Genetics company seeks $3m
New Zealand dairy genetics company Tropical Dairy Group Limited (TDG) is trying to raise $3 million from investors.
Developed by a genetics team led by Dairy Solutionz Ltd, Hamilton, the composite breed will be used on large-scale dairy farms the company is now helping set up in the US, Colombia and Ecuador, says chief executive Derek Fairweather.
Governments and land owners are also involved. Demonstration farms will open in Colombia and Ecuador by the end of the year.
Cash from Callaghan Innovation is helping fund the project.
Some of the breed’s origins are based on work at the University of Florida where researchers had bred a recently discovered ‘slick locus’ (originating from Senepol cattle) into American Holsteins. This better enabled the new American composite breed to regulate its body temperature while maintaining milk yield under heat stress.
“The Dairy Solutionz team has now taken the slick locus and introduced it into New Zealand pasture genetics for the first time as part of what is now a seven-year programme.
The cows will be branded Kiwipole. The company has a range of cows and bulls all containing DNA proven as holding the slick locus.
“The Kiwipole dairy cow… has great heat tolerance coupled with the best pasture genetics in the world,” said Dr Vish Vishwanath, genetics consultant to Dairy Solutionz. “This creates an animal ideally suited to maximise production in grass-based, tropical dairy systems.”
Research earlier this year by Serdal Dikmen and the University of Florida indicated up to 2L/day improved milk yield per animal through better heat tolerance.
“Multiply this increased milk yield over a large or national herd and the end result is a significant prize,” says Fairweather.
The first Kiwipole bulls – Kiwipole Slick Grazer son of Scotts Comanche, Efficient, Supreme and Super – are ready to make to order.
Many cows have been bred with Kiwipole genetics over the past few seasons and Dairy Solutionz has begun a three-year proving programme.
Since 2007, Dairy Solutionz has integrated best-of-breed technologies into its large-scale offshore pastoral farms.
