SPECIAL REPORT: SUMMER ANGUS

Beefing things up

A combination of breeding ingenuity and data is underpinning the capacity of Angus cattle to adapt to changing climate and consumer demand.

-Words JEANETTE SEVERS

The sales of Angus bulls in the past couple of years have created opportunities to showcase how local and imported genetics are building the domestic herd. It’s also demonstrated a stronger focus on using Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs) to identify best performers – and Angus Australia is using technology to enable commercial and stud breeders to make those decisions, based on their individual business strategy.

There have been some high priced bulls sold in recent years, as buyers chase genetics with guaranteed performance. In 2020, Dunoon stud sold Prime Minister at $140,000 and Texas Angus sold Powerplay P613 for $108,000. In 2019, Paratrooper sold for $160,000 at Millah Murrah stud’s annual bull sale.

Last year saw records tumble further for stud breeders. In July 2021, Texas Angus stud sold Iceman R725 for $225,000 – which was then an Australian record for Angus bulls. The bull was purchased by Macka’s Black Australian Beef, in Gloucester, NSW, in partnership with Genetics Australia.

Stud principals, Ben and Wendy Mayne, were also pleased to see Iceman’s half-brother, Top Gun R66, bought by Mundarlo Angus in conjunction with Worldwide Sires Australia.

In a chart topping performance later last year, Millah Murrah Angus stud’s sale of Rocket Man R38 at $280,000, and the subsequent purchase of exclusive worldwide semen rights by ABS Australia, demonstrated the continuing emergence of Australia’s global genetics potential.

Texas Angus stud also presented lines of cow families in a female sale and saw the Undine heifers and cow and calf batches snapped up – Top Gun, Iceman and Powerplay were all out of Undine cows. It’s one example of how much commercial and stud breeders are chasing performance values, with breeding decisions reflected in the Eastern Young Cattle Indicator (EYCI), which is being driven by feedlot demand.

The EYCI – an indicator of young cattle prices – sat at 1135c/kg in mid-December, after steady rises throughout 2021. That’s 344c above the same level a year previously. Feedlots are purchasing 60 per cent of the EYCI-eligible offering, with re-stockers paying premiums to purchase replacement cattle.

The ABARES Agricultural Commodities report for the December quarter forecasts an agricultural gross production value of $78 billion, an estimated $5.4 billion higher than predicted. Higher cattle prices are entrenched within the value of Australia’s agricultural exports, which was revised up $6.5 billion to a forecast $61 billion as livestock prices continued to rise. >

A TONNE OF BULL

Of just as much value as high prices is commodity volume. Bull breeders are selling their entire contingents. Among the next generation of breeders, Becc and Tim Brazier, with Choice Angus, sold their entire crop, much as did Texas Angus and Millah Murrah principals.

Choice Angus stud was created out of a partnership split, when Becc and Tim purchased 300 stud cows from the existing breeding enterprise and moved to the Upper Horton district. This year, they sold 50 bulls in their sale and 25 yearling bulls privately.

Bulls bred by Tim and Rebecca Brazier, (from Choice Angus) to meet a growing expectation from customers that they will get guaranteed performance genetics

“About 10 years ago when we came into the partnership, we pretty much changed the genetics,” Becc said. “The heifers coming through now are medium framed, quiet and good doers. We’re not chasing anything too hard.

“The bulls graze and forage to get their weights at 600kg as yearlings, with a balance of good bone and muscle, and good feet. We use some of our yearling bulls in our own stud.”

The couple invests in Canadian, New Zealand and Australian genetics to grow their commercial and stud herds.

“It depends on what suits our operation,” Becc said. “We use indexes and Estimated Breeding Values to look for female EBVs and we look at the animal and other progeny. The numbers have to match with what you see in the paddock.”

It was a similar story at Booroomooka Angus stud, run by Hugh and Sinclair Munro. Last year, Booroomooka Angus stud sold 232 bulls at their annual sale, including 207 two-year-old bulls and 25 yearling bulls.

