Climate-friendly cows closer
Dairy farmers are one step closer to breeding cow with lower methane emissions, offering an innovative way to reduce the nation's agricultural carbon footprint without compromising farm productivity.
Six years of exceptional dairy progeny will remain the legacy of CRV Ambreed jersey bull Okura Lika Murmur as he retires this month, the company says.
Breeding manager Aaron Parker says Murmur has given nearly 500,000 doses of semen, and has 22,464 daughters herd testing in New Zealand and a long list of sons.
He is credited with having expanded CRV Ambreed's exporting market, especially in South Africa, North America and Australia.
"He has bred outstanding sons and daughters with super production, udder and capacity traits," says Parker. "Hundreds of his cows have been contract mated in NZ and as a sire of sons he has produced some of country's best Jersey bulls."
This season six Murmur sons were released to market as 'daughter proven sires' and are among NZ's highest ranking bulls including Roma Murmur Kingpin, Kaitaka Murmur Lazarus and Ashvale OLM Highlite.
"Kingpin, CRV Ambreed's highest selling jersey sire this season, is a superstar in production because he is Murmur's son."
Other sons and grandsons include Kingpin's son, Puketawa King Connacht JG.
"Connacht is an elite young sire in our Jersey team this year based on his parental information and scientific data. With his daughters coming into milk this season, we expect to see big things from him," Parker said.
Murmur was bought in 2005 from breeders Luke and Lyna Beehre of the Okura Stud, north of Whangarei. The stud bred Okura Manhatten, a game changer for the industry.
Parker says after Manhatten, Murmur is the next most influential Jersey sire to have been bred in NZ. "We will be hearing Murmur's name in the dairy industry for many years."
Three New Zealand agritech companies are set to join forces to help unlock the full potential of technology.
As the sector heads into the traditional peak period for injuries and fatalities, farmers are being urged to "take a moment".
Federated Farmers says almost 2000 farmers have signed a petition launched this month to urge the Government to step in and provide certainty while the badly broken resource consent system is fixed.
Zespri’s counter-seasonal Zespri Global Supply (ZGS) programme is underway with approximately 33 million trays, or 118,800 tonnes, expected this year from orchards throughout France, Italy, Greece, Korea, and Japan.
Animal owners can help protect life-saving antibiotics from resistant bacteria by keeping their animals healthy, says the New Zealand Veterinary Association.
According to analysis by the Meat Industry Association (MIA), New Zealand red meat exports reached $827 million in October, a 27% increase on the same period last year.
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