, no future.

Also if you have a breeding programme going, the heifers are the most modern part of your breeding programme.  In our case we take the top bull calf out of the yearling heifers and use it, and we have been doing this since the 1980's.  Many of our top sires and outliner bulls come from this age group of cows.

You also get a look a year earlier at cow performance.  We give the yearling two calming before culling , so that we get a better look at their ability.

We mate all yearling heifers except for the very worst, perhaps 1or2%.  Do not forget  that if your breeding programme is any good these heifers should be superior.  You can also get a better look at your bulls performance.

After twenty years of using the total drop of yearling heifer I would have to analyse them and have a look at where the subsequent top performers came from I found that the bottom 10% never left a decent calf.

That the top 1% were likely to be infertile and that the top producing subsequent cows came from anywhere in the middle in a total unpredictable fashion.

I shall discuss what is required in successfully mating yearling heifer next month.

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Pinebank Newsletter - September, 2007

When I began the present Angus Breeding program I was on the Angus Council and it is interesting to note that our cattle were only one vote from being barred from registration.  I had retired when it came to the vote.  The chairman was on my side and it was his casting vote that allowed us to keep registering.  Mind you, I would have taken the Council to court had I known of their apposition and it had been successful. Their concern was that I would breed something that would become far removed from the Angus that were then known.   Knowing their concern, I had suggested that they appoint an inspector from Council that watched the cattle that were evolving. Something that they never took up. In fact no-one ever came to the farm to see what was happening.  Pinebank had a Field day some 40 years after the programme began and one of the Council that had been on with me, turned up early for a private viewing of our cattle.   By this time, the American cattle had begun to flood the Angus breed in New Zealand with its change in type. The Council member expressed surprise that the cattle had not changed in confirmation as such but just represented a very much improved original Scottish type . I was returned to Council that years voted on nationally and a number of council set about implementing recording and the beginning of the new systems. As I voted off a second time I took the opportunity to give a little speech to Council which went like this... Never decry a young breeder that sets out to do something different.  He requires all the support that can be given him.   He is putting his money and lifes work on the line. He may not be successful but what he is doing may hold the seeds of what is successful. What no breed needs, is everyone doing the same thing.   There is no progress in that! All this comes about because everyone in N.Z is still doing the same thing, and time and again, I hear the young breeders being denigrated and it makes me so angry Having suffered the full volume from all quarters of being constantly told that it would not work.  I know how it feels and can and will check the expansion of new ideas I take no joy in being successful.   In seeing the industry selecting man made and often foolish goals.  In our case the environment dictates what animal appears and what can and will handle the ups and downs of normal environmental change

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - August, 2007

Constant cold frost and cold southerly storms have kept the soil cold and so have held back grass growth. Many stock on the East coast are still being supplemented something that is most unusual in New Zealand. Still Spring cannot be far away and today is a beautiful day with temperatures predicted to rise to 16 degrees which will begin growth a little.   Sheep and beef farmers have had a difficult year with 70% shown to run at a loss again this year.   All prices have been rising a little as our dollar drops which we all hope will continue. All meat marketing in New Zealand is abysmal with meat companies competing with each other to see who can sell our product the cheapest..  Something must be done and soon.  The Dairy industry is a constant reminder of what can be done, if only we had that much intelligence in the Meat industry

Research. 

 It takes four and a half of the amount of feed to put on a kilo of fat as it does a kilo of meat.  Fat is an unfortunate product and is constantly being abused but in the animal production cycle it is vital.  The enzymes for fertility are carried in the body fats.  Not to be confused with the hormones, enzymes trigger the hormones which begin the animal cycling.  This is why the fertility in thin cows is low hence the problem with fertility in the dairy industry.  Sheep farmers have known this for years.  Fat is also important as storage of energy and is important to maintain as a buffer for the winter months. In the young animal while it is gaining weight fast it is using its genetic ability to grow in that period.  As soon as it stops and gains weight much more slowly it has reached its genetic potential and is beginning to lay on fat. Pushing an animal hard during its formative years will no increase its skeletal size but becomes a waste of feed. Feeding young animals to make the most of their genetic potential is important, inadequate feeding will effect their lifetime production

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - July, 2007

Wairarapa weather has remained difficult.  We have gone straight from late drought into very cold temperatures and so restricting grass growth.  Much of the on farm stock are being supplemented, something very rare for us.   I do not remember ever having to supplement ewes at this time and for this period before.  There is still little or no grass growing. Let us spare a thought for the South Island that has just disappeared under snow for the third time this year.  Where has the warm winter that the met predicted gone?  Some districts in the centre and on the West coast are having a good season.  Poor old stock being challanged again.

I still hear the comments made by breeders at bull sales that the bull that they are eyeing is going to make them famous. The sooner that they learn that there is no such thing the better .Each individual is nothing in himself  “it is what he produces” that is important.   Breeders work on the assumption that like begets like in other words what you are looking at is what you are going to get.  This is hopelessly optimistic and extremely doubtful.

