Pāmu working to merge beef and dairy
How much time and money could farmers save if they managed their dairy and beef calves together, rather than separating them?
That’s what Pāmu, the trading name for state-owned enterprise Landcorp, and Beef and Lamb New Zealand are working to calculate.
But it all starts with breeding sires that will meet the needs of both the beef and the dairy industry.
“It’s a big change,” Pāmu chief executive Mark Leslie said.
But apart from the financial and efficiency savings, it would also be kinder on the environment.
Historically, beef and dairy farming had been operated quite separately, Leslie explained. This means that around twothirds of the 3.15 million calves born on dairy farms that are considered unsuitable for dairying, are processed at four days old.
They’re not raised for beef, because traditionally, they’ve been far different breeds than those bred for eating quality.
Pāmu wants to rear all calves born on its farms to at least 18 months by 2030.
It’s currently raising 50%, which will increase to 75% by the end of the 2026 financial year.
The work builds on progeny tests Beef and Lamb New Zealand has been working on since 2015, partly because it expects the industry to be faced with a ‘no bobby calf kill’ policy within the next decade.
Beef + Lamb NZ general manager of farming excellence Dan Brier previously said the majority of New Zealand’s export beef was derived from the dairy industry, so improving the quality would generate more value and reduce calf wastage.
The tests have already identified beef sires with short gestation, that contribute to above average growth and carcass quality. These sires also give dairy farmers easy calving, five-days shorter gestation length – which translates to five more days of milk – along with “a very marketable calf to onsell to a beef finisher”.
Beef + Lamb NZ hosted a progeny test field day at Pāmu’s Lochinver Station in Taupō in March, where farms could learn about its across-breed progeny test using Angus, Hereford and Simmental genetics.
Apart from meat production, Leslie said dairy beef would reduce the intensity of livestock farms’ greenhouse gas emissions, improve animal welfare – because farmers would be selecting for easy-to-calve animals – and create jobs in the regions because of the need for calf rearers.
This was one of the challenges the concept presented.
Most cows were born in the compacted time period between August and September, Leslie said, and rearing a lot of calves at the same time would require new skills and changes to farm systems.
The 18-month-old cows will represent a new stock class and Pāmu is hoping the change will be adopted by farms across New Zealand once its able to share its learnings.