{"id":3948,"date":"2022-09-05T06:45:32","date_gmt":"2022-09-05T06:45:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/?p=3948"},"modified":"2022-09-27T05:29:26","modified_gmt":"2022-09-27T05:29:26","slug":"environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/","title":{"rendered":"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Genetics is helping one Gippsland dairy farming family reduce their business\u2019 carbon footprint, while bolstering herd health and productivity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Stuart and Jacqui Tracy, with their son Angus, milk 700 cows at Waratah Bay in Victoria as part of a family business which also includes their daughters Carmen and Leila. Their Holstein herd is ranked number 33 on the Australian Breeding Values top herds list. The Tracy\u2019s also run an extensive three-way-cross breeding program. Choosing high-ranking and profitable sires that improve herd health is their top breeding priority, while they also have progeny from ABS sires linked to greenhouse gas emissions intensity reduction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For Stuart and Jacqui, running a sustainable business requires a whole-farm approach. To them, farming for the future includes concentrating on profit, animal health, welfare, and longevity, while reducing environmental impact and considering consumer and societal expectations. \u201cWe are here for the long term,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe want to leave our farm in better shape than when we found it, that\u2019s why we have adopted a different approach \u2013 more regenerative- transitioning away from urea and commercial fertilisers to a more biological products so we can sequester more carbon into the soil and improve the soils in the process. When it comes to breeding, we want a more efficient cow with higher feed conversion efficiency, so we need less resources to produce milk.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tracy\u2019s are milking daughters from high Sustainability Index (SI) sire DG CHARLEY<\/a> and have progeny from leading greenhouse gas emission intensity reduction sires ABS JERONIMO P<\/a> and De-Su 13530 SEVILLE<\/a>. They\u2019ve also added industry leading health sires such as top ABS Red health and polled sire ONSTAD P and Australia\u2019s top proven Holstein JERONIMO P into their breeding program in recent years. \u201cHis (Jeronimo\u2019s) daughters are travelling well, they come into the dairy well and are very quiet, easy to manage and we have more Jeronimo calves this year,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe initially chose to use him because he was a high-index young genomic sire with strong health traits. The fact he is still at the top, it is good to see we made the right choices using him in our breeding program.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Tracy\u2019s breeding philosophy is underpinned by a desire to maximise health, welfare, sustainability, and profit. The best example of this is how they strategically use ABS Beef InFocus\u2122 and sexed genetics. \u201cBreeding our lowest genomic index cows in our herd to ABS Beef InFocus, increases our rate of genetic progress because it means we are breeding our replacements using sexed semen from the best cows in our herd,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe are now joining 30 per cent of our herd to ABS Beef InFocus because we were breeding more than enough heifers using sexed semen strategically in the heifers and young, fertile and healthy cows.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"
Stu and Angus Tracy use breeding as a tool to improve the sustainability of their family\u2019s Victorian dairy farm and have progeny bred from high ranking Sustainability Index sires sold by ABS Australia.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

This year, Stuart and Jacqui sold ABS Beef InFocus heifers into their local store market, taking advantage of the strong demand for first-cross animals and are open to selling some at 10-days-old in years to come. Thirty pregnant ABS Beef InFocus heifers will also be marketed later this year and haven\u2019t ruled-out fattening others in the future \u2013 if they have the capacity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While \u201cmilk is number one\u201d for the Tracy family, stock sales \u2013 such as the ABS Beef InFocus and export heifers – have become a bigger part of their business. The Tracy\u2019s have more export heifers now they have reached capacity at their dairy farm. They select the lowest Balanced Performance Index (BPI) heifers for export. The only problem- it\u2019s tough to select the ones to sell. Recently, there were just four heifers with a BPI less than 200 and some were more than 300 BPI. \u201cIt is hard to choose because we love our cows and they are all so high indexing,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe choose using the BPI and HWI (Health Weighted Index) and look at cow families as well. We hope we are picking the right ones.