V.MQT.0002 - ALMTECH OM Evaluation Workshop & Ex Ante Live Animal OM Impact Assessment

Summary

The 2015 ex ante modelling of impacts and adoption from the objective modelling (OM) program was updated by Greenleaf in 2018 based on updating technology and adoption assumptions from the earlier modelling. These updated numbers will be used as a basis for evaluation the ALMTECH RRnD4P project, as well as the OM program, and hence need to be presented to stakeholders for feedback. In addition to the above, the potential benefits of live animal OM measurements were excluded from the earlier model, both in terms of supply chain and on-farm benefit. This now needs to be included, given the R&D progress in this area.

Objectives

A new model will be built based on live animal objective measurement (OM) informing producers decision to adjust management practices as well as alternative sales decisions.

Key findings

Implementing yield based OM on-farm in combination with carcase based OM has a range of benefits including:
1. Genetic selection for increased lean meat yield (LMY) and maintenance of eating quality (EQ). This involves using yield OM data to make selection decisions in future generations. These decisions can be made to drive the increase of LMY without detrimental effects to EQ.
2. Genetic selection for increased LMY and reduced dark cutting rates in Northern beef enterprises. Genetic selection for increased LMY can both positively and negatively impact the rate of dark cutting incidence. Higher muscling animals have been shown to have lower incidences of dark cutting due to increased glycogen storage and metabolisation capacity. Alternatively, selection of LMY to the detriment of fat cover has been linked to increased incidences of dark cutting as animals are not on a rising plane of nutrition and have lower blood glycogen levels at slaughter.
3. Enhanced on-farm decision making to manage live animal impact on yield.

Adoption rates of OM yield based technology will be impacted by a number of factors including:
- cost of entry to the OM technologies
- ease of use of the technologies
- ability for integration with current systems such as crush side weigh scales and walk overweight systems
- the presence and size of accompanying market signals
- the acceptance of on-farm based OM data by processors and feedlots for payment through VPM/VBM models
- the development of associated feedback mechanisms for producers to drive improvement
- the understanding and provision of extension programs detailing how to drive yield changes on farm through genetic selection and management interventions by producers.

Benefits to industry

Live animal and carcase based objective measurement is estimated to bring over $1B to the red meat industry between 2025 and 2045.

It is expected that genetic selection of increased LMY and maintenance of EQ will result in 39% adoption rates by 2045, bringing a net benefit of $20.24 million for beef and sheep combined.

Presently, dark cutting costs the Northern red meat industry $44.9 million annually. The ability to both increase LMY and resultant number of kg of beef (as well as reducing the amount of dark cutting discounts) would provide $4.85 million by 2045. Improved management decisions will maximise the value of each animal with an overarching benefit realisation to industry of $38.6 million annually.

MLA action

It is recommended that MLA undertake extensive consultation with producers to better understand the appetite for the adoption of yield-based OM technologies.
Consultation and modelling are also required to determine the best decision points in the value chain to implement OM technologies as true value realisation is linked to the adoption of VBM/VBP payment models (Greenleaf 2017).

Future research

As yield is only one driver of market value, extension services will be critical to ensure to correct selection pressures are applied in genetic decisions to ensure limited detriment to eating quality, fertility and other significant consumer and production factors.