P.PSH.2131-Northern Beef Information Nucleus - Brian Pastures Phase 3 Final Report
Research has indicated about 4,000 genotyped animals with a phenotype record for each trait are required to give Genomic Breeding Values (GBVs) with a reasonable level of accuracy.
| Project start date: | 29 September 2021 |
| Project end date: | 29 June 2022 |
| Publication date: | 30 September 2022 |
| Project status: | Completed |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle |
| Relevant regions: | National |
|
Download Report
(0.3 MB)
|
|
Summary
This project adds value to the 'Repronomics- Building and delivering effective genomic selection for northern Australian cattle' project by taking the Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis steer progeny from Brian Pastures Research Station, Gayndah 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 the Single Step into BREEDPLAN in the Brahman and Santa Gertrudis breeds 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, Droughtmaster, and Santa Gertrudis cattle by adding both to the number of records and diversity of sires.
Key findings
During the 12 month period this project ran, 400-day weight data was collected on 47 Brahman, 40 Droughtmaster and 56 Santa Gertrudis No 21 steers. In addition, pre-slaughter weight and carcase scans as well as direct carcase data was collected on 55 Brahman, 40 Droughtmaster and 62 Santa Gertrudis 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, Droughtmaster, and Santa Gertrudis breeds 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. The Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis Reference Populations are well short of the optimum number of records for the carcase and meat quality traits. A funding proposal to continue the project 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 is currently being processed.
