The Beef Industry Centre of Excellence has world leading expertise in livestock genetics, ruminant nutrition, meat quality, animal physiology, food safety, biometrics, economics and technology transfer.

Key technologies being developed at the Centre include quantitative genetics, muscle and fat biology, meat quality, feed conversion efficiency, green house gas measurement and abatement, economic analysis, and decision support systems.

Key projects

Key projects currently in progress, and principal investigators, include:

Projects associated with the Cooperative Research Centre for Beef Genetic Technologies

• Proof of concept of meat quality gene markers (Dr Paul Greenwood)
• Phenotypic prediction (Dr Malcolm McPhee, Dr Brad Walmsley and Mr Bill McKiernan) 
• Feed efficiency gene discovery and expression (Dr Robert Herd)
  

  Maternal productivity studies at the Beef Industry Centre

• Expression of genes related to feed efficiency (Dr Yizhou Chen)
• Maternal productivity (Mr Bill McKiernan, Dr Robert Herd, Dr Brad Walmsley)
• Methane abatement (Dr Roger Hegarty, Dr John Goopy, Dr Simon Bird)
• Monitoring and evaluation of economic outcomes of research technologies (Dr Kirrily Pollock)  

Other key projects

Other Key Projects (principal investigator and funding source):

• Sheep Genomics Program – muscle biology (Dr Paul Greenwood; AWI & MLA)
• Myostatin alleles as production markers (Dr Paul Greenwood; MLA)  
• Reducing methane emissions and increasing livestock productivity by controlling rumen protozoa (Dr David Tucker, Dr Simon Bird; Australian Greenhouse Office, Meat & Wool New Zealand)
• Measurement of energy expenditure in grazing cattle (Dr Roger Hegarty; Meat & Wool New Zealand)
• Breeding cattle and sheep for lower greenhouse gas emissions (Dr Robert Herd 2009-2012)
• Collation of veterinary pathology image resources (Dr Barbara Vanselow; I&I NSW) 
• Livestock Data Link and Solutions to Feedback (Mr Bill McKiernan; MLA)
• Selection for muscling in cows (Mr Bill McKiernan; MLA)
  

Publications

During 2009/2010 staff at the Beef Industry Centre of Excellence produced 46 scientific journal publications, 13 conference presentations, 62 extension/industry publications, 19 other communications and 18 media releases. 2009-10 publications list

Education

Current (June, 2010) postgraduate students, and their supervisors are:

• Andrew Doljanin, M Ec student (UNE) Co-Supervised by Dr G. Griffith
• Andrew Slack-Smith, M Sc student (UNE) Co-Supervised by Dr G. Griffith
• Fiona Fishpool, Ph D student (UNE) Co-supervisor Dr D Tucker
• Baldwin Nengovhela, Ph D student (University of Queensland). Co-Supervised by G. Griffith 
• Breige Allan-Greer, Ph D student (University of Queensland) Co-Supervised by Dr G. Griffith 
• Dawn Nguyen, Ph D student (Monash University) Co-Supervised by Dr G. Griffith 
• Heidi Rodgers, Ph D student (UNE). Co-Supervised by Dr G. Griffith 
• Stuart Mounter, Ph D student (UNE). Co-Supervised by Dr G. Griffith 
• Wendy Brown, Ph D student (UNE ) Co- Supervised by Dr B. Vanselow 
• Ruidong Xiang, PhD candidate (University of Adelaide) Co-Supervised by Dr Paul Greenwood
• Fay Milton, PhD candidate, (UNE) Co-Supervised by Dr Paul Greenwood 
• Nadia DeJager, PhD candidate (University of Queensland) Co-Supervised by Dr Paul Greenwood
• Chantal Coles, PhD candidate (University of Melbourne) Co-Supervised by Dr Paul Greenwood
• Peter McGilchrist, PhD candidate (Murdock University) Co-Supervised by Dr Paul Greenwood
• Brendon O’Rourke, PhD candidate (University of Melbourne) Co-Supervised by Dr Paul Greenwood