Grafton welcomes first calf of the 2023 SMB cohort

Farm staff at Grafton Primary Industries Institute have welcomed the first Southern Multi Breed project calf of the 2023 season.

The healthy Angus heifer was born on Wednesday from a heifer born on the same station two years ago.

Technical Officer Matt Woods said it’s always an exciting time for the staff who work closely with the project herd.

“It’s even more special this year because we have new farm trainee Bellajayne who has not had the opportunity to work with cattle like this, so she was thrilled to be able to measure and assess this first calf,” he said.

Another 498 calves are expected at Grafton station over the next several weeks, with each one carefully assessed, tagged and, more importantly, several key traits measured as part of the SMB project, including live birth weight and calving ease.

“We also assess the dam from a distance as well, and udder score and teat score along with maternal behaviour,” Mr Woods said.

Data gathered from both cows and calves during the project will assist with the long-term goal of collating a valuable data resource that includes hard-to-measure traits of economic importance on the Angus, Hereford, Shorthorn, Wagyu, Charolais, and Brahman breeds.

All animals in the SMB project will be genotyped to create a genomic resource population on for all traits recorded during the project.

The project is co-funded by NSW DPI, UNE, MLA and the Commonwealth Government through the MLA Donor Company (MDC).

For more information visit our Project Cattle page.