Every bull or cow is only as good as the average performance of its progeny.  Once you get your head around that, then its best son or daughter is better that it’s sire or dam and there of course is your method of improvement

Not only that but it is doing it in your environment under your conditions under your management etc. How much better can you get then that! How much more can you be sure to make improvement then that in what ever direction you wish to go.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - June, 2007

My apologies for last months Newsletter.  I sent it, but the server failed to receive it.  It was only when one of my readers enquired, that I found out that it was not up, thus it was a bit late

The Wairarapa is very dry .  Unprecedented for this time of year.  Farmers are unloading Capital stock as we move into Winter without the reserves of feed that we normally have.  We will have to hope for a warm Winter (which has been predicted ) and that we will get some growth of grass.. In the meantime young stock are suffering.  We will have to make maximum use of “compensatory growth “ this year.  You remember the saying  “Every animal is genetically coded to reach a given weight at a given age, and that weight can be achieved at any time”. Cows will not return from grazing until just before calving so that means we should be able to save some feed of calving.   Country is our district is usually shut up at the end of May . For cows calving in beginning of September. For some reason the rising 2 year in calf heifers are holding on well.  All our yearling heifers are put to the bull and those failing to conceive are culled.   This is the first culling of our female stock.   The second cull comes after their 2nd calf, when calf weights are considered.

My bit of research.  In the present system of breeding where the breeder regularly purchases bulls, that bull carries with it all the recessives and instability existent in its parent herd.  The same applies to a cow of course. You can improve growth by this method of selection but that growth carries with it the extra food demand relevant to the extra growth.   If you cannot or do not supply that food, then the first thing to suffer will be fertility. Fertility is the most finely balanced trait in all biological species. We are now entering a period when we will be making use of the two genetic sayings “Every animal is genetically coded to reach a given weight at a given age and that weight can be achieved a any time”, and hopefully “the young cattle will be making use of compensatory growth”. It has begun to rain, steadily   Now we just have to hope for a good growth.

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Pinebank Newsletter - May, 2007

It has been a dry summer on the East Coast and we still have not had enough rain to start the grass growing.   Added to a very low lamb schedule means that our coast has had a difficult season. Cows have gone off grazing which is unusual for us because of the treat of T.B. or other diseases.  We have our fingers crossed that we shall get away with it on this occasion. It is our cows that I consider is our strongest asset.  Year after year they are subject to the harshest conditions and year after year they conceive with out effort. I have been handling cows all my life, some 60 years now.  In the early times if your cow was not fat they failed to conceive.   If you took too much fat off them in the winter they would not come back in time.  Now they are a different animal.   The pressure that we have been having them under for all those years is showing us just what can be done Fertility must be the main economic character. 

No calf, no profit.

I have some 20 genetic sayings that I have picked over the years from Geneticists that have been to stay.  Over the next period I shall discuss these sayings and explain them -

“For every characteristic that you add to a breeding programme, your progress goes down by “square roots”!

If you have a simple breeding programme and are selecting for one character ‘Growth’ then the heritability is 50%.   So if your bull is +20 and he is mated to an average cow, his progeny will be +10.

That is straight forward enough.  If you have a multi character selection programme and add Dam Traits then you are down to making under 1 kilo per year at the most so you can see how slow progress becomes.  This does not mean that you should not be in a multi selection programme because you must.   There is no economics in having the fastest growing bulls if your fertility is so, that you only have very few of them.   Dam traits are more important, then growth but less heritability.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - April, 2007

Autumn is upon us and the trees are turning.  Their golden leaves make a beautiful sight in the valley below me.   Grass is short and the country around me still dry.  There has been a little rain but not enough to start the grass.   However more rain is predicted for the end of the week. We will have to wait and see. From where we are we will go into the winter short on grass which will make it hard on the cows again.   Not much rough feed around to clean up this year as well so the cows will end up living on rushes and rubbish. Calving weights are about a kilo down this year owing to the very poor winter last year. The calves should soon compensate.   “Every animal is genetic coded to reach a given weight at a given age and that weight can be achieved at any time” - A genetic saying.

Monthly research: In my wandering around the country, I have been constantly reminded about the concern commented by the older breeders” is the present Breeding Programme pointing their selection in the right direction.”?  If you use the best bull identified on your programme you have a faster growing bull but it also requires more feed.   The object of any breeding programme must be to produce faster growing bulls on the same amount of feed.

Every environment has different requirements and cattle must fit their environment if they are going to become more efficient.   If you close your herd, as we have done, then your environment becomes dominate.   If anyone wishes to see the type of animal that is productive to a high stocking rate of sheep, and is fertile and able to stand the fluctuating feed condition and remain fertile, all they must do is to come and see our herd.  Not only that but you will see bulls that compete, on a lot less feed, then so called best of the American cross cattle and is up with the best of them.

Having cattle that are able to handle an environment is vital if you are going to raise efficiency.

I have noticed latterly that a number of breeders have begun to use some of there own bulls. If at the same time if they demand that every cow calves every year then they will begin to start producing more efficient environment friendly cattle as the years go by.

