NZ Animal Evaluation operations

With his wife Raewyn, Wayne operates a 515-cow spring calving operation in the Waikato.

The herd comprises 80 percent crossbreds, with the remainder Jersey. Starting with a herd put together from multiple sources, good stock husbandry and recording practices have seen it move into the top two percent nationally on BW over 15 years of ownership.

Wayne has a B.Com (Ag) from Lincoln University and spent seven years working for LIC, involved in running sire evaluations, selecting bull teams, managing the Sire Proving Scheme and breeding and selecting bulls for purchase.

Wayne is excited at the role genetics has in helping meet current and future challenges the industry faces in the areas of sustainability and animal welfare, while also improving our profitability.

Jim and his wife Sue own a 110-cow dairy farm in North Taranaki. Their herd consistently ranks in the top 5% nationally for Breeding Worth and is made up of 50 percent Friesian (mainly pedigree) and 50 percent crossbred cows. They have supplied a number of bulls to LIC, CRV and Liberty, including: Waiau Max Tommo, Waiau Fatal Leo, Paladium Mal and Mint Thadus.

Jim is committed to improving the profitability of the national herd. He has attended animal evaluation meetings for approximately 15 years, served five years as a traits other than production (TOP) inspector, and completed a Diploma in Agriculture with Lincoln University.

Mark has more than 40 years farming experience with current interests in New Zealand (Hauraki, Canterbury, Southland), North America and South America. Mark was a director of New Zealand Cooperative Dairy, NZ Dairy Board, and a founding director of Fonterra. He was the co-founder of Liberty Genetics Ltd and is a current director of several farming companies.

Bovine genetics have been a lifetime interest for Mark, and his stud herd consistently ranks in the top one percent for BW. He has supplied more than 350 sires to artificial breeding companies in New Zealand.

In 1997, Mark and his wife Diane were the inaugural recipients of the A.C. Cameron National Award for Excellence in Farming in New Zealand.

Michelle and her husband Bill, along with their two young children, run 320 high BW Holstein-Friesian and crossbred cows on their 100ha farm near Matamata. They purchased their first farm after milking a large herd of 720 cows on a leased farm. Now all autumn calving, their herd produces over 600kgMS.

Genetics has been a lifetime passion for Michelle. She grew up with a quality crossbred 'bull-of-the-day' herd, and is now involved with embryo work and bull breeding in her own herd. Michelle is also a member of New Zealand Holstein Friesian Association and JerseyNZ, which allows her to register and classify their elite females. She says, “I consider myself open-minded and enjoy networking and learning different philosophies, especially regarding genetics. I think that it’s important for us to question the Animal Evaluation system, and work to make it more accurate and relevant for New Zealand dairy farmers.”

Steve and his wife Nina own 550 cows, which are predominantly Jersey.  They farm on a System 3 irrigated property in South Canterbury. Steve and Nina have developed a herd of high genetic merit, which is registered under their stud name ‘Lynbrook Jerseys’. Investment in embryology and yearling matings have contributed to high levels of genetic gain.

Lynbrook has supplied Jersey and kiwi-cross bulls to the AI industry for 20 years. Their most successful bull to date is Lynbrook Terrific.

Steve believes NZAEL is fundamental to the NZ dairy industry, paving the way forward to deliver a national breeding objective capable of optimising genetic gain suitable for a range of dairy farm systems and ongoing industry challenges.

Steve is currently director and vice president of Jersey NZ and served on the board of NZAEL for three years from 2008-2011.

Stewart and his wife Katheryn are the proud owners of the Arkan stud. Their herd contains Crossbred, Friesian and Jersey cows. Within their breeding programme, Stewart and Katheryn focus on profit, type, production and farmer opinion traits.

Their goal is to create elite animals that will benefit the national herd and extensive embryo transfer work has allowed them to make quicker progress. The herd BW is consistently at or near the highest in the country and the herd has produced a large number of elite AI sires over the past 10 years.

Stewart’s passion for breeding began as admiration of earlier generation breeders such as Ned Stirling of Big Hollow and Ken Bennett of Broken Hill.

