Dr. Andrew Cromie:

A relative weighting of 23% is attached to female fertility. A relative weighting of 21% is attached to carcass weight for age.

The Senator asked a question about the collection of data and expressed some concern about missing data. He asked whether a farmer would be required to weigh his own calves if we did not have weight data on his animals. He is right to suggest that our goal is always to try to pick up the data wherever we can. For example, we get the data on weights and prices per kilo through marts. An increasing number of farmers are starting to weigh their calves themselves, which is a positive development even if it is not a requirement of the scheme. As farmers see the value in that data, we expect that an increasing number of them will look to weigh their own animals in appreciation of the use of this valuable data in getting more accurate milk evaluations - maternal evaluations - for their cows. At the moment, we use the cow milk score as a proxy or a predictor of weaning weight in the calf at 200 days. I hope that answers the Senator's question on missing data, about which he expressed some concern.