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Pinebank Newsletter - March, 2007

 
It is getting very dry and no reasonable amount of rain is being predicted until May.  Just the thing to cheer up farmers in a year when all stock prices except beef are down!  Summer has been cold and cloudy until the last month but now it is making up for it.  It is surprising how such a small two islands can host such a variation in the weather.  The mountain range that bisects both Islands has a dominating effect.  Wet in the West, dry in the East. It is water as is always, that plays an important part in keeping the animals going and contented.  Plenty of good clean water and some shade and the animals will keep going. Environment how much does it control our lives as much as it does animals.  An interesting observation is that all humans are the same genus and if you can believe the book the “Seven daughters of Eve” we all trace back to 7 women.  Which means that all the observed differences among us is caused by our environment

My bit of research is going to be a comment   Let us define a breeding programme and its objectives.  Firstly we must define to ourselves whether we wish to improve the animals or we wish to make money.  Unfortunately they are quite different (Making money requires following fashion and giving farmers what they think that they want.

(Improving animals requires often deciding what the industry needs which can be quite (different and may require cutting right across fashion.  This can and often is expensive.

I do not and never have recommended, closing a herd as we have done.  It takes many years , during which time you are unlikely to sell many bulls.   Scientists said to me when they heard that I had closed my herd “My goodness you are game” I did not know what they meant, but soon found out.

In all populations there are high performing genes residing in the population.  I suspect there is the same proportion of high performing genes in the least fashionable herd as there are in the most fashionable. The objectives should be to improve all those characters that make you money, and as in our country, cattle have always been used to keep sheep pastures at their best ,, then the cattle must be able to perform while living off the left over rubbish.

Modern breeding programmes have shown us how to raise our animal growth, but as the growth has risen so has the food required.  We are now at the stage when the cost of supplementary food is making beef production unsustainable. Where have the Range cattle gone?  Because they most certainly have gone!

How can we get them back? That is the test of the modern breeder!!

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Pinebank Newsletter - February, 2007

It has been a funny season, but then I suppose that most of them are. After all they are all different. A very long cold winter put a lot of stress on cows especially as they began to lactate as they were already in low condition.  Calf weights are down this year demonstrating the cow condition effect.  This calf effect is very hard to overcome demonstrating how important nutrition is at this period.

Much to our gratification, at Pinebank, we have come up with another outstanding bull in Pinebank Pinebank 14/02. He demonstrated his superiority in the Glanworth Herd where Joe had borrowed him for the season. 

His progeny test is Calv Ease -0.6 Ges.length-2.2   Bth Wgt+2.8200 dy wgt +27   400 dy wgt +67   6ooDy Wgt+81.

This is only one herd’s progeny test and we are anticipating that he will improve on this, when other herds are included.  Also like some of the Group Herds it is a high performing herd and as such will tend to disguise his true performance.

Either way we have a very real replacement for 41/97 when he has to be replaced.  So much for the future.

My bit of research.   It is clear that many breeders have not read about or do not know that “80% of weaning weight is produced by the calfs ability to grow during this period.  Only 20% comes from milk.”

 These findings comes from Trangie.  Which means that selection for milk is a waste of time and could be detrimental to long term fertility in the cows.

Some years ago I used a bull which had a dramatic affect on weaning weight. I thought to myself how could this be.  The bull does not produce milk, it has no control on fertility or gestation.

The conclusion was its calves grew faster during this period.  So I had no trouble accepting Trangie’s finding, in fact I have know this for many years, with the result that milk production has never been a criteria in my Bull selection, provided that milk was of course adequate .

High milk production in cows lowers their fertility.  This is straight biology.  Lactation is far harder on an animal than gestation, and if your cows are run under commercial conditions then you will find that excessively high milk production cows will keep missing conception owing to failure of cycle.

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Pinebank Newsletter - December, 2006

Too many breeders place too many of their own prejudices on their breeding herd.  They also put their own preconceived ideas on the population of cattle that they are producing.  These are too often based on what their fathers taught them, or, what they think the industry requires. All these goals are laudable if they happened to be right.   There is always a conflict between what the freezing industry wants and what the animal requires in order to be efficient. Freezing industries will wish you to breed a bigger and bigger animal and will constantly bring up reasons why you should.  They want the bigger animal because it costs as much to kill a very big animal as it does a small animal.   As you breed your animals bigger so you must carry less or feed them more and often both.  What you really require is an animal that is best suited to your environment, i.e. in N.Z. a grasslands environment.

Recording programmes are of necessity, rigid.  They must cater for all environments, all farming methods, and make no adjustments for the variations in climate. Farming methods,   soil fertility etc. Climatic changes can often make big differences in performance and ranking of animals.

If you have ever done your own calculations, as I have done, for a number of years, you quickly see errors appearing.   These you try to adjust and correct something that a programme is not able to do.   For instance if you are making “genetic gain” in your herd. The standard adjustment of 15% for yearling heifers is far to much.  In fact seeing how your yearling heifers are performing in relation to your old cows is a good measure to find out how well you are progressing or whether you are actually making genetic gain at all. All this is not a criticism of the existing B.L.U.P. programme but just does indicate the limitations of any computer programme. In fact if the Angus breeders consider that the breed is a Dam trait breed (which it is, although many breeders try to turn it into a terminal sire breed) the BLUP with its accent on historical data is the best possible programme. Dam traits of course are firstly fertility, secondly survivability of calf, then longevity of cow, then the ability to lose and recover weight quickly in order to conceive  etc. Either way the breed has a long way to go to achieve efficiency.

