While there is a myriad of breeding choices to implement within your own strategy each season, Owl Farm finds a mix of sexed semen and Wagyu semen is working for them.
Who is Owl Farm?
Owl Farm is a joint venture between Cambridge's St Peter's School and Lincoln University with an aim to demonstrate excellence in farm performance with a focus on sustainability.
With its key objectives based around providing leadership by demonstrating progressive practices that can be achieved on farm; optimising profit through identifying the appropriate dairy production systems; and achieving a sustainable environmental footprint based on good management practices.
Owl Farm also creates the chance to showcase the potential career opportunities available to students by providing them with real educational opportunities and exposure to the dairy farming industry.
A focus on non-replacement calves
While there are many different options available to manage male calves, including selling them for pet food or beef, Owl Farm focused on decreasing the births of bobby calves, using a combination of sexed semen and Wagyu semen. This method also created marketable, value-added product in terms of high-quality beef animals.
The results speak for themselves with a decrease in bobby calf numbers by 31% with the added bonus of increasing profit by more than $4,000.
Based on the success of the 2019 season, it was decided to continue with the sexed semen/Wagyu programme and start a heifer synchrony program also using the sexed semen.
The sexed semen/Wagyu mating plan has made a significant contribution to the farm's goal of breeding with the "purpose of life", and overall, Owl Farm has seen a steady decline in bobby calves from around 275 in 2018 to 126 in 2021.
Their why
Owl Farm chose to undertake this program to ensure all calves are valued and cared for at the farm, leading with its principal breeding objective to provide a calf with a value to the industry for a purposeful life.
Sexed semen aims to produce a higher proportion of heifer calves, and this is used on the cows with the highest genetic value, allowing Owl Farm to maintain a top 5% BW herd nationally. This strategy has increased purposeful lives for calves from 34% in 2018 to 70% in 2021.
For more information about Owl Farm, visit owlfarm.nz.