Northern Beef Information Nucleus - Spyglass Phase 3 Final Report
Research has indicated about 4,000 records of the traits of interest are required in a Reference Population to provide Genetic Breeding Values (GBVs) with a reasonable level of accuracy.
| Project start date: | 29 September 2021 |
| Project end date: | 30 May 2022 |
| Publication date: | 05 October 2022 |
| Project status: | Completed |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle |
| Relevant regions: | National |
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Download Report
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Summary
This project adds value to the 'Repronomics – Building and delivering effective genomic selection for northern Australian cattle' project by taking the Brahman and Droughtmaster steer progeny from Spyglass Research Station, Charters Towers and collecting data on additional traits.
Additional weight, carcase, meat quality and structural soundness data is collected to expand and balance the traits available for selection with the female reproduction traits from the Repronomics project in the Reference Population of the participating breeds and contribute valuable data towards enabling the northern multi-breed project.
The project has enabled the introduction of Single Step into BREEDPLAN in the Brahman breed and the Droughtmaster BREEDPLAN Single Step genetic evaluation is under development.
Objectives
• Collect carcase and meat quality phenotypic measurements on the steer half sib male progeny of females measured in the female reproduction project (MLA B.NBP.0759).
• Contribute to the BREEDPLAN carcase data on Brahman and Droughtmaster cattle by adding both to the number of records and spread of sires.
Key findings
During the 12-month period this project ran, 400-day weight data was collected on 99 Brahman and 80 Droughtmaster No 21 steers. In addition, pre-slaughter weight and carcase scans as well as direct carcase data was collected on 136 Brahman and 105 Droughtmaster No 20 steers ahead of schedule.
Benefits to industry
The benefits to industry are higher accuracy Genomic Breeding Values for carcase and meat quality traits for the Brahman and Droughtmaster breed from their Single Step BREEDPLAN genetic evaluations.
MLA action
MLA continues to deliver data captured as part of the Livestock Genetics Program and implement the recommendations in this report.
Future research
Research has indicated about 4,000 records of the traits of interest are required in a Reference Population to provide Genomic Breeding Values with a reasonable level of accuracy. Both the Brahman and Droughtmaster Reference Populations are well short of the optimum number of records for the carcase and meat quality traits. The project has now been funded until 30 June 2025 to allow the No 21, 22 and 23 drop Spyglass steers to be followed through to slaughter with relevant data collection.
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For more infromation Contact Project Manager: Clara Bradford |
