EASIER accessibility and growing demand for more DNA testing has prompted many studs and buyers to pursue offering and buying stud cattle with greater verification.
Regulations on what level of testing is required to register new progeny differs depending on the breed society, with some societies requiring both the sire and dam to be DNA verified, while others require one or the other and some breeds only require a DNA profile of the sire.
However, greater protection from cataloguing error as well as a push from buyers wanting to ensure the pedigree of their next stud bull or female is correct has seen more stud masters go above and beyond the level of testing that is required.
One such breed that has experienced this shift is the Charolais, which Charolais Society of Australia general manager Colin Rex put down to easier access to genetics testing.
"I couldn't tell you what specifically our increase of testing is, but it is significant," Mr Rex said.
"We don't require DNA to register a calf per say, we require the sire to have an appropriate profile recorded, but if it is an embryo transfer calf, then the dam has to have a profile as well.
"Basically, we work one generation back, so for a calf to be registered, its sire must have a DNA profile and if possible be DNA tested back to its sire.
"The reality is a lot of our members are doing a lot more testing than what our society requires as a minimum."
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Mr Rex said greater accessibility to testing had played a large role in the shift.
"I think there has been a few factors within the industry that has led to this, including reported parentage issues as well as breeders just wanting to present a certified article to a large degree," he said.
"As testing has become cheaper, a lot of our breeders test on what we call the Charolais standard bundle, which is a DNA profile, parentage testing if possible, the horn-poll test and a test for Myophosphorylase which is included in that as well.
"In that sense, you get a lot of bang for your buck, and given a lot of people are testing for homozygous polled and prices for one test are similar for what it is to have all of them done, the incentive is there for people to do all of those tests.
"I just think the industry is maturing for the bigger breeds that are in single step, which Charolais is heading towards, there's an incentive for certifying your product and down the track you have genomics to use in the single-step breedplan analysis and there is benefit in that when it comes to helping to understand which polled sires are homozogous."
Australian Brahman Breeders Association president Wendy Cole said the society had recently mandated that a DNA profile and a Pompes-free test were required for registration.
"We haven't seen a huge jump in demand for testing both the sire and the dam, but doing that does allow for security when it comes to purchases," Ms Cole said.
"These days people are paying big money for genetics and buyers need to be guaranteed that what they are buying is what they are getting.
"There has already been breeding changes at some of the major Brahman sales such as Brahman Week and Big Country to give that bit of extra protection and I think it could continue to become more common in the future."
Ms Cole said changing the breed's regulations in recent years would help lay a platform for breeders should greater DNA verifications be implemented in the future.
"We had to have a starting point, there was no use just coming out tomorrow and saying that all the bulls had to be sire verified, it would too difficult," she said.
"Down the track, in possibly two or three years time, if the society was to require sire verification at Brahman Week, it would be possible because we now have DNA profiles of the fathers of all of the bulls that would be sold at those sales.
"Honestly, mistakes happen for any number of innocent reasons either on farm or in the lab, so it is important to have measures in place to help ensure everyone is secure as we can."
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One of the newest breeds in Australia, the Speckle Park breed has required DNA testing of both sires and dams since arriving on our shores more than a decade ago.
"Before 2013 it was sire or dam but since then we have gone with sire and dam, " Speckle Park International chairman Mitch Warrener said.
"From my understanding, those regulations were brought in to help ensure all pedigrees were correct to ensure buyers knew exactly what they were getting."
As well as security, Mr Warrener said the double verification process was also crucial to attaining accurate estimated breeding values.
"If you don't test to this level, it is difficult to have certainty that the product your selling to a client will have the traits coming through," he said.
"People can sometimes think that testing is all about themselves when in fact it is crucial to helping give a people a broader understanding of the whole breed, especially when it comes to selecting traits they want."
It is understood the Droughtmaster Society discussed DNA regulations during a recent meeting but they could not be reached for comment in time for publication
Billy Jupp
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
Billy is a Senior Livestock Journalist for the Queensland Country Life based in Toowoomba. He has worked for a variety of different ACM mastheads during the past five years including the Namoi Valley Independent, Northern Daily Leader and The Land.
