Northern beef producers are a step closer to a crush side tool that determines fertility traits, breeding values, actual age and gut health.
It is hoped the tool would also indicate if an animal will produce polled or horned cattle.
This week the Director for Animal Science at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, Professor Ben Hayes, provided an update on their research into how the industry can use the genetic information stored in every animal to improve fertility and management.
The basis of that research is the Northern Genomics Project, which includes DNA profiling and fertility testing across northern Australia.
"It has been a very big exercise, but we've got 54 collaborating herds," Prof Hayes said.
"The vets who do the scanning, they've just done a tremendous job on more than 21,000 heifers."
The target is 30,000 head tested over three years and then another two years to crunch the results.
For Prof Hayes and his colleagues the aim is straight forward.
"We've got this vision of what we call crush side genotyping," he said.
"In the north animals often come in [the yards] once a year.
"The idea is that they would come in, (you) take your samples, and then by the time they make it through to the end of the crash you can make a decision on that animal.
"Is she worth keeping for breeding or does she go to market? And you can make (that decision) on the spot."
Prof Hayes also spoke of his previous work with the dairy industry to help turn around the poor fertility record of the Holstein Friesian breed.
"Forty years of selection for milk production had resulted in this dramatic decline in fertility, because some of the genes affecting milk production also affect fertility but in the wrong direction," he said.
"So fertility rates had dropped as low as 40 per cent. In 2010 we implemented genomic selection in the Australian dairy industry. And what happened was that we started to reverse the trend using this technology."
But when QAAFI started investigating if the same could be done for the northern beef herd, two questions were raised. Was it needed and what were the particular issues?
"One of the earliest things that we did was to look at what the economic impact could be if we started selecting on fertility, and it is quite different for different regions of Queensland," Prof Hayes said.
"Some have very good country, and fertility is not such a problem, but particularly up in the northern part fertility is a problem.
"[But] it is much harder to apply the technology in beef cattle than dairy cattle. Almost everywhere you go in the world dairy cattle are the same breed. That makes genetic selection work really well.
"For beef, you just have to drive through the north and you see Bos taurus cattle like Angus and Herefords and Bos indicus cattle like Brahmans.
"In some cases they are mixed together, so there is an incredible range of diversity. That's great, but it makes genetic selection quite a bit harder to apply."
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Producers involved in the project have also provided insights on what they need to help with selection.
"A lot of our producers are very interested in temperament," Prof Hayes said.
"They hate being bailed up cows and bulls and temperament is an inheritable trait, so you can certainly breed for it. We also look at fly lesion scores and tick counts as well.
"You can start to see where we are putting the pieces together, but it is certainly a couple of years at least before we deliver on this vision I think, perhaps perhaps more.
"But when you talk to producers they love the idea, they think it's good."
