P.PSH.0774 - Northern Beef Information Nucleus Stage II Final Report
The project has enabled the introduction of the Single Step method of blending genomics into BREEDPLAN in the Brahman and Santa Gertrudis breeds and the Droughtmaster BREEDPLAN Single Step genetic evaluation is under development.
| Project start date: | 24 June 2016 |
| Project end date: | 12 February 2022 |
| Publication date: | 06 November 2023 |
| Project status: | Completed |
| Livestock species: | Grass-fed Cattle |
| Relevant regions: | National |
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Summary
This project adds value to the 'Repronomics- Building and delivering effective genomic selection for northern Australian cattle' project as it manages the Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis steer progeny from Brian Pastures Research Station, Gayndah and collects 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. This contributes valuable data towards enabling the northern multi-breed project.
Objectives
- broaden the application of genomic selection among stud and commercial Brahman, Droughtmaster, and Santa Gertrudis breeders not able to facilitate BREEDPLAN data collection, particularly for hard to measure traits
- 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) undertaken by Dr David Johnston
- 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
More data collection is required to produce a reference population for the Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis breeds that will produce Single Step BREEDPLAN EBVs of an optimum accuracy.
Benefits to industry
The benefits to industry are higher accuracy gEBVs for carcase and meat quality traits for the Brahman, Droughtmaster, and Santa Gertrudis breeds from their Single Step BREEDPLAN genetic evaluations.
MLA action
The next phase of this project has been funded until 30 June 2025 to allow the No 21, 22 and 23 drop Brian Pastures steers to be followed through to slaughter with relevant data collection.
Future research
Research has indicated about 4,000 records of the traits of interest are required in a Reference Population to provide GBVs with a reasonable level of accuracy. The Brahman, Droughtmaster and Santa Gertrudis Reference Populations are short of the optimum number of records for the carcase and meat quality traits so the next phase of the project will assist in managing the current shortfall.
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For more information Contact Project Manager: Clara Bradford |
