Breeding cattle for a more efficient and sustainable milk and meat production

Oscar González-Recio, J. Pryce, M.E. Goddard, B. Hayes

EURO FOOD 201516-18 June, Alicante (Spain)

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19502.5 billion

2015

2060

United Nations (Population Division)

7.5 billion

10 billion?

HeadingProducing high quality protein

• Animal production aims to transform inputs from plants into high quality protein

Heading1950 2014

77% improvement

330kg meat per tonne of feed 590 kg meat per tonne of feed

Improvements in efficiency of poultry

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1746 litres/year350 kg liveweight5.6 litres/kg liveweight

6890 litres/year (ADHIS)600 kg liveweight11.5 litres/kg liveweight

1950

2014

Improvements in efficiency of cows

Doubled efficiency through dilution of maintenance

1950

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GROSS EFFICIENCY

Faeces

Energy Loss

Maintenance

Growth (Muscle & Fat)

Heifers

Energy Loss

MaintenanceGrowth

(Muscle & Fat)

1st Lactation

Energy Loss

Maintenance

Milk

Subsequent Lactations

Milk

Fat deposition

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How much do they really eat?

Which cow is the most efficient converter of feed into product?

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Historically only through indirect indicators (live weight)

Importance:• Feeding is 50% of production cost in animal farms• Need to produce more food with the same resources• Climate change might lower the amount of natural

resources or artificial plantations• Feed efficiency is associated with a lower amount of

GHG emissions

Selection for gross efficiency

Difficult to measure (expensive infrastructure; experimental farms)

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Use of massive genomic information in the breeding programs

GENOMIC SELECTION

Definition

HeadingGENOMIC SELECTION

How it works

DATADNA

Experimental farms

SNPs

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Feed intake unit

EID reader

Feed bin

Load cells

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Heifers and CowsGrowth and Milk Yield

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6890 litres/year600 kg liveweight20 kg DM/d of feed

6890 litres/year600 kg liveweight19 kg DM/d of feed

What’s their real efficiency?

Cow B is more efficient than cow A1 kg/d at $0.3/kgDM is worth $110/cow/year

A B

HeadingGENOMIC SELECTION

How it works

DATADNA

Experimental farms

Commercial farms

DNA

Breeding decisions in commercial

farms based on feed efficiency

Genomic breeding valueSNPs

SNPs

Pass favorable genes onto next generations

HeadingLink research “reference” populations

HeadingResidual feed intake (RFI)

• Can calculate in growing and lactating cows

• Difference between actual feed intake and predicted feed intake from energy demand

• Use dry matter intake (DMI), liveweight (LWT) and average daily gain (ADG), body condition score (BCS) and milk

DMI = b1LWT0.75 + b2ADG + e e = DMI-(b1LWT0.75 + b2ADG)RFI

RFI = DMI – ([Milk] + LWT0.75 + BCS + ΔLWT)

HeadingFeed efficiency

FE= energy in - energy out

RFI = DMI – ([Milk] + LW0.75 + BCS + ΔBW)

e = DMI - (b1LWT0.75 + b2ADG)RFIheifers

cows

HeadingFactors influencing RFI

10%

5%

10%

2%

9%

27%

37%

Activity

Body composition

Digestability

Feeding patterns

Heat increment of fermentation

Other

Metabolism & stress

Growth

RFI = DMI-(b1LWT0.75 + b2ADG)

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Genotyped individuals• Lactating Australian Holstein cows• Growing Australian 6 month old Holstein heifers• Lactating UK/NLD Holstein cows

Sources

Growing heifers and lactating cows from Rutherglen and Ellinbank

Overseas cows from UK and NLD

Will grow over time • 120 additional lactating cows added

per year from Ellinbank• >6000 cows from gDMI

Reference population for residual feed intake

• Cow (234)

Aussie

• Heifer (843)

Aussie

• Cow (954)

UK/NLD

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Feed saved

Residual feed intakeDGV

Maintenance from Liveweight BV

ABVs

Annual feed savings for growth and lactating stages of life

RFI only available for genotyped Holsteins

Holsteins that are not genotyped and other breeds have feed saved calculated using maintenance requirements only

Breeding value definition

+

Mixed Model G-BLUPPryce et al. (2014) JDS97: 537González-Recio et al. (2014) JDS 97: 3883Pryce et al. (2015) JDS In press

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What’s the impact?

Daughters of bulls like D, G and J predicted to eat 1% less feed than average

If all 1.7 million dairy cows in Australia ate 1% less feed this would save 103,700 tDM/yr of feed (~$31million)

This could free up 13k ha of land: more cows? Other crops?

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Feed efficiency reduces GHG emissions (CH4)

Courtesy of Peter Moate

Basarab et al., 2013

Heading• Feed saved is the new breeding value for feed efficiency in Australia and is

measured in kg of feed saved per year through improved maintenance

• Feed saved is available for farmers to choose the sires in their farms

• Improving feed efficiency is important for livestock farmers to be sustainable into the future

• Less feed used for animal production

• More crops available for human consumption

• Less use of land, available for other uses (other crops, natural resources)

Summary

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Thank you!