Plant breeding

The Centre is a breeding station for perennial grasses and legumes.

The Centre is NSW (and Australia’s) sole dry-land pasture research station located in the high rainfall ‘Temperate Perennial Grass/Perennial Legume Zone’, and is a national breeding station for the perennial legumes white clover and birdsfoot trefoil, and the perennial grass tall fescue. The current focus is on extending the zone of adaptation of improved pasture species to low rainfall environments, and on developing drought tolerant varieties that will be adapted to the hotter and drier conditions expected to accompany prospective climate change.

Agronomy research

Agronomy research at the Centre specialises in:

• increasing the persistence of new varieties, 
• improving the feed-base for sheep and cattle in temperate grazing systems, and, 
• providing natural resource management enhancements to the pastoral landscape.

Plant breeding and Agronomy research are part of the Pasture Genetics and Improvement Unit.

Beef cattle research

Cattle research is done in collaboration with the Beef CRC in Armidale

Modern cattle handling facilities and highly improved pastures are maintained at the Centre to support collaborative research with the Beef CRC and the Beef Industry Centre.

Recent research achievements include the development of ‘backgrounding’ technology and feed efficiency with beef cattle, and the demonstration of the economic benefits of selection for improved muscling in beef cattle, including use of the myostatin ('double-muscling') gene.

This research is part of the Beef Genetics and Improvement Unit.