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Beef project boosted by industry-wide support

February 01, 2006

Cattle.thumb.jpgThe University of New England’s Agricultural Business Research Institute (ABRI) has brokered an ambitious plan to get practical information about the latest technology in beef breeding out to the grass-roots of the beef industry. The project will cost more than $1 million and involves regional workshops, on-farm consulting visits, and technical support to breed societies. It will be known as Southern Beef Technology Services (SBTS).

The 14 breeds participating in the SBTS project are Hereford, Poll Hereford, Murray Grey, Shorthorn, Charolais, Limousin, Simmental, Red Angus, Wagyu, South Devon, Devon, Red Poll, Blonde d’Aquitaine and Salers. The financial contributions of these breeds have been augmented by funds from Meat & Livestock Australia, ABRI, the Australian Registered Cattle Breeders’ Association and the Beef Improvement Association.

During an initial four-year period from 2006 to 2009 the focus will be:

Workshops: A series of 64 workshops (16 per year) will be held to give all members of participating breed societies and other interested people the opportunity for tuition in the fundamentals of the different genetic technologies that are available. The initial workshops will provide information on BREEDPLAN (the UNE-based data system that gives breeders access to Estimated Breeding Values of individual animals), BreedObject and Internet Solutions, and the soon-to-be-released StockTake genetic auditing tool. For details on the 2006 workshops, and enquiries about participation, ring 02 6773 3555 or see the project Web site at http://sbts.une.edu.au.

On-farm visits: Following each of the workshops, two days of on-farm visits are planned in each region. These will provide a valuable opportunity for beef producers to gain advice on specific issues that may arise from the workshops.

Technical Support : This will be provided to beef producers, breed societies and other service providers on a continuing basis. In particular, the team will work closely with the Technical Committees of the participating breeds.

To ensure that the 2006 workshop program will “hit the mark” with industry, a successful pilot workshop was conducted at UNE on 17 January 2006.

ABRI’s Managing Director, Dr Arthur Rickards, said that SBTS would “act as a valuable feedback mechanism for the BREEDPLAN development team in UNE’s Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit and also the operational team in ABRI”.

“Independent analyses have estimated the net present value of BREEDPLAN to the Australian community (producers and consumers) to be around $1 billion,” Dr Rickards continued. “BREEDPLAN has been identified as the world’s leading genetic evaluation system for beef cattle, but we need to ensure that our industry is well informed so that it can make the best possible use of this technology.”

The services offered by SBTS will be delivered by a team of four young technical officers – Benita Davis, Christian Duff, Michael Beattie and Andrew Byrne. All four have both a rural background and significant experience in the processing of BREEDPLAN performance data, the running of GROUP BREEDPLAN evaluations, the technical components of BREEDPLAN and related technologies, the extension of genetic technologies, the operation of modern breed societies, and the services offered within Internet Solutions. They will be supported by experienced beef cattle consultants – including Bob Freer, Alex McDonald and Peter Speers, who all possess more than 30 years’ experience in the beef industry. Dr Rickards is the Project Co-ordinator, Mr Speers will chair the Project meetings, and Christian Duff will lead the operational team.

Dr Rickards said that the SBTS project would complement the very successful Tropical Beef Technology Services Project in northern Australia. “In combination, the two projects will give cattle breeders access to a well coordinated national technical support service,” he concluded.


Media contact: Dr Arthur Rickards, Managing Director, ABRI, UNE (02 6773 3555) or Jim Scanlan, Public Relations, UNE (02) 6773 3049.

Posted by Jim Scanlan at February 1, 2006 04:29 PM