AgResearch unit sold

By SIMON COLLINS

State-owned AgResearch has sold a unit that creates calf embryos in the lab to speed up breeding of prime dairy cows.

Hamilton-based cattle breeding company Ambreed, which has bought the unit for an undisclosed sum, says it will stop it doing work for its major competitor, farmer-owned Livestock Improvement Corporation (LIC).

However, LIC general manager of research and development Dieter Adam said LIC had already stopped using the unit and invested in a rival Hamilton embryo company, Animal Breeding Services.

Ambreed broke LIC's historic monopoly when it won a herd testing licence last September. It tests the progeny of 30 per cent of New Zealand's dairy bulls, and has ordered three clones of its top bulls from AgResearch - due to be born in mid- to late February.

All four staff in the AgResearch unit, arTech, will transfer to Ambreed, but stay in their laboratory on AgResearch's Ruakura campus.

Dr Stewart Washer, who heads AgResearch's business group Celentis, said the sale was in line with its aim of developing "incubator" companies for eventual rollout or sale.