Dairy Industry Database Negotiations Hit Roadblock

NEW ZEALAND - DairyNZ says it’s disappointed negotiations with the Livestock Improvement Corporation(LIC) over the development of a new dairy industry good database have failed.
calendar icon 11 October 2011
clock icon 3 minute read

Chairman John Luxton says DairyNZ and LIC have been in discussions over the last 12 months on how to realise the recommendations of the Anderson Report on the Herd Improvement Database Review, to benefit both New Zealand dairy farmers and stakeholders.

To effect the recommendations of the Anderson Report requires that:

  • The Core Database shift from LIC control and management to that of industry good (DairyNZ);
  • DairyNZ and NZAEL (New Zealand Animal Evaluation Limited) have full control of BW (Breeding Worth) for both bulls and cows;
  • Data fields required for animal evaluation and industry reproductive and animal health monitoring which are additional to the 46 regulated core fields be supplied to DIGAD (Dairy Industry Good Animal Database).

Mr Luxton says in order to justify these changes, both parties needed to be satisfied with the proposition.

“For DairyNZ, the changes must result in a new dairy industry good database that is sufficiently enabled to deliver on the Anderson Report recommendations. Also tied in with the database is the on-going support for NZAEL and the NBO (National Breeding Objective) that it supports, particularly the future provision of genomic information for breeding values. For LIC, the deal obviously needs to satisfy their imperatives."

“Regrettably, negotiations have failed because we could not agree on terms. DairyNZ will explore other options. We are committed to finding the best way to bring about the key recommendations of the Anderson Report and we will be working with all those involved to determine this,” says Mr Luxton.

LIC Chairman, Stuart Bay, reacted strongly to Mr Luxton's suggestions that negotiations have failed over the development of a new dairy industry good database.

“LIC has always been a strong advocate for the transfer of the 46 fields in the core database to DairyNZ as recommended by the Anderson Review – but what DairyNZ is wanting is much, much more."

“DairyNZ has extended the scope of the discussion from the 46 fields (recommended by the Anderson Report) to the 288+ fields contained in LIC’s commercial database. These reflect multi-million dollar shareholder investment, over generations, in the IP and assets behind LIC’s genetics and genomics, among other things."

“DairyNZ wants to acquire those 288+ fields at low or no cost.

“That is unacceptable to LIC shareholders who are a subset of all New Zealand dairy farmers, and LIC directors have clear duties of care to the cooperative and shareholders."

“We will not simply give those things away but we have attempted to negotiate in good faith with DairyNZ to achieve the transfer of the core database.

Federated Farmers Dairy vice-chairperson, Robin Barkla, commented that Federated Famers was disappointed that the LIC and DairyNZ had hit an impasse and stated that Federated Farmers will back DairyNZ through this roadblock.

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