Cattle research
Southern Multi-breed Project
The Southern Multi Breed (SMB) project is a collaborative R&D project involving NSW DPI and the University of New England being conducted on five NSW DPI research stations, and the UNE Research Feedlot over the five years, 2020 to 2025. The SMB project will provide an invaluable source of information for seedstock and commercial cattle breeders.
It is planned that a total of more than 8,000 calves will be born, with 3000 steers and close to 3000 heifers retained for joining. Specifically, the project will produce up to 2000 calves per annum at five DPI research stations across NSW. Trangie hosts 350 females as part of the project.
The project is co-funded by NSW DPI, UNE, Meat & Livestock Australia (MLA) and the Commonwealth Government through the MLA Donor Company (MDC). This multi-party co-investment will make a significant contribution to the national aim of doubling the rate of genetic gain in the Australian beef herd.
The outcomes of the $7.3m SMB project will deliver significant enhancements to the current within-breed genetic evaluations conducted by BREEDPLAN, as well as allowing Australian beef producers for the first time to directly compare animals for all BREEDPLAN traits and assess their genetic merit irrespective of breed.
In addition, high-quality records on hard to measure traits that have important impacts on commercial beef herd profitability will be recorded as part of this project. These traits include female fertility traits, feed efficiency and carcass traits as well as health and welfare traits. As a result of this intensive, precise recording of new, existing and hard-to-measure traits, seedstock and commercial bull buyers will have access to EBVs (Estimated Breeding Values) with more accuracy for describing the genetic merit of individual animals. Research into new traits will also be conducted throughout the life of the project, with the aim to give seedstock and commercial bull buyers' access to EBVs for a wider range of traits that impact commercial profitability. More information
Sheep research
Merino Lifetime Productivity Project
The Merino Lifetime Productivity (MLP) Project is designed to capture lifetime information from diverse environments and Merino genotypes, to improve current knowledge and selection tools, to assist the Australian Merino industry in predicting and delivering better lifetime performance outcomes. The MLP project will provide industry with answers to how effective current selection practices are in predicting lifetime performance and what is the best mix of tools; what is the impact of current selection methods on lifetime performance, in meat, wool, reproduction and welfare traits. The project is in collaboration with Australian Wool Innovation. More information
Trangie has 900 sheep within the MLP project.
In addition Trangie has 830 "research ready" ewes of which 400 are currently in a sire evaluation project, run by Macquaire Sire Evaluation Committee.
Tropical grasses research
Central West NSW has a low annual rainfall (400–600 mm) and increasing climate variability is projected to have a negative impact on feed availability. Tropical perennial grasses can fill the feed gap and while some producers have successfully established tropical grass pastures, their moisture and temperature requirements need further investigation to improve the reliability of establishment and persistence.
The tropical pastures research based at Trangie examines the impact of sowing time and soil moisture level on the establishment and survival of tropical grasses. An additional project aims to quantify the herbage production, water use dynamics and water use efficiency of three species of tropical perennial grass with lucerne (Medicago sativa L.) and an annual summer forage (Sudan grass). These preliminary data provide a snapshot of the water use, herbage mass and water use efficiency of a range of perennial and annual pasture and forage species over a single spring-summer growing season.
Cotton production and research
Trangie also hosts a cotton variety evaluation project with CSIRO on site.
Biomass and bioenergy research
Biomass for Bioenergy Project
Trangie currently hosts a biomass for bioenergy crop trial. Planted in August 2020 , the trial consists of approximatelty 6000 drought tolerant of trees across 3 hectares. The project will identify available and potential feedstocks for bioenergy generation at varying scales, with an understanding of the economic viability and social constraint.
NSW DPI Forest Science is partnering with CSIRO (Australian Tree Seed Centre) to investigate the productivity of prospective woody biomass crops grown under a variety of conditions.
The species to be planted are suitable to the Trangie climate and include Eucalyptus polybractea (blue mallee); Eucalyptus infera (durikai mallee); Eucalyptus viridis (green mallee); Eucalyptus camaldulensis (river red gum); Eucalyptus castrensis (Singleton mallee); Eucalyptus moluccana (grey box); Acacia saligna (golden wreath mallee) and Casuarina glauca (swamp she-oak).
Some of the desirable features of selected species include fast growth, hardiness, resistance to drought and frost conditions, and potential for coppicing. Trial sites have been established at Yanco, Orange, Glen Innes, Tamworth and Scone, and in the coming months additional sites to be planted include Muswellbrook and Grafton. More Info