Beef Improvement Federation: With Cow Efficiency, #PhenotypeIsKing
“That’s the one driving force in the UK funding and government policy – is how to reduce methane per kilogram of product… a couple of important words there: now and speed. We can’t wait to do it and when we decide to do it, we need to do it fast.,” said Mike Coffey, Scotland’s Rural College. Coffey was a featured speaker during the 2024 Beef Improvement Federation (BIF) Symposium June 12 in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Coffey shared his perspective on the United Kingdom’s (UK) progress towards reducing methane emissions in beef and dairy cattle. Updates included current selection and management trends in dairy and beef populations, his perspective on what the future of UK production will look like, some of the challenges the UK will face, and his vision for solving the challenge of methane emissions.
Where is the dairy industry now and what progress has been made?
Coffey emphasized that production per cow had increased, which plays a role in reduced methane emissions per unit of product. Like the U.S. dairy, selection for production alone negatively affected disease resistance and cow fertility. Selection on the overall index PLI, which is like net merit indices in the U.S. dairy population, has been successful in not only increasing production but improving disease resistance and fertility in cattle.
The future
Coffey said he believes more needs to be done to meet climate change goals, farmers’ needs and society’s needs. Old practices, such as antibiotic use and exporting calves for veal or euthanizing calves, were not deemed socially acceptable and UK market demands for dairy products reflected as such.
He explained this is where utilizing sexed beef semen can play a role and give calves a purpose in the system. He also believes dairy cows will need to be even less susceptible to illness, have increased fertility and live longer to decrease the number of environmentally and fiscally expensive replacements that need to be raised. Current levels of fertility, disease resistance and longevity are not enough.
“More efficient cows that are good for the environment actually are more profitable than not,” he said emphasizing the cows with the least environmental impact should also be the most profitable.
There will, however, be challenges to achieving these lofty goals. Coffey noted climate change and extreme weather events, geopolitical events that can drastically impact input costs and supply chains, energy prices, increasing cow sizes, and a lack of weight data collection will be obstacles that need to be overcome for these goals to be met — with an emphasis on decreasing cow size.
Coffey summarized, “Change is coming, but you are capable of dealing with it. It’s not scary, it’s an opportunity.”
To watch the full presentation, visit https://youtu.be/NRGHLZMrdPg. For more information about this year’s Symposium and the Beef Improvement Federation, including additional presentations and award winners, visit BIFSymposium.com.