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Growing concerns about consumer perceptions of animal welfare in the dairy industry has prompted the Tracys to use genetics to address potential challenges. But they believe improving animal welfare through breeding, doesn\u2019t have to come at the expense of vital profit or health traits though, according to Stuart and Jacqui. The inclusion of polled Holstein sire ELLIS PP<\/a>, in their program, is proof of this. \u201cA bull like ELLIS PP, there\u2019s no question that he\u2019s one of the best bulls on the market \u2013 polled or not,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWhen you have bulls with an index like that, it\u2019s a pretty simple choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Like many farmers, Stuart and Jacqui knew their cows could produce milk \u2013 their herd averages about 600kg of milk solids\/cow\/lactation- but they wanted to ensure their cows also lasted in the herd and remained healthy. Using the industry\u2019s BPI and HWI as guides, they\u2019ve chosen bulls that ticked production and health boxes such as mastitis resistance and fertility. Some of the ABS sires they\u2019ve used include; KNOWHOW<\/a>, JERONIMO P<\/a>, SPOCK<\/a>, HAMLET, CHARLEY<\/a> and his sons HOWLER<\/a>, AMSTEL and DURABLE<\/a>. And the Tracys have noticed the change these genetics have delivered to their herd. \u201cWe are starting to reap the benefits now,\u201d Stuart said. \u201cWe were getting quite high not-in-calf rates in our heifers, but since (focusing on breeding for health) our in-calf heifer group has steadily improved, and we are seeing this improvement throughout the herd because it means they are staying in the herd longer.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ABS Gippsland sales representative Alan Blum said the Tracy\u2019s approach to breeding and genetics was \u201cexceptional\u201d. \u201cThey are one of the most productive farms I work with, they prove health and production can go hand-in-hand,\u201d he said. \u201cTheir success comes from a strong focus on doing everything well, including genetics. They understand the role genetics plays in a profitable and sustainable dairy business and they maximise this value with good decisions and back it up with great management.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Genetics is helping one Gippsland dairy farming family reduce their business\u2019 carbon footprint, while bolstering herd health and productivity. Stuart and Jacqui Tracy, with their son Angus, milk 700 cows at Waratah Bay in Victoria as part of a family business which also includes their daughters Carmen and Leila. Their Holstein herd is ranked number…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":337,"featured_media":3960,"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-3948","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abs-australia-news"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nEnvironmental focus for Gippsland breeders - ABS Global Australia<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Genetics is helping one Gippsland dairy farming family reduce their business\u2019 carbon footprint, while bolstering herd health and productivity. Stuart and Jacqui Tracy, with their son Angus, milk 700 cows at Waratah Bay in Victoria as part of a family business which also includes their daughters Carmen and Leila. Their Holstein herd is ranked number…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"ABS Global Australia\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2022-09-05T06:45:32+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2022-09-27T05:29:26+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"4032\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1755\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/\",\"name\":\"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders - ABS Global Australia\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2022-09-05T06:45:32+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2022-09-27T05:29:26+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg\",\"width\":4032,\"height\":1755},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/\",\"name\":\"ABS Global Australia\",\"description\":\"Profit From Genetic Progress\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/author\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders - ABS Global Australia","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders","og_description":"Genetics is helping one Gippsland dairy farming family reduce their business\u2019 carbon footprint, while bolstering herd health and productivity. Stuart and Jacqui Tracy, with their son Angus, milk 700 cows at Waratah Bay in Victoria as part of a family business which also includes their daughters Carmen and Leila. Their Holstein herd is ranked number…","og_url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/","og_site_name":"ABS Global Australia","article_published_time":"2022-09-05T06:45:32+00:00","article_modified_time":"2022-09-27T05:29:26+00:00","og_image":[{"width":4032,"height":1755,"url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"","Est. reading time":"5 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/","name":"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders - ABS Global Australia","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg","datePublished":"2022-09-05T06:45:32+00:00","dateModified":"2022-09-27T05:29:26+00:00","author":{"@id":""},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg","width":4032,"height":1755},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/2022\/09\/05\/environmental-focus-for-gippsland-breeders\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Environmental focus for Gippsland breeders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/","name":"ABS Global Australia","description":"Profit From Genetic Progress","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"","url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/author\/"}]}},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/22\/2022\/09\/IMG_1822-cropped.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/337"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3948"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3951,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3948\/revisions\/3951"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3948"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3948"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www-dev.absglobal.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3948"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}