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Pinebank Newsletter - December, 2006

I am picking up a degree of concern about the latest B.L.P. breeding programme and the direction that it is taking the Angus breed.  It is a very sophisticated programme and is largely based upon historical data.

What people are concerned about is its apparent inability to identify efficient cattle as opposed to those responding just to heritability with the consequence that although the cattle grow faster that they take more feed to get there.

Recording programmes are after all just a guide and breeder must use his own knowledge and skill to select his sires. About every so many thousand mating a “outlier” bull appears. Unfortunately the modern breeding programme can disguise these bulls because of their background information. 

The genetic saying goes: “Any animal demonstrating superiority in any characteristic carries with it its heritability (as estimated) regardless of the performance of its parents”. 

Where these animals come from is!

 In any mating genes come together purely by chance.  Every animal has a number of high performing genes.  These outlier bulls just happen to pick up from both parents a number of these high performing genes so out pops one of these superior, sometimes very superior individuals.

The programme, because of its basis of historical data , writes these bulls down. Any breeder will recognise these animals when they appear because they stand out from your population.   These bulls should be used , and they will eventually demonstrating their superiority by their progeny test. There must be a lot of bulls missed because they were never identified and just disappeared into commercial herds.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - November, 2006

It has been a strange Spring.  Soil has remained cold and this has restricted growth.. Some dairy farmers here are already down to once a day milking and they are wondering where they are going from here.  To make matters worse the gale force winds that we have been having are acting like a giant refrigerator and as they suck moisture from the ground they cool the soil even further.  That grass that is beginning to grow is showing a tendency to go straight to seed.

  The cows who came out of a very wet cold winter in light condition are taking a long time to recover.  It will be a big test on their fertility to see how many get back in calf.  To make matters worse it is the second year in a row that they have approached going to the bull in light condition.

 Over the years I have picked up a number of Genetic sayings which I thought that I would share with you and where necessary explain them to you.  These form the basis of all animal breeding. The first one is the equation that you use to make progress

The maximal amount of progress in any Breeding Programme is the heritability of the characters used, multiplied by the selection differential and divided by the Generation Interval.

The heritability for growth is 50%, so that is easy enough.

Selection Differential is how far above the herd average are the sires you use.  So if you are using three sires and they are + 10+6 and +5.  Your selection Differential would be +7

Generation interval is a little bit more interesting.   You must realise that for every year that you use the same bull, you remain on square one.  In other words you make no progress.  A number of Stud breeders use the same set of sires year after year.

“You” are getting older and you are going nowhere.  To make maximum progress you must change your bulls every year and hopefully pick better and better bulls. 

This would be an interesting exercise.

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Pinebank Newsletter - October, 2006

We have gone from what is probably the wettest winter on record, to the driest.   Three weeks of bright sunlight and warm temperatures baked the surface hard. The Met office was predicting a dry season on our coast and so farmers began to think that the drought was already here and so began dumping stock.  Then came the rain which varied all over the district but was adequate everywhere.  But still the grass has refused to grow.  Most farmers a relieved that they took the precaution to lower stock numbers Oh the vagaries of the weather

We began mating 15 month heifers in the mid 1970's at the suggestion of our geneticist.   He said that the industry would eventually demand it, so I ought to be well on the road with experience when the demand came. Much to my surprise there is still very few yearling heifers mated.  Beef farmers must be so rich that they do not require the extra money. Mating yearling heifers has many advantages.  Firstly you get an extra years income.  Then you get a look at your cows, this allows you to get rid of the shy breeders, bad milkers etc. We had been selecting straight for growth for sometime and with the resulting lift in birth weights.   We had a lot of calving trouble at the beginning.  We tried everything to reduce calving problems.  Science told us that the main time of foetal growth was the last 3 weeks of pregnancy, so we reduced feed for the heifers during this period  Nothing worked and we were still having to calve far too many heifers and wrecking some. Because of our breeding programme we have control of our genetic input and so we began selecting for low birth weights. For the last 20 years we have had no trouble calving yearling heifers.  We have found that as the years progress that we are getting what the industry calls more and more “line bending” bulls.  Bulls that have low birth weight but high growth. Next month I shall talk about analysing 20 years of heifer mating and subsequent performance.

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Pinebank Newsletter - September, 2006

We have just been through the wettest Winter on record, but now we are out the other side in the most beautiful weather. The grass is still being held up by too cold ground temperatures, but it must begin to grow soon

Outlook for the coming season, so the met office tells us, is for a dry summer on the East coast, which is where we live. Oh well that is farming and the stock will be tested again to see how they cope with the vagaries of the seasons. Right now the weather could not be better. Day after day of blue skies but cool with temperatures of around 14o. We have had no wind this year so far which is unusual. strong North-westerly wind is very limiting to our district. As the wind blows it sucks the moisture out of the soil acting like a giant refrigerator cooling the soil and stopping grass growth. This is the reason why the East coast often had such poor Spring growth. Not this year so far.

