Episode 123 - Improving herds through DNA testing

So why is it so important, Connie, to match the mothers and the calves together? So

all of our breeding worth or NZMI or even breeding values are calculated by half of the sire and half of the dam information.

Parent average is what they call it.

And so if you've got one of these wrong, either the sire or the dam or even both, then this information is completely incorrect.

So if you're trying to use BW to make some decisions, you could be making it on completely the incorrect information.

And then this then has a flow and effect to progeny, future progeny as well.

So using MyDNA, you can correct all of this as they come in as carbs.

So then you don't have that flow and effect and you can be sure in the decisions that you're making.

So how

many...

Calves, do you think, are mismatched normally without DNA testing to their dams?

Yeah, so generally in the New Zealand dairy system, we see around 25% and that could be even on the lower side.

It definitely varies in different farms.

Some people are very confident that they have got all of their dams correct.

And then the DNA tells a different story.

So it's very interesting and quite eye-opening for some farmers.

Yeah.

And

I can imagine on a big farm how that can easily happen.

You go out into the paddock and you've got You know, auntie cows standing around, you've got, you know, two or three cows that might have calved and trying to work out or even more, you know, lots in larger farms, there's a lot more.

But this could happen even in smaller situations too.

Yeah, even if you're just calving down on one day, two calves, they can easily switch between the two and then all of a sudden you... could have a flow-on effect with incorrect data.

So yeah, you definitely see even small farms that you'd think they would know the cow by its name.

They do make mistakes as well, especially, you know, we're calving in a big paddock.

Calves like to wander around.