Mark Leslie: Pāmu CEO on the launch of new dairy-beef crossbreed cows

Mooove over dairy and beef cows, for a new hybrid breed on the block.

Pāmu and Livestock Improvement Corporation have created a new cattle breed - called the Synegizer.

About 350 first-cross beef-on-dairy calves were born this year, and limited frozen insemination will available next spring.

Pāmu CEO Mark Leslie says dairy farmers won't use Synegizers for milking.

"These bulls will be used to go over maybe some of the cows they don't want to keep the replacements out of - and they'll use these to generate animals that can then go off into the livestock centre."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:09):
You're listening to a podcast from News Talk zed B.
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Speaker 2 (00:16):
There's a new cow on the block. PAMU and the
Livestock Improvement Corporation have created a new breed of cattle.
It can produce both beef and dairy and they're calling
it the Synergizer. Mark Leslie is the PAMU CEO and
with us.

Speaker 3 (00:28):
Home Mark, Good afternoon, Heather, how are you very well?

Speaker 2 (00:32):
Thank you? That's a cool name. Who came up with that?

Speaker 3 (00:35):
It was it was a play on where's in terms
of that's coming from the word synergy, and it was
a synergy about actually bringing together some genetics that include
Angus Hereford, Simontel Charley, So a little bit of a
play there, but also around the collaboration between how does
the dairy sector and the livestock sector collaborate to come

(00:55):
up with these animals that will be used. It'll come
out of the dairy herds and then go into the
livestock herts and become a beef animal to go right through.
So the synergy between the sectors and but no, it's
a pretty cool name that sort of brings to you
the beast of both worlds and different breeds as well
as the dairy and the livestock sector.

Speaker 2 (01:12):
Now tell me something, Mark, why do you want a
count to be able to be both dairy and beef
Because you don't want to milk it for years and
then eat it, do you.

Speaker 3 (01:19):
Yeah? No, so no it's not going to be milked.
So what this is intending to do is this breed
here will be used the dairy farmers will continue to
use their traditional breeds for their milking animals. These bulls
or these will be used to go over maybe some
of the cows they don't want to keep the replacements
out of, and they'll use these to generate animals that

(01:40):
can then go off into the livestock sector and become
animals for meat and for processing to that side of it. So, no,
they won't be getting books. They'll be coming out of
the dairy sector and going off into that stuff.

Speaker 2 (01:52):
Do you reckon there's a market for this?

Speaker 4 (01:55):
Yeah? Absolutely.

Speaker 3 (01:55):
And the work we've done and this has been part
of our journey in terms of the dairy beef journey
and rearing those extra cars out of our dairy units
to go into the livestock units and these genetics are
a key part of it. And you have seen a
recent Rubbo report rubber Bank report where they talk about
potential upside of dairy beef to New Zealand of one

(02:16):
point two billion. And we've been we've been looking at
this for the last number of years and these will
meet the need of the dairy farmer. They are really
book from their deary perspective, they really nique. They stand
out in terms of their silver color, their low birth
fate and the lights.

Speaker 4 (02:30):
But then once they're on a livestock farm, they're growing
out really well. They've got good live weight game and
that's really beating rhythmat quality. So they need to meet
the needs of both sides.

Speaker 2 (02:40):
Great, that's fantastic stuff. Mark, Thanks very much, Mark Leslie
palmu CEO.

Speaker 1 (02:45):
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