Tania is a 50:50 sharemilker at Culverden in North Canterbury where she milks 480 cows, a mix of Friesian/Friesian cross. Tania started out with 300 cows and has built up the numbers from the progeny. She is no longer growing the herd, so is concentrating on genetic improvement.

In 2017 Tania was runner-up sharemilker in the Canterbury/North Otago Dairy Industry Awards. She holds a Bachelor of Science (Hons) from Otago University and was a microbiologist before entering the dairy industry.

Kevin currently farms 1150 mixed breed cows managed by his son Scott. The cows are predominately New Zealand Friesian breeding with purebred Jerseys and many crosses in between.

Kevin’s lifetime ambition has been one of genetic improvement started in 1956 when he established AB practises on his home farm. He has been involved in New Zealand genetic improvement for 45 years starting with NZHFA where he sat on the board for 12 years. He has been a TOP inspector for 20 years and was also on the farmer panel when Breeding Worth was first introduced.

Kevin believes that genetic gain and the use of superior genetics holds the key for New Zealand dairy farmers to remain competitive on the world stage.

James grew up on a dairy farm and has a B.Com(Ag) from Lincoln University. His interest in genetics was sparked by his parents’ 140-cow Holstein Friesian herd which has predominantly North American and European genetics mixed with some New Zealand bloodlines.

After university he spent two years farming overseas, one in Australia and then in Chile working for NZ company Manuka. He subsequently worked for six years as a contract milker for Mark & Diane Townshend on the Hauraki Plains including two years at their stud herd Crescent Genetics.

James is currently contract milking 680 cows in Te Kauwhata. He is an equity partner in the business and an equity shareholder in another farm at Helensville.

Hayden and Alecia farm 400 predominantly Friesian cows on their 177ha property just south of Eltham in South Taranaki. They operate the Niaruo stud (which spelt backwards says "Our Ain '' which is Scottish for "Our Own").

Hayden has a passion for farming systems and the integration of technology and information systems holding a PhD in Precision Agriculture Systems. Hayden is also a board member of Dairy Trust Taranaki where four local research farms are used to improve efficiency and performance in dairying.

Ben and his wife Stacey, in a family equity partnership with Ben’s parents Tim and Wendy Watson, farm 900 cows on two properties at Richmond Downs and a further 600 cows at Piopio. The herds are made up of jersey and crossbred cows.

Ben is very interested in the economics of pastoral dairy farming and keeping costs low for farmers. He is currently involved with dairy beef studies and how dairy beef could address the issue of non-replacement calves without having a detrimental effect on profitability.

Ben joined the Farmer Advisory Panel in 2023 and is a farmer representative on the steering committee for the National Breeding Objective review.

• Nathan Bayne
• Dean Alexander

Hugh is a director of Research and Commercialisation at Massey University. He has a doctorate in quantitative genetics from Massey University, and has teaching, research, and consulting expertise in applied animal genetics.

Dorian’s research interests are broadly involved in the genetic improvement of populations through selection. Dorian views animal breeding in a systems context, involving the integration of knowledge and understanding of business goals, production systems, processing, and marketing, in concert with quantitative and molecular genetics. In recent years, his activities have focused on the use of genomic data to predict offspring performance.

Bevin is the Science Leader for LIC. His speciality areas include breeding value estimation, multi trait selection indices, implementing genomic technologies in breeding programs. He has a doctorate in Animal Breeding and Statistics from Iowa State University, USA.

Peter is a Managing Director at Abacus Bio Ltd. His speciality areas include breeding value estimation, multi trait selection indices, implementing genomic technologies in breeding programs, economic and genetic analyses of breeding strategies. He has a doctorate in Applied Genetics from University of Guelph, Canada.

Gerben is part of CRV Ambreed’s Animal Evaluation Unit.

Ross is a Research Scientist with ICBF based in Cork, Ireland.

Jennie is Principal Research Scientist of Agriculture Victoria and LaTrobe University where she leads a large team of scientists and PhD students.