Beef BulletinQuarter 1 - 2011 Beef CRC’s two decades of achievement Poll gene test for Brahman Commercialising BRD vaccine success breeds commercialised EBVs 1 ABOUT US Beef CRC Governing Board Dr Guy Fitzhardinge, Chairman Dr Greg Robbins, non-executive Director Dr Fitzhardinge is a commercial cattle producer Dr Robbins is General Manager of Animal Science from NSW, a past member of the Boards of Meat for the Queensland Department of Primary Research Corporation and Meat and Livestock Industries and Fisheries (QDPI&F) and former Australia. Director of the Queensland Beef Industry Institute. Dr Keith Steele, Deputy Chairman Dr Heather Burrow, Chief Executive Officer Dr Steele is a business advisor with beef R&D Dr Burrow has extensive research management management experience, genomics knowledge experience and a quantitative genetics research and corporate governance and finance skills. background. Mr Rob Backus, non-executive Director Mr Neil Scholes-Robertson, Company Mr Backus brings northern beef sector and feedlot Secretary expertise and knowledge of the industry relevance of genomics to the Board. Mr Scholes-Robertson holds a Bachelor of Business and is a qualified Chartered Accountant. Ms Emma Robinson, non-executive Director Mrs Robinson is a commercial beef producer in central Queensland and has extensive beef enterprise technology extension experience. About the Beef CRC Mr Richard Rains, non-executive Director The Co-operative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies aims to add $179 million dollars to the Mr Richard Rains is the Chief Executive Officer of value of the Australian and New Zealand Beef industries Sanger Australia Pty Ltd, an international meat each year from 2012 through world-class gene discovery trading business. and gene expression research to improve profitability, productivity and animal welfare of beef enterprises. Ms Robyn Clubb, non-executive Director MISSION Mrs Clubb has extensive financial, management To capture the benefits of the human and bovine and accounting experience as well as a strong genome projects and the “Livestock Revolution” by rural background and operator of a beef cattle improving the profitability, productivity, animal welfare enterprise in southern NSW. and responsible resource use of Australian and global beef businesses through worldclass gene discovery and gene expression research and accelerated adoption of Dr Jay Hetzel, non-executive Director beef industry technologies. Dr Hetzel has worked for over 30 years in cattle genetics and genomics research and commercialisation. Beef Bulletin Quarter 1 - 2011 EDITORIAL From the CEO This edition of the Beef Bulletin looks at where we international partnerships which have provided col- are to date in delivering the products and technolo- laborators with global leadership of beef genomics. gies developed through the Beef CRC’s third funding term. It also provides a brief update on industry use Further, the Australian beef industry may face the un- of selected products from Beef CRC’s earlier phases. acceptably high risk of leaving the introduction of new genomic technologies to multi-national companies, or Even though the bovine genome was only sequenced other countries or industries, which will not have the for the first time in 2006 and the full assembly central focus to grow and develop the Australian beef was not available until 2009, the Beef CRC and its industry which the Beef CRC has. research and industry partners have made some very significant achievements in developing beef genetic This would mean incurring a loss of influence over technologies since 2005, as profiled in this edition. how the technologies are offered, gaining access to the technologies on sub-standard terms and poten- By June 2012, the Beef CRC believes it will have tially disrupting systems that currently operate in met or exceeded all outputs that were included in Australia, and which are already delivering value. its revised Commonwealth Agreement, formally All this would occur at a time when major driv- approved by the Participants and the Commonwealth ers of change such as climate change and global in early 2010. food security require the Australian beef industry to exponentially increase its output from the same or Dr. Heather Burrow This, the third iteration of the Beef CRC, with its focus a reduced natural resource base when faced with on beef genetic technologies, is due to wind-up in large increases in the cost of production resulting June 2012. Unfortunately, the timing could not be from increased costs of land, water, grain, energy and worse! labour resources. Applications of genomic technologies in Australia and The beef industry has never needed a genomics likely to be available in this selection round and the elsewhere are just now entering the ‘growth’ phase of research and implementation capability more. large number of potential applications. But neverthe- the technology development curve. For this reason, Beef CRC and its research and indus- less, we will be giving it our very best shot! Unless the research