PhD Optibeef. Suplement to project no 233683

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Prosjektet er forventet å gi svar på følgende forskningsspørsmål: * Finnes det rase- og miljø-samspill innenfor det varierende produksjonsgrunnlaget i Norge? * Hvilke krysningsopplegg er mest optimale med tanke på slakteproduksjon? * Hvilke faktorer er viktig for produksjonsøkonomien. Resultatene gir klare indikasjoner på at Aberdeen Angus burde velges framfor Hereford ved ekstensive foringsopplegg. Men Charolais produserer best ved intensiv foring. Ved krysning av britiske og kontinentale raser utmerket Angus og Charolais seg som de beste krysningskombinasjonene. Krysning av ulike kontinentale raser gir ikke bedre prestasjon enn renrasene. Ved krysning med melkeku, gir Angus okse et godt resultat sammenlignet med rene britiske raser. Tilvekst, slaktevekt og slaktekvalitet, sammen med kalvedødelighet har størst påvirkning på økonomi i ammekuproduksjon. Kalvingsintervall har også stor betydning for økonomisk resultat gjennom en produksjonssyklus.

The wholesale of beef volume has expanded the last years to about 97000 tonnes in 2012, while the national beef production has declined the last years and is now as low as 77000 tonnes. The PhD-student will do research within the project Optibeef (No 233683). The main project Optibeef has a primary objective, to obtain science-based knowledge contributing to enhance beef production volume and economy through optimization of management practices and genetic gain in Norwegian suckler cow herds. The focus will be on practically applicable results for advisory services and farmers. The PhD fellow will be using 3 years for the research and course work and 1 year for teaching or other educational work at HiNT. For the research, the PhD fellow will be using specific parts of the data used in the Optibeef project. Those are data from the SFK database (one dataset including farms with sufficient management data (ca 1000 farms) and one dataset with carcass information (ca 60000 animals), field studies from selected herds (ca 40) within the SFK dataset and accounting data from the farms in the field study. The dataset from SFK and accounting will be given by the time the PhD fellow join the project. The field data collection, however, will be designed by the working group after the PhD student has started, and the collection will be performed by several people from that group. By analysing these 4 datasets with appropriate software and programs, the PhD fellow will be able to obtain subgoal 1, 3 and 4. For the simulation studies (subgoal 2) a deterministic, bio-economic model will be utilised. The model describes semi-intensive production systems on a cow level for British and Continental beef breeds and includes a total of 14 functional and production traits. Research results from the PhD fellow will be used by the Optibeef group to develop advisory and educational guidelines for beef production from suckler cow herds.