Jersey genetics key to reducing GHG emissions and improving efficiency

George and Sharon Moss own two dairy farms in the South Waikato, one farm is 72 hectares effective, peak milking 170 Friesian cows.  The other is 67 hectares effective, peak milking 167 Jersey/Jersey cross cows.  Both farms aim to be System 2 using silage and palm kernel to fill feed gaps in spring and autumn if required.  Both farms consistently produce 450-490 kgMS per cow over 240-250 days in milk.

George’s Jersey/Jersey cross farm is also part of the Fonterra Nestle Greenhouse Gas Farmer Support Pilot project, and this has provided access to some good benchmarking and clever software that allows testing of various farm system scenarios to analyse the impact on GHG intensity and total emissions.  It is then possible to put these scenarios into Farmax and test the economic impact.  The project, launched at Fieldays 2022, targeted 48 farms in the first year but has taken on 116 with more farmers keen to get on board.

George shares some thoughts on the Pilot and the greatest opportunities for farmers to reduce emissions intensity and total emissions on farm:

“The biggest opportunity for reductions in GHG intensity and total GHGs is through milking fewer but higher performing cows.  These are cows that can hit 100% of their body weight in 240-250 days lactation as an average.  For us and the industry, if we can also get the replacement rate down to 18% or less through improved reproductive performance and reduce unplanned wastage, we would have a higher percentage of mature cows and fewer costs associated with raising replacements. My understanding is the BW system reflects relative efficiencies of dairy stock and there is some excellent data available from breed companies on the relative efficiencies and footprint of bulls and teams over time. The gains may be small yearly but are incremental and permanent. 

The challenge is few farmers know the genuine live weight of their animals.  We weigh all milking cows annually in December and have learnt there can be significant differences if cows are weighed after AM or PM milking. Which is again different to the liveweight recorded by meat processors.  Farmers up until now haven’t had to think about the efficiency of their herds so it became easy to breed for traits they most desired but not always the most efficient and if the farm system was profitable there has been no pressure to think about efficiency.

Continuing to use the best genetics to breed efficient cows is also a key focus and chasing the highest indexes which historically has been largely Jersey dominated.  To drive this genetic gain as quickly as possible, we used frozen Jersey sexed semen this year and it will be interesting to see what the in-calf rates for that look like.  We use both Jersey sexed semen and Jersey Forward Pack© over the heifers and because we are retaining replacements based on indexes, we have seen a major shift toward Jersey.

Genetic gains are permanent and cumulative over time, and where NZ has made big advances. It’s an easy option that can happen regardless of day-to-day management which is dependent on the skills and motivation of the farm operator.  Our herd has gone from top 50% to top 3% for BW in 11 years.

The initial benchmarking has shown there are farms doing better and worse than us in GHG intensity and now the key is understanding the systems and economics of those farmers who are performing better.  Clearly there are some very efficient operations out there. Once we understand the differences then we can adapt accordingly.

The data required for the Pilot is data we already collect, kgMS per cow per day and 10 daily averages, stock on farm each month, mastitis and lameness, deaths and wastage each month, total monthly production, feed harvested, feed purchased and fed, quantity and rate of nitrogen and/or fertiliser applied. For us hopefully it means a more GHG efficient business and enhanced profit over time.

Fonterra's scope three targets along with those of the major trading banks will require farmers to look deeper into their farming systems for further efficiencies.  In essence how do we get the same from less or more from the same, both approaches will reduce our footprint per kgMS but the former will also help reduce our total emission footprint.  Time is our greatest ally, and we all need to start the journey as soon as possible. There are no silver bullets, but overtime gains made are permanent and cumulative.”

The views in this article are George’s own and are not necessarily those of DairyNZ or any milk supply company.