commenced by Beef CRC in try partners are now working on an application for a 2005 continues beyond June 2012, Australia will not 5-year extension of funding, due for submission by 1 And, with or without the CRC extension funding, the only lose the considerable momentum it has gained July 2012. Our chances of success must be regarded Australian beef industry should be justifiably proud of over the past six years but also risk losing valuable as low, due to the relatively small amount of funding the Beef CRC’s achievements to date. PUBLICATION DETAILS ©2010 Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies. Editors: Margaret Puls and Rob Nethery Publication design: Aaron Puls The Beef Bulletin is a quarterly publication for the Australian beef industry. Enquiries about the Beef Bulletin should be addressed to: Beef CRC CJ Hawkins Homestead University of New England ARMIDALE NSW 2351 AUSTRALIA [email protected] Disclaimer: Any information provided in this book is intended as source of information only and is no advice, endorsement or recommendation. Established and supported under the Australian Gov- ernment’s Cooperative Research Centres Program 3 ABOUT US Beef CRC timeline 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 00 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 Beef CRC 1 Beef CRC 2 Beef CRC 3 CRC for the Cattle and Beef CRC for the Cattle and Beef CRC for the Beef Genetic Industry (Meat Quality) Quality Technologies Major industry issue addressed: Major industry issues addressed: To address four major issues: Can we guarantree beef eating quality • What trade-offs for guaranteed • High Quality Beef for Global from Australia’s extremely diverse beef eating quality? Consumers production environments? • Implement results through new • Feed Efficiency, Maternal delivery pathways via MSA and Productivity and Responsible BREEDPLAN Resource Use • Develop and commence delivery • Adaption and Cattle Welfare of DNA marker pipeline • Female Reproductive Perfor- mance CRC1 CRC2 CRC3 Beef Bulletin Quarter 1 - 2011 BEEF BULLETIN / QUARTER 1 2011 Contents Boosting Breedlplan 6 BeefSpecs Calculator 8 Unlocking the secrets to improved northern herd fertility 10 Poll gene test for Australian cattle breed 12 Sticking it to the tick 14 Commercialising genomic EBVs for the beef industry 16 Top honour for Beef CRC Chief Scientist 17 Beef CRC third-term products - overview 18 MSA – delivering ‘unheard of’ value for consumers 20 Improving profitability with Beef Profit Partnerships 22 Impact of Beef Profit Partnerships on the Australian Economy 23 Value of Past Investments in Beef CRC (1993-2005) 24 BRD vaccine outcomes are nothing to be sneezed at 26 Vaccinated cattle are healthier for Willyung Farms 26 CRC3 PRODUCTS Boosting BREEDPLAN Forecasts of dramatic advances through genomics BREEDPLAN will use both sources of information, were made on the assumption that a handful of with genomic data providing an independent cross- genes would explain most of the genetic variation reference for the phenotypic information. for a trait. Given the current pace of progress, Hans expects However once the Bovine Genome was sequenced that by mid-2012, Beef CRC researchers will have in 2006 and the full assembly released in 2009, it developed improved equations that are strong became clear that things were not as straightforward enough to provide a useful prediction value for traits as expected. determined through use of DNA. It turns out, Hans says, that hundreds, even thou- However, he warns the value of the data will be sands of interacting genes may be at work to control compromised unless researchers are able to validate a single trait. the prediction equations against performance in Dr Hans Graser animals that are completely independent of animals Technology has produced some answers to this in the discovery populations. complexity, including the single-nucleotide poly- • Three funding terms of Beef CRC have morphism (SNP, pronounced “snip”) chip. These “We are coming back full circle,” Hans said. “At the ensured that new, hard-to-measure but chips allow tens or hundreds of thousands of genetic start of the CRC’s second term, it was the genotyp- economically very important traits have sequence differences to be quickly compared against ing that was expensive. Ten years later, genotyping been added to BREEDPLAN, signifi- each other, revolutionising the business of gene costs have dropped dramatically while phenotyping cantly increasing BREEDPLAN’s value to discovery. costs have increased due to higherlabor costs and the beef industry. economies of scale have gone down.” The Beef CRC has used this technology to record • Prediction equations based on DNA genetic differences from thousands of animals, even The Angus, Hereford, Charolais, Limousin and Brahman information from the new high density reaching back into its archival material to genotype societies have established Breeding Information Nucleus panels will be delivered to BREEDPLAN long-dead cattle used in Beef CRC’s first term. A (BINs) herds which aim to amass phenotypic data.