Beef From Dairy Herds

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29336, 15 October 1960, Page 12

Beef From Dairy Herds

In the last few years agricultural and marketing experts have repeatedly advised New Zealand fanners to pursue the excellent prospects in the world market for beef. One was Mr P. J. Borthwick, New Zealand director of Thomas Borthwick and Sons, who last year advised New Zealand farmers to “talk " beef and think beef ”. There has been a considerable response; but the supply of beef for export is not increasing at a rate consistent with the opportunities. Now Mr W. C. Stafford, a well-known South Canterbury farmer and a former senior officer of the Department of Agriculture, has been impressed by opportunities on both Hie British and United States markets, and has offered helpful suggestions for increasing the breeding stock for beef cattle in New . Zealand. Mr Stafford contends that instead of slaughtering more than a million bobby calves each year. New Zealand should, beyond dairy herd replacements, be raising beef cattle through artificial insemination of dairy cows. Though not new, this point is well worth Mr Stafford’s emphasis. Many farmers, in the South Island especially, may be unaware of the developments in this field. Dr. McMeekan, director of Ruakura Animal Research Station, has several times pointed to the great and cheap source of saleable beef that New Zealand possesses in the dairy industry. The meat so produced could valuably supplement our normal exports of high-quality beef. Some small trial shipments of crossbred beef have been sent to London. An indication of what is being done in New Zealand was given last year by the DirectorGeneral of Agriculture (Mr P? W. Smallfield), when he said that the Dairy Board's artificial breeding centre at Newstead had received applications for 12,000 dairy cows to be inseminated with semen from beef-type bulls last year, and that it was estimated that as a result between 9000 and 10,000 cross-type calves would be produced.

Mr Stafford has noted that in Britain calves are not slaughtered at birth and that the British Government pays “ a hefty subsidy ” on every calf reared. The breeding of beef cattle from dairy cows is fostered by advances schemes which provide an equivalent of what has been described as “that sheet-anchor of the dairy

“ herd owner’s finances, the “ monthly milk cheque ”. The problems of rearing beef calves from dairy cows are considerable; but they have been solved in Britain in various ways—by multiple suckling on dairy cows, by the production of dry

feeds for early weaning, by methods of getting calves to eat grass and develop rumination at an early age. There are no good reasons why what has been done in Britain on an extensive scale should not be done here. Mr Stafford has also referred to the recommendation in a British official report of a trial importation of Charollais bulls for crossbreeding with dairy cattle for beef production. The Charollais breed turns food into meat quicker than other breeds, especially when crossed. At the Lincoln College farmers’ conference last May, Dr. McMeekan referred to the Charollais breed when he spoke of the growing importance of pre-cut and prepackaged meats. When the only form in which distributor and consumer viewed the finished product was in the form of cellophane-packed cuts, Dr. McMeekan said, the original shape or conformation of the cattle beast was of little consequence. In. these circumstances the traditional “ eye “ appeal ” in’ the carcase-meat trade was replaced by a need for animals that would yield a high percentage of edible meat of adequate tenderness and flavour. Dr. McMeekan mentioned the French Charollais first among types not calculated to appeal to the traditional breeder but possessing, however, “ grand fleshing and “cutting qualities”.