Beef breeding index combines efficiency and environmental gains

A beef breeding index that combines improvements in performance efficiency with a reduction in greenhouse gases is not only good for the environment and farm profit.

It also offers a triple win for beef producers because it improves beef’s reputation with the British consumer, says AHDB geneticist Dr Harriet Bunning.

See also: How efficiencies are driving down beef unit’s carbon footprint

With enteric methane accounting for 45% of all farm emissions, farmers using the new EnviroBeef index (to be launched this month) will be able to demonstrate that they are working to lower their farm’s impact on climate change.

“Genetics have the potential to reduce carbon footprint through reducing methane emissions via improving herd efficiency,” says Harriet.

Less waste, more profit

Using this index as a selection tool to breed from the beef herd’s best cows will ultimately lead to more meat produced, with fewer inputs and, therefore, less waste and more profit, she says.

More efficient animals calve sooner and rear more calves over their lifetime, while eating less and generating less methane, she explains.

“Using EnviroBeef should lead to a better carbon calculation result,” she adds.

Benefits to herd performance include fewer days to slaughter, younger age at first calving, and lower mature cow weight (smaller cows eat less feed).

There are also improvements in fertility, cow survivability, carcass weight and Europ grade.

“It’s good for the environment and farm profit. We want calves to survive and cows that can live a long, productive life,” she says.

“There are no trade-offs in this index. And no extra costs to the farmer that we see with other methane mitigation strategies, such as feed additives.”

Index based on efficiency

The index was developed for the beef industry at the request of breed societies following the success of the dairy industry’s EnviroCow index, launched in 2021.

This is helping to breed dairy cows that are predicted to create the least amount of greenhouse gas emissions for each kilogram of corrected-solids milk produced.

The top 10% of dairy cows ranked on this index are calculated to produce 32% fewer emissions than the bottom 10%.

And if a herd reduces its emissions by 1% a year, this is cumulative and permanent, so leads to a 10% reduction after a decade.

Harriet says AHDB geneticists adopted the same methodology for the beef industry, building a computer model to process data and rank the effect of various traits on emissions.

The resulting EnviroBeef index is based on nine maternal and production traits – all of them important in improving efficiency – with appropriate weightings.

Calculations use national data from the British Cattle Movement Service and processor kill sheets, not pedigrees, which means the index can also be calculated for commercial cows and crossbreeds.

Impact on carbon footprint

Each cow or bull’s EnviroBeef value reflects the percentage difference in carbon footprint compared with the average for a British suckler beef animal.

“A minus 10% animal will have the potential to reduce the carbon footprint of beef by 10% compared with the GB average.

“We typically see animals with values from plus 15% to minus 15% at the moment, but hope that as the index is used and our cattle get more efficient, we will see more animals with even better values,” Harriet explains.

Below-average herds will see faster progress; those already doing a good job will not see such big gains, she says.

The effects are cumulative and selective breeding builds generation after generation. “You don’t reach a peak,” she adds.

“Between 2003 and 2019, we see, on average, a reduction by 0.1% a year in the genetic potential for carbon footprint of GB suckler cattle. This is very small, although in the right direction.

“But we do see the improvement is accelerating to 0.2% a year from 2010-19, showing farmers are already doing a better job at breeding ‘greener’ suckler cows.

“The EnviroBeef tool will help farmers make improvements much more quickly.”

How to use the new index

She stresses, however, that this is not an index to be pursued in isolation – it is part of a filtering process.

Together with estimated breeding values (EBVs), it can help identify which suckler cows to cull and the most efficient ones to breed herd replacements from (and whether a heifer should be finished, rather than bred), as well as choosing the best herd sires to breed more productive animals, all while reducing the farm’s methane emissions.

“Once you have chosen a healthy bull – having checked his semen quality and health status, whether he is lame and so on – look up his EBVs, then look for his EnviroBeef index,” Harriet advises.

The index can be used in all management systems, from extensive grazing and outwintering, to intensive indoor finishing, she points out.

But it does mean that producers can make incremental genetic and financial improvements without having to fundamentally change their farm management system.

“It is effective across a variety of genes, management, breeds and crossbreeds – as long as we have data.

“You don’t have to swap breeds to make genetic, business and environmental progress, just use data to make breeding decisions. We see more variations within a beef breed than between breeds,” she says.

Older cows, accurate results

EnviroBeef will be generated and published three times a year (so it is important to check it to track changes) with results available from breed societies, as well as via the AHDB website.

All it requires is an ear tag number to get data for individual cows or bulls.

“We want to encourage farmers to look up their animals’ index, particularly older cows, as they have more accurate results.

“Really small herds – with fewer than five cows calving at once – are less likely to see results, as it needs a cohort for comparison.

“Similarly, finishing herds need at least five animals sent off for slaughter at the same time to account for phenotype differences, not genetic ones,” says Harriet.

She explains that the index is still an estimate, and predictions will be refined as more data are gathered.

This will improve accuracy, particularly as more can be measured at the end of an animal’s life.

The next step will be to look at incorporating genomic data to accelerate genetic progress and increase accuracy.

But she says that even when uptake leads to lower emissions in the beef industry, there are no plans to reset the base.

“This is because it is a useful story to show the industry’s progress in tackling climate change and so is important in guiding public perception.”

For more information on EnviroBeef can be found on the AHDB website.