WPSIII-6 Retrospect evaluation of cow productivity in the South African landrace breeds and its environmental impact.

Abstract

It is important that climate smart beef production systems are developed and put in place to reduce the GHG production from beef and to mitigate the effects of climate change on beef production. An effective way to reduce the carbon (and water) footprint from beef is to reduce the animal numbers and increase the production per animal, thereby improving their productivity. Increased productivity generates less GHG emissions per unit of livestock product. With the recent research developments surprisingly, efficiency of production has been neglected. Cow-calf efficiency can be defined as kg calf weaned per Large Stock Unit (KgC/LSU) mated. The LSU is linked to daily feed requirements. Using this definition of cow efficiency, it was estimated that there was an increase of 18.3%, 10.0%, 14.2% and 10.4% in cow efficiency of the indigenous Afrikaner, Bonsmara, Drakensberger and Nguni respectively over a period of 33 years, as a result of breeding and management. In South Africa the enteric methane emissions factor (MEFenteric), is defined as kg methane/year of a LSU is approximately 94 kg /LSU/year for beef cattle. In the case of the Afrikaner, the MEFenteric was 1 kg per kilogram calf weaned in 1980 and it decreased to 0.88kg in 2013, a decrease of 12%. Likewise the MEFenteric decreased by 6.6%, 9.3% and 6.6% in the case of Bonsmara, Drakensberger and Nguni breeds respectively. These results indicate that cow productivity can be improved if the weaning weight of the calf relative to the weight of the cow can be increased; and the fertility improved consequently reducing production of greenhouse gases from the South African landrace breeds. It is therefore important to develop breeding objectives to improve cow calf efficiency of the South African landrace and other breeds.