Bobby calf plight possibly solved
The ability of dairy farmers to select the sex of their calves has moved a step closer with the announcement that Auckland company Engender is seeking $20 million to commercialise its technology.
One of the likely benefits is that farmers will be able to decide not to have unwanted bobby calves.
The dairy industry is under pressure from animal rights groups to reduce bobby calf numbers - this year from January to November 1.69 million were slaughtered at just a few days old.
Engender founding scientist Professor Cather Simpson said the company was working with three of the world’s largest artificial insemination (AI) companies which had signed option-to-licence agreements.
Engender, which operates out of a laboratory on the Auckland University campus, has pioneered new techniques to sex semen, using high-tech microfluidic and photonic chips that sort sperm by sex. ‘‘We’ve reached this challenging technical milestone and that has vaulted us into the next stage of development which is the full on commercialisation. It’s gone from the laboratory prototype which we’ve shown works into something which actually we can sell and put into AI company facilities,’’ Simpson said.
There was a lot of interest internationally in the technology, which could give New Zealand a slice of the $3.5 billion global AI market.
‘‘That comes through licensing and other ways. The R&D team is now about 10 people and they’re picking up excellent skills, taking their esoteric physics and engineering skills and turn it into something that’s real for people.’’
She said the technology would allow farmers to accelerate the genetic gain in their herds.
‘‘If you knew you could breed the top half of your dairy herd against very high quality dairy bulls and you knew they were going to have females, you would have twice as much genetic gain. Your best heifer, her calf would be a female, whereas right now it’s 50:50. Or you could breed the bottom half of your herd against a top beef bull.’’
The company was planning on a product launch within two years.