| 2018-01-08 |    |
UK Stabiliser Cattle Officially Cross French Borders
The first live exports of UK Stabiliser cattle to France have been delivered in part of a five-year contract between Stabiliser Cattle Company and Bovinext to fulfil French demand for British beef genetics.
Seventeen heifers and one bull left from the Stabiliser Cattle Company's Givendale farm in East Yorkshire for the Grand Est region of France on 24th November 2017. Along with live exports, the initial agreement also includes extensive semen sales and embryo transfers, with a target of bringing 1,000 Stabiliser breeding females into France.
French beef producers have shown strong interest in the UK’s Stabiliser genetics to help improve efficiency in their herds. Stabiliser Cattle Company launched the Net Feed Efficiency EBV in early 2017, which can help beef producers save £80 to £100 per cow/calf pair in feed costs.
An increasing awareness by French beef producers that their native breeds are becoming too big for market while also failing to deliver to consumer demands for high quality marbled meat has led to the development of Bovinext to import UK Stabiliser genetics, says Laurent Rouyer, president of Bovinext. French beef farmers are also attracted to the Stabilisers high feed efficiency, something SCC has focused heavily on in 2017 with the launch of the Net Feed Efficiency (NFE) EBV.
In a trial measuring daily live weight gain and feed intake, NFE improved feed to gain ratios by 10-15% in growing and finishing animals, while also reducing net feed energy maintenance requirements for breeding, growing and finishing animals by 10-15%. The potential savings in feed costs are £80 to £100 per cow/calf pair per year, reducing methane production in beef systems by 20-30%.
The contract, which was facilitated by AHDB, positions the UK beef industry as a model in Europe, says AHDB’s French export manager Rémi Fourrier.
“This new project is a good example to illustrate how AHDB can simultaneously improve the image of the English beef industry and support English farmers,” says Fourrier. “It is a win-win initiative.”
