Beef researcher, Dr Robert Herd at Trangie, with a load of specially bred NSW Department of Primary Industries feed efficient Angus heifers, ready for the road to Western Australia for a series of trials.

After 14 years, a unique and highly successful beef research project at Trangie Agricultural Research Centre is about to stamp its credibility interstate.

One hundred and twenty heifers bred at Trangie Agricultural Research Centre made the 3700 kilometre journey in mid-March to the other side of the country, signalling a new chapter in a feed efficiency trial.

Researchers are sending NSW Department of Primary Industries specially bred feed efficient Angus heifers to Western Australia for a series of trials to demonstrate the merits of breeding livestock for enhanced feed efficiency and productivity traits.

'This project is delivering a wealth of information on breeding feed efficient cattle and how commercial beef producers can achieve maximum results through clever genetic selection,' said NSW DPI beef researcher, Dr Robert Herd.According to Dr Herd, the NSW DPI and Beef CRC research project is the only one of its type in the world and this latest milestone marks 14 years since the project began at Trangie.

'By measuring the feed intake, growth rate and size of each animal we are able to calculate stocks’ efficiency at transferring feed into beef and how this contributes to the productivity and profitability of the herd and the overall grazing system,' Dr Herd said.

'For the next five years the heifers will be fed high and low nutritional treatments for evaluation of their maternal productivity as well as how improved feed efficiency genetics increases productivity from pastures.

'We expect the results to show that the animals bred for high efficiency are more productive than those with the genetics for low efficiency - high feed efficient animals maintain high productivity despite less feed intake.

'As a result, these animals will be able to maintain condition and liveweight in both good and bad seasons and also consistently produce a heavier calf compared to their less feed efficient cousins.'

The Western Australian component of the research will take part at Vasse, where the herd will be managed under a rotational grazing system by the Western Australia Department of Agriculture.

'Here the heifers will be joined and closely monitored throughout pregnancy and as cows with calves at foot over the next five years,' Dr Herd said.

'As part of the maternal productivity trial, the effects of body composition on cow productivity when different nutational regimes are imposed will be examined.'

Contact: Robert Herd, Armidale, (02) 6770 1808.

- BRETT FIFIELD

This story appears in Agriculture Today.