This week we have Ella Holland, National Territory Manager at PBB (Performance Beef Breeders), on the podcast to discuss how you can make better heifer selection decisions.  

"PBB was established back in 1996 by Angus New Zealand and NZ Hereford. They saw a gap in the market and they wanted to create a company that would be a one-stop shop for the beef industry and provide them with all the services and products studs needed, and also create a unified voice for the beef industry," explains Ella. These days, PBB does much, much more and has sister companies that support the wider sheep and beef industry, such as Pivot Design. 

One of the most recent services on offer from PBB is 'Igenity'. This extensive genetic data collection covers over 18 million animals worldwide. It serves as the foundation for PBB's genetic testing, which uses DNA to evaluate animals based on 17 heifer traits - providing fertility and maternal performance predictions, evaluating genetic merit in terms of feed efficiency, growth and carcass composition, and highlighting your herd's genetic strengths and weaknesses. All from a simple DNA test.

"It uses the power of DNA to rank your animals, top to bottom, on performance and profitability,” shares Ella, allowing you to pick out the animals with better genetic merit in that “middle grey area” of heifer selection. Whilst it’s easy to cull on structural faults and poor doers, keeping the fattest shiniest heifer, it’s not always easy to pick through that middle line of the herd and this is where Igenity comes in. 

Ella underlines that there's no one-size-fits-all approach to cattle selection, explaining that the right choice depends on specific breeding goals. "There's not one good cow for everybody. There's a range of good cows and it's just working out what you want to achieve in your herd." PBB offers custom indexes, tailored to individual herd objectives, to do just that. 

Mark and Ella also discuss the other great work that PBB do and the collaboration between neXtgen Agri and PBB. 

If you would like to know more about PBB or Ingenity, you can contact us at [email protected] or PBB at [email protected].

Head Shepherd is brought to you by neXtgen Agri International Limited.

We help livestock farmers get the most out of the genetics they farm with. Get in touch with us if you would like to hear more about how we can help you do what you do best: [email protected].

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