North Canterbury sheep and beef farmer Will Wilding from Te Mania Angus won the Beef + Lamb New Zealand Livestock Farm Award at the Canterbury Ballance Farm Environment Awards last week.
The Awards’ judges said Will demonstrated an outstanding approach to animal welfare and management with exemplary livestock stewardship aligned to farm contours, soils and consideration of the environment.
Will also won the New Zealand Farm Environment Trust (NZFET) Biodiversity Award, recognising the on-going environmental protection and enhancement work being carried out on Te Mania and the NZFET Innovation Award.
The Innovation Award recognised the work Te Mania Angus was doing to breed more efficient cattle with reduced greenhouse gas emissions.
Will, who is Managing Director of Te Mania Angus, has been instrumental in driving the feed efficiency work being undertaken on the farm. Using a feed intake testing unit, they aim to identify animals that are genetically more efficient converters of feed into kilograms of product.
Will says feed use efficiency is a moderately heritable trait, so progress can be made in breeding more efficient animals, but research has shown that feed efficiency is also closely correlated with reduced emissions.
“By gradually improving feed efficiency in cattle we can also reduce emissions,” says Will.
Scientists from Beef + Lamb New Zealand and AgResearch are also using the feed intake testing unit to measure how efficiently beef cattle convert feed into liveweight and their greenhouse gas emissions as part of the Informing New Zealand Beef programme.
The judges commented that the partnership’s willingness to research and trial technology aimed at reducing methane emissions was both inspiring and educational.
They said Te Mania was tackling a major challenge for the livestock industry which will benefit both their business and the wider industry.
In receiving the Awards, Will says he is most proud of winning the B+LNZ Livestock Award.
“I’m really proud of winning the livestock award because that always been our forte, we’re really proud of our animals, the way we handle them and the way we treat them.”
He says winning the NZFET Innovation Award was exciting because the feed efficiency work they are doing is relatively new and the Award validates their belief that they are on the right path.
Beef + Lamb New Zealand has been proudly sponsoring the Ballance Farm Environment Awards, which celebrate farmer and grower achievement and showcase good farm practices, since 2010.