British Cattle Conference, 2012 - programme
Responsible breeding - fit for future generations
All events take place in the Great Hay Suite unless otherwise stated
Monday 23rd January | |
12.00 |
Pedigree Beef Societies Group Meeting in the Coalbrookedale Room including a working lunch. More information from John Fleming 01768 88775. |
14.30 |
Workshop 1 - Implementation of Genomic Selection in the UK led by Mike Coffey The UK has rapidly gained sufficient genotypes to form a large reference population due to genotypes swapped with the North American Consortium. This workshop will provide details of the results of that process and outline the development of UK genomic PTAs. |
16.00 |
Coffee |
16.30 |
Workshop 2 - Using Genotype Information To Detect Genetic Defects led by Philip Halhead Genotypes can be used very effectively to determine the presence of harmful recessives in a population. This positive use provides information to breeders to enable the benefits of bulls to be realized without the disbenefits of introducing recessives. |
18.00 |
onwards - Wine Reception sponsored by Shepherd Publishing in the Guest Lounge |
19.00 |
onwards - Dinner in the restaurant |
21.15 |
Quiz Night with Quiz Master Mark Roberts, in the Lounge Bar |
Tuesday 24th JanuarySession 1 Chairman: Mr Iain KerrChallenges and opportunities for the future | |
09.10 |
Chairman Duncan Sinclair opens the conference |
09.15 |
Cattle Breeding - Meeting The Future Challenges UK governement has committed to legally binding commitments on Climate Change. This presentation will set out some of the main challenges facing the agriculture industry now and in the future and the potential role of cattle breeding in meeting the challenges and opportunities that lie ahead. |
09.40 |
Genetic Improvement - a Promise Unfulfilled? Effective methods of improving farm animal performance, based upon quantitative genetic principles, had just been established when Dr Bichard started work 50 years ago. These methods have since transformed production efficiency and product quality in the pig and poultry sectors. Why not in cattle and sheep also? How can we realise their full promise? |
10.05 |
Panel Discussion |
10.15 |
Coffee |
Session 2 Chairman: Dr Philip HadleyBuilding blocks to success | |
10.55 |
Breeding for Improved Feed Efficiency in Beef Cattle Globally, innovative seed stock producers are rapidly increasing their capacity to select young breeding stock for feed efficiency. A balanced approach that accounts for the genetic relationships of feed efficiency on growth, carcass merit, meat quality, fertility and resource use, and the economic value of each trait in a multi-trait selection is required. This presentation will discuss measures of efficiency including correlated traits, economic benefits and effects on systems efficiency. |
11.25 |
Developing Dairy-Origin Beef Systems for the Next Generation Recent research at AFBI Hillsborough has evaluated various rearing and finishing systems for dairy-origin beef production. This paper shall evaluate the impact of labour input, calf health, genotype and production system on lifetime performance; and will indicate how monitoring performance throughout the lifecycle can ensure efficient profitable production for the next generation |
11.50 |
Efficient Low Input Beef Systems Charley and his wife run a beef and sheep farm in the eastern Scottish Borders. They specialise in the production of breeding stock suitable for low input farming systems and as a Nuffield Scholar Charley has studied easier managed beef systems. He believes that the quest for maximizing production can often lead to high levels of input, particularly labour. This paper will show how he reduces inputs whilst maintaining outputs. |
12.15 |
Panel Discussion |
12.30 |
Winning Beef Student Essay Presentation, sponsored by EBLEX |
12.45 |
Lunch |
Session 3 Chairman: Mr Ian MacDougallProtecting the investment: the role of animal health | |
14.05 |
Strategic Investment in Long Term Health Planning, Monitoring and Implementation Patrick manages a large, self-contained beef herd on different holdings. This has called for pre-emptive planning to manage the risks of mixing age groups and environmental issues. As he has tackled the long term scourge of BVD and Johne's eradication so new challenges appear to keep him focussed. |
14.35 |
Sub-Fertility in Bulls - Myth or Reality? Many surveys worldwide have found around 20% of bulls can be classified as unsound for breeding when put through a standard breeding soundness examination. Whilst complete infertility (sterility) is rare , sub-fertility is common. The definition and significance of sub-fertility in the UK pedigree bull population will be discussed. |
15.05 |
Tea |
Session 4 Chairman: Mr Neil WhartonRealising the benefits of integration | |
15.45 |
Lessons from America - Breeding through Scale Power Genetics was set up 15 years by a group of beef farmers and today it is a truly integrated beef supply chain recording data on over 200,000 cattle. The chain was formed to record and measure efficiencies which would be fed back down the chain in order to continually breed the next generation of bulls that would improve the efficiency and profitability for everybody involved. |
16.20 |
A UK Case Study from the Pig Sector Delivering top quality UK pork products the customer wants, at a fair price for the farmer, the processor and the consumer... is this the Holy Grail? This paper will use terminal sire evaluations as a demonstration of how an integrated approach has changed the direction of the UK pig industry and the outcomes as a result. |
