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<\/p>\nThere\u2019s been no shortage of interest in the dairy-beef calves hitting the ground at Kevin and Claire Wines\u2019 farm this spring.<\/p>\n
The couple were filling their calf shed at Ecklin South with the ABS Beef InFocus\u2122 animals as their spring calving draws to a close.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe haven\u2019t completely decided what we will do with them,\u201d Kevin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve got people asking, \u2018will you sell them to us?\u2019, but we have options.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWe can keep them ourselves and grow them out to eat them, sell them off at one or two years old or there\u2019s the people asking to buy them now \u2013 they are good looking calves.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Wines milk up to 225 cows and calve their heifers in August and the rest of the herd from August through to mid-November.<\/p>\n
This was the first year they used Beef InFocus semen.<\/p>\n
While they are thrilled the dairy-beef product gave them an opportunity to diversify their business, it wasn\u2019t their primary motivation for including the semen in their breeding program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe wanted to get the late cows in calf, but also during calving I\u2019m off the farm contracting with Mum and Dad and it leaves Claire here,\u201d Kevin said.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe beef are a bit easier to calve \u2013 most of the time \u2013 and they are a lot better drinkers. By the end of the season we\u2019ve gone through the bulk of the cows calving with Friesians and by the time the last six weeks come we are like \u2018we are done with this, we just want it to be an easy calving\u2019.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to ABS, Beef InFocus has a lower incidence of stillbirth and calving difficulty compared to the global standard beef- dairy product. It\u2019s also the only beef-dairy cross product with validated dairy calving ease data.<\/p>\n
Beef InFocus also has proven higher calf survivability than the average dairy-beef product used throughout the world.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Claire rears all the calves.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are good drinkers, they are gutses,\u201d she laughed.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey do come into the shed with a bit of meat on their bones and they are going well.\u201d<\/p>\n
About 30 Beef InFocus calves will arrive this spring out of Jerseys, Friesians and one Brown Swiss cow. Another 30 will be born in late February \u2013 early March as Beef InFocus was used to join their cows with troublesome fertility.<\/p>\n
Tightening their calving pattern and retaining replacements from their most productive and fertile animals has been a priority for Kevin and Claire.<\/p>\n
They use a breeding consultant and genomic data to determine their best cows and also those they want to use to breed replacements. Two rounds of conventional semen deliver the replacements from the top 150 cows and then Beef InFocus is used in conjunction with short gestation Friesian semen for the rest of the herd.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe get the better calves up front and that knocks-out the lower-end, so we don\u2019t breed from them,\u201d Kevin said. \u201cIf we put beef in them, we can\u2019t keep the heifer as a milker.\u201d<\/p>\n
Beef InFocus\u2122 also enables them to save money on semen costs.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe later cows, the ones that are really hard to get in calf, we are not going to waste Friesian semen on them,\u201d Kevin said. \u201cWith Beef InFocus we can spend $12 on a straw and because they are high fertility (straws) it gets them in calf \u2013 it works.\u201d<\/p>\n
ABS Beef InFocus has a proven short gestation.\u00a0Kevin said the shorter gestation played a role in tightening the calving pattern as cows returned to the dairy faster and healthier because of their easier calving. \u201cWe have just noticed that they come back in and are on heat, like they should be,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
While breeding dairy-beef is \u201cstill a work in progress\u201d for Kevin and Claire, they are pleased with the flexibility Beef InFocus delivers for their business as it eliminates the need to sell dairy bull calves for low returns.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s always someone wanting some beef,\u201d Kevin said.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s been no shortage of interest in the dairy-beef calves hitting the ground at Kevin and Claire Wines\u2019 farm this spring. The couple were filling their calf shed at Ecklin South with the ABS Beef InFocus\u2122 animals as their spring calving draws to a close. \u201cWe haven\u2019t completely decided what we will do with them,\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"content-type":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2906","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-abs-australia-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n