My bit of research

Some years ago it was fashionable to mass screen large commercial herds for selecting the cows which were weaning high weights of calves and collecting them into herds for breeding bulls. These herds were expected to leave calves that were well above average in weaning weight and hence put the breeder well ahead in a herd of efficient cows for bull production.

When you have a large volume of back data of grassland production you can do all sorts of things with it.

I decided to go into my data and theoretically screen the cows for weaning weights and then follow them through to see what happened

I found that it did not work. That you would have done just as well by taking a random herd of cows and begun selecting them for weaning weight. Why? I suspect it is the bulmar effect coming in and everything returning to the average

I sent my data off to the scientists and they agreed that my data indicated that mass selecting did not work

Selecting to improve genetic structure must be intensive, additive, cumulative, and directional.

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Pinebank Newsletter - August, 2006

2006 has been one of the wettest winters on record.  Three times the flat country below us has been covered in water, some of the water has remained lying for up to a week.  The losses in grazing land to dairy and sheep farmers in the Wairarapa and in the lower North island has been considerable.  Large areas of the hill country has slipped away and will take years to recover.  The dam that supplies our garden water has filled in and will require digging out before it can be used But Spring is here and the daffodils and camellia are flowering and although some more very cold weather is predicated the grass is beginning to grow if slowly.

It is strange to consider how out here in the South Hemisphere we are under water while part of  the rest of the world is having droughts.  Pity that we cannot find some method of evening it all out. When I was farming, in the Winter I use to think about trying to store all that surplus water in the Winter, so that is could be used in the dry season.  Very unsuccessful cogitation

My bit of research for this month is telling you about   “Compensatory Growth” in action. Some years ago the NZ Angus Association Council decided that it should go around all its members to make sure that they were keeping accurate records. My Brother and I had just taken over the farm as my father had just died. This is some years ago before drenches etc and we were young. The standard animal management for the stud cattle was in those days  was to wean the calves in among the ewes and lambs and forget about them until the Spring when they were bought in closer , looking thin and potty, and then they were fed a little hay . We showed the records, which had always been kept immaculately, to the inspectors. We then showed the yearling bulls. No comment was made.  The two year bulls were coming up for sale and were down at another farm some short distance away. We were topping or coming second in the local sale each year. So the bulls always came out looking very well as they were this year !  After all the inspection was finished we returned home and had a few drinks before they left. As they were going out the door they stopped turned around to us and in a voice filled with wonder said   “Do you mean to tell me that those yearlings that we saw ,grew into those two year bulls”. We were very surprised because we they did it every year and it never occurred that they would not. So we fell to thinking about this and wondered what would happened if we fed them like everyone apparently fed their calves.  So the next years we fed them hard feed and grain. They were driven down the valley on the hoof as yearlings and were observed critically by all the farmers, some of which were stud breeders, who use to shake their heads. But this year they weighed 100 lbs more then they had ever done before.  The farmers in the valley were surprised and delighted , with many expressions of surprise. At sale time the bulls weighed exactly what they had weighed every other year. In other words we had wasted all that feed that we had put into the yearling.  They were compensating one year to the next. I have been constantly saying that “compensatory growth” is available.  It is free so use it. Our cows are compensating every year as we strip the weight off their backs in the Winter and they efficiently quickly get back their weight in the Spring when the grass comes.  

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Pinebank Newsletter - July, 2006

When Winter comes can Spring be far behind.   Spring may not be far away but we have just been through the biggest rain storm.  Five inches of rain fell in 24 hours.  The entire valley floor that overlooks from our house disappeared under water and remained so for 3 days.  The country was already wet and so there have been quite a lot of slips on the hills which will take some years to re-grow over.  Oh well that is farming, I guess.  William was away having a bushman’s holiday in Australia, and for three days the farm was completely isolated.  You have to cross a large culvert to enter the farm and that was 6 feet under.  Animals had to cope on their own but now that we are back, they seem to have done very well

This month I am going to discuss Breeding Programmes to see if they are filling the breeder’s aspirations. To my mind the objective should be to increase production with-in a given environment.  In other words raise efficiency within your present farming system, soil type and farming method.  If you have a commercial cow herd and it is your desire to replace it with a stud breeding enterprise the stud cattle should be able to fit straight in, and compete, as did the commercial herd, for available resource.

The present BLUP programme with its accent upon Growth plus, Milk makes no account of efficiency.  All the present analysis done to demonstrate how successful the present programme is in raising, for instance growth, just demonstrates a classical response to heredity.  It is easy enough to raise growth; you have to feed them more. If we continue in this manner the logical conclusion   of such a method is to end up with a dinosaur. But you can only afford to run one and although they may look spectacular it would hardly be profitable

There is a very high degree of variability in efficiency which means that there is much room for improvement.  The big problem is to identify those animals that are superior for efficiency. Trangie, in Australia, has done the only study that I know of showed that there is a 100% difference between the efficiency of the best and worst cow in a  population.  Efficiency in this case being “the number of kilos of feed consumed to kilos of calf weaned.”  If you could only identify those cows that were the best and use their sons you would be making progress upon this most vital of characteristics

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Pinebank Newsletter - June, 2006

