There are less than two weeks to go until the start of the British Cattle Breeders Conference.

Returning to Telford on January 22-24, 2024, the conference entitled ‘Green Genes – revolutionising cattle breeding for a sustainable future’, will explore how the cattle industry can lower greenhouse gas emissions.

The programme brings together a wealth of well-acclaimed UK and international academics and farmers.

This year for the first time there will be a bovine session on both days assembling beef and dairy sectors to reveal how the latest innovations in plant breeding and methane mitigation through dietary intervention can help farmers meet net zero.

One of the Dairy Day speakers is third-generation farmer Rory Christie.

Mr Christie, who milks 1100 spring-calving Jersey cross Holstein cows alongside his brother, Gregor, in South-West Scotland, has been part of a trail-blazing project, led by Professor Mike Coffey at SRUC since its establishment in 2017.

The project has created the world’s first crossbreeding index using genomic information, milk production, and herd health data.

It involves three other like-minded dairy farmers and is aimed at improving individual cow performance in a grazing environment.

Mr Christie now has an elite group of 500 females that are individually mated to sexed bulls with conception rates hitting 45%+.

Milking cows are weighed automatically two times a day to get accurate liveweight data and this information is now being used to create a maintenance index. This will be available shortly alongside a fertility index.

The next step is to understand how genetics influences methane production.

Mr. Christie will discuss his involvement in the project and how it has led him to improve milk production by 500 litres a cow a year without increasing cow size or coming at the cost of other important traits.

Hotel bookings are now full, but to apply to the waiting list or book day tickets, please contact heidi.bradbury@cattlebreeders.org.uk

The full conference agenda, including all the speakers, is available to view online https://www.cattlebreeders.org.uk/conference/