The Australian Brahman Breeders Association (ABBA) is taking a leading role in partnering with science to boost the profitability of beef herds through faster rates of genetic improvement.
Speaking at the World Brahman Congress Technical Conference in Rockhampton in May, Dr David Johnston, Principal Scientist, Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU), University of New England, NSW said researchers were taking a four-pronged approach to improving both female and male reproduction traits in the Brahman breed.
This approach consists of evaluating new female reproduction traits, using male reproduction traits, taking novel molecular genetics approaches and increasing rates of adoption through the development of innovative application strategies.
“We need improved traits and better genetic evaluation, as there are lots of factors in improving reproduction rates,” Dr Johnston said.
He added that the ABBA’s support of research put Brahmans “in a very good position to improve the genetics of reproduction in the breed”.
The ABBA is the world leader in incorporating genomic data for weaning weight, tenderness and female reproduction into BREEDPLAN EBVs.
“Because of our Brahman BIN Project we are also the tropical breed that is best placed to take advantage of leading edge genomic technologies,” said ABBA General Manager John Croaker.
Dr Johnston said several research agencies currently involved in different studies to assess female reproduction in tropical breeds. The research areas include ovarian scanning, assessment of lifetime reproductive performance, genetic evaluation, genomics and new recording technologies.
“We can improve female reproduction by one to two percent per year by selecting for key traits, it’s not just nutrition,” he told conference delegates.
The Beef CRC recorded 1020 Brahman cows. These underwent intensive ovarian ultrasound scanning for up to seven matings to provide data on heifer puberty and anoestrous interval, both important traits with around 50 percent heritability.
“We now have half a million records from the ovarian scanning and this has been a real game changer,” Dr Johnston said.
The ABBA’s Beef Information Nucleus (BIN) Project has been a key component in improving the scope and accuracy of BREEDPLAN EBVs through advances in genomics and more comprehensive collection and analysis of phenotypic data.
The BIN Project is evaluating the performance of 70 Brahman bulls, including six Beef CRC sires, and their expected progeny of 833 steers and 949 heifers over three years of breeding.
As well as assessing steers for growth potential and carcase and meat quality traits, heifer information such as age of puberty and first rebreed data is being collected to feed into a newly developed days to calving EBV. The days to calving EBV has the potential to significantly improve breeding rates and boost herd profitability because it predicts lifetime female fertility.
The Brahman breed is also embracing the latest advances in genetic evaluation technology that will enable genomic selection using a newly developed analytical method called single-step.. Genomic selection is revolutionizing the dairy industry by jointly analysing SNP genotypes and phenotypes of animals.
Dr Johnston said the success of genomic selection depended on having a large number of animals with very good performance records and SNP genotypes. Then the accuracy of future selection decisions will be determined by the genomic relationship an individual has to the reference animals.
To date more than 7000 Brahmans have been SNP genotyped and the breed is building sizeable reference populations through its involvement in the BIN Project and a five-year MLA-collaborative Repronomics Project, which is collecting data from three tropical breeds.
