Angus Sire Benchmarking Program – Winter 2025 Update
The last of the Angus Sire Benchmarking Program (ASBP) Cohort 13 steer Progeny have finished their feed intake trial and methane testing at the Tullimba Research Feedlot. The data from the feed intake trial provides important information that informs the reference population for the NFI-F trait published in TACE, as well as the Daily Feed Intake (DFI) trait published for steers genotyped with SteerSELECT. All of the steers have now been trucked up to Rangers Valley Feedlot to be finished. The steers will be processed from July through to October, and the carcass data will flow through to TACE at the end of the year.
Meanwhile, the Cohort 13 heifer progeny have started calving. These heifers provide nearly 100% of the data that feeds into the Days to Calving (DTC) trait published in TACE and the Heifer Conception trait published in HeiferSELECT.
The Cohort 14 progeny have been weaned and by the time this is published all the DNA should be processed and calves verified. At weaning we collect weaning weights, crush docility scores, flight time, faecal samples for worm egg counts and pinkeye scores where outbreaks occur shortly before or during weaning. Additionally, in collaboration with CSIRO we perform immune competence testing on approximately 450-500 progeny each year to inform the ImmuneDEX breeding trait. This involves two phenotypes; an antibody-mediated immune response, and a cell-mediated immune response. We are currently looking at how these immune response phenotypes interact with other health traits such as pinkeye, worms and respiratory disease.
Cohort 15 has just started calving and our dedicated cooperator cow herds are busy weighing and tagging calves.
Lastly, it is with great excitement we’d like to invite members to start nominating sires for Cohort 16 of the ASBP. The Cohort 16 sires will be joined by one round of fixed time artificial insemination to approximately 1600-1900 Angus cows and heifers across our cooperator herds. To nominate please visit the QR code.
If you have any ASBP related questions, please contact liam.mowbray@angusaustralia.com.au.
Dr Liam A. Mowbray – Research & Development Specialist
