From June 1, Fonterra New Zealand farmers must now raise bobby calves for beef, slaughter them for calf-veal or the pet food market.
The processor’s Australian arm has no plans to bring in similar rules, but Fonterra Australia Farm Source director Matt Watt said animal wellbeing “for all animals in our supply chain is vitally important to Fonterra Australia”.
“We continue to work alongside industry bodies including Dairy Australia and Australian Dairy Farmers to develop programs that support calf care on-farm,” Mr Watt said.
“This includes joining the Calf Taskforce convened by Australian Dairy Farmers last year.
“In 2022 we introduced Farm Environment Plans which offer our farmer suppliers the opportunity to build a tailored program for continual improvement across a range of topics, including a Healthy Calves module which promotes responsible breeding and management.”
Bovine genetics company ABS said Australian dairy farmers were already embracing specialist dairy beef genetics to reduce bobby calves.
Nearly 14 per cent of all ABS semen sold to dairy farmers last year was ABS InFocus — a genetic product designed to breed a quality and consistent beef animal from a dairy cow.
ABS Australia technical and genetic services manager Matt Aikenhead said more dairy farmers than ever were looking for a sustainable solution to phase out bobby calves.
“Globally, specialist dairy-beef semen, such as Beef InFocus, has been available for more than a decade,” Mr Aikenhead said.
“In Australia, it’s grown in popularity recently as dairy farmers have teamed it with sexed genetics.
“They breed replacement dairy heifers from their best genetic merit animals and use Beef InFocus to join the rest of their herd and create a valuable protein product for the beef market.”
The most popular Beef InFocus product in Australia produces black calves that resemble Angus.
There is also speciality Beef InFocus to breed Holsteins and Jerseys.
The resulting progeny can be sold as young calves to backgrounders or grown-out for the beef market.
Beef InFocus, managed correctly, produced meat comparable to straight beef, Mr Aikenhead said.
“The research has been done — it’s proven. But the next step for the Australian dairy industry is to develop a specialised supply chain — with scale — so Australian consumers can benefit from cost-effective and environmentally-friendly beef.
“Dairy-beef offers a solution to the dairy bobby calf challenge and the beef industry issue of supply consistency in the face of global warming.”