We are in the month of our shortest day and so far Winter has been kind.  Ground temperatures are still warm but grass has stopped growing.  Cows are now moving into cleaning up mode and during the next 4 months they will loose 40 to 50 kilos of weight.  As they move into the later stages of pregnancy they will begin to gain weight until they calve, after which they must have the ability to lay on some fat in order to conceive again while they are lactating.  Something that our cows have the biologically ability to do as we have no problem with conception rates. Since beginning to write this newsletter we have had a cold Southerly come through which has stopped everything in its tracts.  In NZ there is nothing between us and the antarctic and it does get very cold

This month I am going to tell you what happens when you close a herd of cows and so “all” sires come from within herd. I had better begin by saying that I do not recommend that breeders should close their herds..The time to make progress is too long and the cost is too high First thing is that you go into the “Bulmar” effect. This means that no matter what you do you go backwards. Even if you use the best bull in the world  This can be explained but I am not going to do it here ( as it would take too long). How far you go backwards I do not know.  I suspect that it is to the average performance of the population.   After you bottom out !! You begin to slowly climb.  You can mathermatically calculate  out how much you are gaining per year by the followering equation  “ the heretibility of the factor multiplied by the selection differential divided by the generation interval”. That might sound very complicated but it isn’t The heretability for growth which most breeders begin selecting for is 48% or 50% near enough. Selection differential is how far the Sires you are selecting are above average.  W e are selecting three bulls at +5 +10 and +15 your average selection differential is +10 so  50% of 10 = 5. If you are useing yearling bulls and yearling heifers the shortest generation interval that you can have is 5 years So 5 years divided by 5 = 1 so each year you will make a kilo of gain.  The big thing is that that the 1 kilo that you gain becomes additive and culmative.  There are other advantages too which I shall explain next month.

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Pinebank Newsletter - May, 2006

The good news is that Pinebank has again got its steaks in the “Steak of origin” finals in fact of the finalists, 50% are Pinebank Bred.  Let’s see what happens.  I know that a number of other breeders were very keen to knock us off the top this year and every effort has been made to do so.  Final judging is on this coming Friday.  It will be interesting

We began in Pinebank, testing our sires for the tenderness gene last year and of the 9 bulls that we have tested so far all nine have had the tenderness Alley .( Alleys is a part of the gene)  Gene Star have bought out a new test and in this new test this year we averaged 8 stars for tenderness.

It would appear as though that we have carried the tenderness gene through with those old Scottish cattle that we have maintained.  The present Breeding programme that has been implemented since 1967 has improved the efficiency of the cattle and moved on its adaptability so that today there is little semblance to the original small cattle that were imported in the late 1800's.   Our big challenge is to know ‘as we slowly improve economic factors, how far do we wish to go.Theory says “that there is no end to the improvement in anything biological, it will slow down but it will go on” How far can you push growth without losing, say tenderness and marbling.  I suppose only time will tell us.  As long as variability remains, improvement remains possible.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - April, 2006

We are now in autumn and although the weather has cooled very quickly this year, the ground appears to have retained its warmth and the grass is growing well. 

Calves have stayed on the cows until now owing to the dry spell and lack of feed.  This present flush of feed will allow us to get on with weaning.  Calves were of course weaning weighed at 200 days.

All stock has certainly appreciated the steady misty rains that we have had. Spare a thought for parts of Australia that is very dry and some areas have to sell cows.  Let’s hope that they get their yearly rain in October as usual.

When I began learning about genetics my teacher quoted his “Genetic saying”.  Since that time whenever a scientist has quoted one of these sayings too me I have written it down, and now have a list which I either trot out at the relevant time or take out and study to make sure that I am  remaining  on the right tract. 

The saying was: “The bull with its multiplicity of offspring controls not only the amount of progress in any herd but also its extent. The cow is just a gestation medium for improvement”   Tell that to your wife!!

If you have a single sire herd then half of every calf born in each year belongs to the bull.  How important does that make the bull? There are in every herd some very high performing cows for your environment.  If you can identify them then use their sons.  How much would you be better of than selling that bull to someone to make use of her efficiency?   If you are looking at raising efficiency in your herd then the most important characteristic by miles is fertility.  No calf, no money.  After you have got your calves you can worry about how fast they grow - tenderness of the meat or other factors etc.

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Pinebank Newsletter - March, 2006

The country is drying and we are entering autumn. Rain is necessary while the soil is still warm to give us the grass growth that is important to carry us through the coming winter.  So nature throws up her environ to test both Farmer and animals challenge their ability to cope.   To add to the problem, autumn has come early this year and as we move into winter we hope for rain. How many other farmers, ranchers, and people of the land go through this dilemma most years? Stock are still holding on well but we will be turning out the rams early this year while the condition is still holding on the ewes and looking for something to help us through the tupping.  Lambing percentages could be down next year.