16.40 |
Chairman closes the paper sessions |
16.45 |
AGM in the Coalbrookdale Room |
16.40 |
onwards Hands-on Workshop: The Web as a Research Tool in the Jackfield Room - The web is established as a tool for information gathering and for making business. Agriculture is catching up in incorporating the web into everyday businesses and now large amounts of relevant breeding information are available. CIS, BASCO, NMR and DairyCo (amongst others) have all produced exceptional web front ends to their database helping breeders make use of the large amounts of data available. This will be a hands-on workshop - come and have a go and get professional help if you get stuck. (The computers kindly loaned by NMR.) |
Evening events | |
19.00 |
Champagne Reception sponsored by Genus ABS and Holstein UK in the Guest Lounge |
19.15 |
Holstein UK's President's Medal Presentation in the Great Hay Suite. The winner of this annual prestigious award will be announced and presented by Holstein UK President Jimmy Hull. |
19.45 |
Club Annual Dinner in the Great Hay Suite with beef kindly donated by Waitrose and Dovecote Park Ltd. |
21.15 |
Any questions in the Great Hay Suite Chairman - Paul Westaway Panel |
Wednesday 25th JanuarySession 5 Chairman: Neil DarwentThe road ahead | |
9.10 |
Chairman Duncan Sinclair opens the day |
9.15 |
Joint Presentation - How Genetics, the Environment and Collaboration can help to secure the Future of British Dairy Farming With increasing pressure to reduce the environmental impact of dairy farming, genetics may hold the key to tackling this important challenge. Significant advances have been made in dairy genetics to date and with international collaboration on genomics, information for many thousands of bulls is being shared, which has the potential to further progress the rate of genetic improvement. The Dairy Roadmap is another example of industry collaboration delivering benefits to the dairy farmer. The link between reducing environmental impact and improving profitability on UK dairy farms is indisputable and provides another positive message for UK dairy, giving us the opportunity to compete on a global scale. |
9.55 |
Just How Well are Dairy Herds Performing in the UK? An analysis of routine milk records from 500 herds provides a description of fertility, production and health in commercial dairy herds in 2011. As well as demonstrating wide variation across the industry, the findings are used to highlight problems in individual herds and focus technical input on areas of greatest need. |
10.15 |
Panel Discussion |
10.30 |
Coffee |
Session 6 Chairman: Dr Mike CoffeyScience delivering opportunity | |
11.10 |
New Applications of midInfraRed Testing - Potential Implications for Dairy Farmers and the Dairy Supply Chain. The development of MIR technology means the potential now exists to predict fatty acid measures from milk samples. This can monitor the health of cows as well as establishing the healthiness of dairy products for the consumer. It is very likely that this information will also be used to aid breeding decisions on farm influencing the development of dairy genetics, particularly given the availability of genomic technology to accelerate the pace of genetic change. This paper will summarise research to date and outline potential future applications of the technology. |
11.40 |
How Productivity is Key to Mitigating the Environmental Impact of Cattle Systems Improving productivity allows both resource use and the carbon footprint of cattle production to be reduced. This presentation will discuss the advances in environmental sustainability made by improving productivity in the dairy and beef industries and the opportunities to further maintain sustainability given future global demands for milk and meat. |
12.10 |
Panel Discussion |
12.25 |
Winning Dairy Student Essay Presentation sponsored by Dairy Co |
12.40 |
Lunch |
Session 7 Chairman: Roger TrewhellaDeveloping future proof breeding strategies | |
14.00 |
Data Based Management: the Route to Reproductive Success Reproductive management in the modern dairy herd is challenging. This paper will discuss and illustrate some of the issues encountered and suggest a possible approach based on the principles and application of data based management activity in the modern dairy herd using specific case scenarios. |
14.30 |
The information revolution; breeding cattle the Nordic way Lars-Inge Gunnarson combines large scale dairy farming in Sweden with being Chairman of Viking Genetics. He will provide an insight into the way in which the dairy industry in the Nordic countries is developing robust data sets to inform future breeding strategies. The development of a central database has been a critical component and offers a platform from which the entire dairy industry in Denmark, Finland and Sweden can benefit in the future. |
15.00 |
Putting Science into Practice - Combining Research and Commercial Farming David has been landlord to Kingshay for the last 10 years and over that time the farm has become home to a number of trials that benefit farmers throughout the country. He will be examining this relationship and the ups and downs of doing trial work at a practical level. |
15.30 |
Panel Discussion |
15.45 |
Chairman closes the Conference |
15.50 |
Tea available before departure |
Download the full-colour detailed programme for the 2012 Conference here.