EURO FOOD 2015 16 18 June Alicante Spain

EURO FOOD 2015 16 -18 June, Alicante (Spain) Breeding cattle for a more efficient and sustainable milk and meat production Oscar González-Recio, J. Pryce, M. E. Goddard, B. Hayes

Heading 2060 10 billion? 2015 7. 5 billion 1950 2. 5 billion United Nations (Population Division)

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

Improvements in efficiency of poultry Heading 2014 1950 330 kg meat per tonne of feed 590 kg meat per tonne of feed 77% improvement

Improvements in efficiency of cows Heading 1950 2014 1950 1746 litres/year 350 kg liveweight 5. 6 litres/kg liveweight 6890 litres/year (ADHIS) 600 kg liveweight 11. 5 litres/kg liveweight Doubled efficiency through dilution of maintenance

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GROSS EFFICIENCY Heading Faeces Heifers 1 st Lactation Subsequent Lactations Energy Loss Maintenance Growth (Muscle & Fat) Milk Fat deposition Milk

How much do they really eat? Heading Which cow is the most efficient converter of feed into product?

Selection for gross efficiency Heading Difficult to measure (expensive infrastructure; experimental farms) 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

GENOMIC SELECTION Heading Definition Use of massive genomic information in the breeding programs

GENOMIC SELECTION Heading How it works Experimental farms DATA DNA SNPs

Heading EID reader Feed bin Load cells Feed intake unit

Heading Heifers and Cows Growth and Milk Yield

What’s their real efficiency? Heading A 6890 litres/year 600 kg liveweight 20 kg DM/d of feed B 6890 litres/year 600 kg liveweight 19 kg DM/d of feed Cow B is more efficient than cow A 1 kg/d at $0. 3/kg. DM is worth $110/cow/year

GENOMIC SELECTION Heading How it works Experimental farms DATA DNA SNPs Commercial farms DNA Genomic breeding value SNPs Breeding decisions in commercial farms based on feed efficiency Pass favorable genes onto next generations

Link research “reference” populations Heading

Residual feed intake (RFI) Heading • 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 0. 75 + b ADG) 0. 75 e = DMI-(b LWT RFI DMI = b 1 LWT + b 2 ADG 1 2 + e RFI = DMI – ([Milk] + LWT 0. 75 + BCS + ΔLWT)

Feed efficiency Heading FE= energy in - heifers cows energy out RFIe = DMI - (b 1 LWT 0. 75 + b 2 ADG) RFI = DMI – ([Milk] + LW 0. 75 + BCS + ΔBW)

Factors influencing RFI Heading RFI = DMI-(b 1 LWT 0. 75 + b 2 ADG) Activity 10% Body composition 5% 37% Digestability 10% Feeding patterns 2% 9% 27% Heat increment of fermentation Other Metabolism & stress

Heading Reference population for residual feed intake Genotyped individuals • Lactating Australian Holstein cows • Growing Australian 6 month old Holstein heifers • Lactating UK/NLD Holstein cows • Cow (234) • Heifer (843) • Cow (954) Aussie UK/NLD 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 g. DMI

Heading Breeding value definition Feed saved ABVs Residual feed intake DGV + Maintenance from Liveweight BV Annual feed savings for growth and lactating stages of life RFI only available for genotyped Holsteins that are not genotyped and other breeds have feed saved calculated using maintenance requirements only Mixed Model G-BLUP Pryce et al. (2014) JDS 97: 537 González-Recio et al. (2014) JDS 97: 3883 Pryce et al. (2015) JDS In press

What’s the impact? Heading 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 t. DM/yr of feed (~$31 million) This could free up 13 k ha of land: more cows? Other crops?

Heading Feed efficiency reduces GHG emissions (CH 4) Courtesy of Peter Moate Basarab et al. , 2013

Summary 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)

Heading Thank you!