My bit of research is about Compensatory Growth. There is a genetic saying that says:   “All bulls are genetically coded to reach a given weight and a given age and that weight can be achieved at any time”. There is a proviso to this saying, that if the animal‘s skeleton is stunted due to low nutrition in its early life then its genetic potential is never realised. For many years I put my rising yearling bulls under nutritional stress to see which animal could perform the best under those conditions.  The results were surprising from two angles. The variation was very high with some bulls performing right out the top and then a big gap and then others very poorly. I employed a farm advisor to provide an outside look at my farming operation and to give me advise some of which I took and some I forgot.   He commented on my stressed bulls that I would never get them up to saleable weights by bull sale date.  We had a bet that the bulls would not get up to 400 kilos by Xmas some 4 months away. I had grass shut up for them so I drenched them for the first time and put them onto the grass and they proceeded to grow very fast.  In other words they began to compensate.  By xmas I bought them in and weighed them and they had reached on average 420.  Now this happened on a regular basis so I knew that it would occur.  What also happened was that the outstanding bulls disappeared into the mob which meant that the other bulls had caught them up.  However in the particular year that I have in mind one bull was very dominate during the stress period.  Although he went back into the mob in fact the others caught him up, I decided to use him as a sire and he went on to perform very well So impressed was the Farm Advisor that he got me along to talk to a group of top farmers.  At the same time there was a scientist talking on rearing and fattening Dairy Bull s which was and still is a standard way to beef farm in New Zealand.The scientist was adamant that you must never let a dairy bull get under stress otherwise he would never recover. I did not believe him and still don’t but I made no comment..  Animals compensating which means they make more efficient use of their feed and grow much faster until they get to their genetic level is a common phenomena and breeders use it often without realising what they are doing. It is free.  It is economic and it is available so use it. But be careful that animals are fed enough to keep up body heat and to provide enough energy.  But it is not necessary to put on fat during this period I shall tell of another experiment we did that illustrated how we wasted a lot of money feeding cattle through another winter.

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Pinebank Newsletter - February, 2006

February is half way through and on the farm we are in the middle of scanning ribeye and intramuscular fat in the yearling heifers. Shortly we shall be scanning for pregnancy. That will finish with the heifers until calving.  Cows have still to be pregnancy tested and checked for structural soundness. We do that every time they go through the cattle yards.  It has been a good season; every time that it has become dry we have had enough rain to lift things enough.  All the stock is in good order. Bulls have all been sold and delivered.  Bulls kept and used by ourselves as studs have come out from the cows a fortnight ago and are now being blood tested before selection for those bulls that we are going to collect, and are being built up before going to the Centre.  Those bulls kept for 2 year sale next year are coming along well and there are some exceptual bulls among them

Our website appears to have demonstrated that we are producing cattle that will meet the requirement of the overseas markets. In our first year of operating our web we have sold semen and will have calves in 18 states in U.S. and 2 provinces in Canada not to mention in Australia, South America and of course New Zealand. The “Sustainable Genetics” our agents in America refered in a newsletter to a website in N.Z of the “Rarebreeds.co.nz” in which I was reputed to say that the Pinebank Herd came from the “Lowling Angus”.  This is completely untrue. I wrote an article for the Rarebreeds magazine that the Scottish Angus was a rare breed as there were very few in any cattle other that ours left.  I never passed the article that was written and did not know that they had printed an article and put my name to it. Let’s put the record straight.   We have nothing to do with the Lowline cattle.  Our herd was closed long before the Lowlines came on the market.   We would have been 10 years down the tract of selecting our pure Scottish Angus for productive and economic traits by the time the Lowlines appeared. Lowlines may be pure Scottish Angus I do not know but they came from a Trangie experiment where Trangie had three lines of cattle selecting for growth. One was being selected for high growth. One was a control to check progress. One was being selected for low growth.  The Lowline cattle came from the low growth line, and ended up very small animal that the lifestylers could keep in the back garden.

Our cattle are nothing like the Lowliner and never have been.

Soon as I say the article that was in Rarebreeds, I wrote correcting them ,they tell me they have corrected it, I must check and see For those of you who read my Newsletter and 41/97 calves. I await weaning weights with confidence and much interest. If any of you would like to send them too me along with their comparative data of other bulls against them, I will get around to calculating it. I shall return the results back which is actually what is happening. Corrected for age etc but no heritability, no approx economic values, no repeatability, just what has happened Have a good year, and plenty of live calves! They are what makes you money.

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Pinebank Newsletter - January, 2006

It has been a funny season weather wise. No summer sun to speak of, or holiday weather. The upside is that it has produced enough grass, even though it has deteriorated as it has gone to seed and become all top. Great for the cows though, and they and the calves are both doing well. Bulls are out and have been working well and are just about to come in again, in fact many of them are back in already. Using a completely new lot of sires each year means that as they are yearlings, they must be observed very closely to make sure that they are working properly. It was not very long ago that I was approached by one of our research institute’s to enquire whether using yearlings was fertile, and did I find using them successful. We use them of course to speed up our generation interval.

Research.

Upon reading the American Angus Journal I find that conception rates in Angus cows appears to be a problem and that cows appear to be hard to get in calf while out on the Range. All biological species must be able to handle their environment what ever it may be. Fertility must be the most important economic trait as no calf no money, and we can all do with more of that! So what do you do if you have a fertility problem? Firstly you make sure that you do not have a disease problem. Then you look to see whether you have a selection error, in that you may have selected the wrong type of cow for your environment. If you wish to know what the best cow for your environment is, and you are recording, then you search through your records and find a cow that has calved every year, if you have one, and she will be the type and size of cow best suited to your environment. I have told you all this stuff before but it cannot be emphasised enough after all, as I have said, fertility is all important.

Pinebank wishes all the readers of our Newsletter a prosperous, and happy 2006. We hope that the sun shines for you, but not enough for a drought.

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Pinebank Newsletter - December, 2005

 Xmas is on us once again and the year has gone in a flash.  Bulls are all out and working well.  It is necessary when having a new set of yearling bulls out each year that they are observed very closely to make sure that they all are working.  It is not unusual for some of them to take some time to begin.

The season has stayed with us very well, and all stock are doing well. Calves are growing well, and those that we picked at the beginning as potential sires are living up to their expectation, with some very interesting calves are coming on.

As we are working  within a grass environment , each year shows a small improvement in cow traits and in bull growth. Ours is an ongoing and cumulative programme which is most exciting to be in.

Each year we wait for a new generation to be born knowing that it will be an advance on the last

Breeding news

To understand how our programme works there are certain basic rules you need to understand .  These rules are the bases of modern breeding techniques. “Every bull or cow is only as good as the average performance of its progeny”.

This requires some consideration, however once you understand this it is perfectly logical. Then therefore has a better son then himself or daughter then herself..  The future generations are better then their sires or mothers.  Tell that to your son and of course he will agree with you. By selecting sires out of cows that have calved every year and weaned a high rate of calf so you build in Dam traits with all their ramifications. Like fertility lends ability to cope with the environment, and ability to conceive early and rear a good calf , despite the conditions.

If the son you select is 10 kilos above average and he is out of an average cows the progeny will be 5 kilos above the sires average. In other words the son is superior to his sire by 5 kilos.  Heretability is near enough to 50%.  And believe me it works.

Pinebank, Glanworth and Shalom wish all its reader a very “Happy Xmas” and a prosperous New Year.

 

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Pinebank Newsletter - November 2005

 Spring has sprung and calving has finished and a very good calving it has been. The weather has been unusually kind with calf survival rate high. Calves are doing very well with some exceptional and interesting calves coming on. Just as the dry weather was becoming of concern we have had a good rain and so the grass has been pushed along and it looks at the moment that we will be set up until at least Xmas. Mating groups are being sorted, always a time consuming time and bulls will be turned out very soon. Watching the calves grow it is surprising how quickly you latch onto a particular calf as one that is going to make the sires list. As you know we use approximately 4 bulls per 100 cows, mainly to make sure that we get the top bull each year so there is plenty of selection room A number of overseas breeders are coming to view the cattle so it will be interesting to hear their comments

Breeding Comments For every year that you use the same bull you are going nowhere, you stay one square one. The bull contributes the same set of genes each year and your average performance stays the same. If you are a keen breeder and want to improve your herd you must change your bulls as often as possible, going in the direction that you wish to go. This is why we change bulls every year, that and the fact that because we have a closed herd it reduces our inbreeding level. The object of any breeding programme should be to select bulls bred in the same direction as your objectives and then feed them into your herd breeding in more and more directional high performing genes. It is the average performance of your herd that you must lift not the odd high performing individual. Especially if you are selling your best bull to some other herd. Any improvement that you have made is gone.

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Pinebank Newsletter - October 2005

Before beginning farming and breeding news for this month, spare a thought for all the natural disasters around the world.

We in New Zealand are thinking of all those people involved and in may cases have lost so much We have just ended what has been the best Spring ever. Survival rate in lambs has been unprecedented and bodes well for a good season. As I said in the last Newsletter twin calves continued to appear. Calving has virtually finished and we have 8 sets. We seldom allow the cows to rear twins because experience has shown us that if you have twins on a cow the stronger one dominates the weaker and so one does much better then the other. And the other problem is that after rearing twins the cow often fails to conceive the following year.

Breeding News.

The greatest breeder of all time and in all animals is “Nature”.

Upon consideration you can see that she covers all contingencies. Not only that but of course nature breeds animal that best suit their environment. In many biological species those females that fail to conceive graze the outside of the herds of females with young and so are the first to sustain attacks by predators. They also act as sentinels and again protect the nursing mothers and young of their species. Behavioural patterns are hard wired into our genes and are primally based upon survival.

The best and strongest and fittest males each year compete for the females and the strongest wins and so fertilizer the next generation. When male number one begins to tire then next one takes over and so forth. What better method could there ever be for selection,survival plus improvement in fitting environment than this. Most females are not programmed to be aggressive except in the defence of their young. This is designed because in the female of all species the female only has one progeny per year whereas the male can fertilize any number of females. You can kill off any number of males in a population and provided one survives the population continues. It wasn’t until humans took over the controlled breeding of animals and began making arbitory decisions, often selecting animals unsuited to their environment that the whole system became thrown out of balance with nature. Selection must take the environment into account to be successful and efficient. Fertility must be the first consideration in all breeding programmes because if the cow does not calve there is no profit only high cost of having to run a cow through another year when she makes no money. How many studs have a heap of dry cows?

Next year Pinebank will have calves in 18 states in North America and in 3 Canadian provinces. Slowly grass-based genetics are beginning to take its place in the grain based cattle breeding populations of the world.