Consolidated Pastoral Company, Australia’s largest privately owned beef agribusiness, bought a Booroomooka bull this year for its Newcastle Waters Brahman breeding enterprise in the west Barkly region of the Northern Territory. CPC was already using Angus bulls in its composite sire breeding program for its Queensland properties, where steers are weaned at five to seven months for fattening as Jap Ox.

CPC invests in genetics to utilise hybrid vigour, increase herd fertility and wean calves at greater weights, and to improve carcase yield. Angus sires are part of their decision making, investing in stud bulls – Brahman, Angus, Boran and Wagyu, to breed and use composite sires for the commercial herds.

Booroomooka Stud’s Sinclair Munro said buyers as far south as Tasmania and King Island, and north into Queensland and the Northern Territory, were attracted to what they were achieving in live weights in their own herd.

“In our commercial herd, we’re turning off 14-month-old steers at 450kg average,” Sinclair Munro said. “We’re researching performance because we and our customers want to turn off animals at younger ages and higher weights, while maintaining eating quality.

Booroomooka Quilpie that sold for $40,000.

“Our buyers are interested in producing very high carcase weights and quality, in animals that are grass fed.

“Angus cattle are going into feedlots for Coles and Woolworths supply chains. Angus meat is sought for export markets.

“Our buyers are using Angus in a terminal breeding program in Northern Australia, where people are able to put Angus genetics over Brahman cattle.”

The demand is helping him shape the stud’s breeding program, identifying lines that finish better on grass, or can withstand tropical heat, or the parasite burdens common among northern cattle.

“We’re researching traits for those northern breeders – coat type, doing ability in the hotter weather, resilience traits. It’s part of what we do every day. We also research different production systems, so we can measure how Angus bulls and their progeny perform,” Sinclair said.

“The value of Angus bulls joined to Brahman is in breeding a composite terminal sire. There’s only so much environment we can adapt the Angus to, and I believe a lot of animals will have Angus in them, as breeders.

“We’ll see increased use of high quality Angus bulls to breed cross-bred bulls and use them as sires. We’ve been doing a lot of research as an Angus breed, to identify cattle that can handle that hot and parasitic environment but still produce weight for age progeny.”

In another example of how much Angus cattle are being sought for diversified markets, eight Texas Angus bulls were bought by Fucheng Investment Australia in 2021, for breeding Angus feeder cattle in Queensland. The cattle are finished in the nearby feedlot owned by Fucheng Investment, ready for export as meat.

In Western Australia, Harvest Road is using Angus bulls in breeding programs that also follow the supply chain from breeding to finishing and distribution. Cattle are bred on New Norcia Farm and finished at the nearby Koojan Downs Feeding Facility, in an integrated system focussed on export markets. A focus of Koojan Downs is finishing 100-day Angus and Wagyu lines of cattle.

“The Angus is a very popular and useful breed because the cattle work for all along the supply line, from breeders to customers. From farm gate production to the consumer, they are proven profitable cattle,” Sinclair Munro said.

CATTLE INDEXING

Sinclair Munro is also Chairman of Angus Australia’s Genetic Evaluation Committee. In the last 12 months, the Committee spent most of its time refining the selecting indexes for cattle. It looked at the profitability in genetic terms of an animal – including calving ease, growth, feed maintenance, and carcase quality – and quantified that data against the value of that animal.

The Angus Education Centre is an initiative by Angus Australia to provide information that helps breeders explore world leading genetic evaluation technologies to enhance the value and profitability of their cattle throughout the beef supply chain.

In December 2021, Angus Australia released new selection indexes, replacing the Angus Breeding, Domestic, Heavy Grain and Heavy Grass selection indexes. A revised set of EPDs for imported American and Canadian Black and Canadian Red Angus genetics was also published.

GENETICS AND DATA: Angus cows bred by Booroomooka Angus stud principal, Sinclair Munro, from a wide genetic data pool.

Using technology and science to improve the integrity of the pedigree and adaptability of Angus cattle is the longterm and ongoing aim of breeders. They are supported in this by projects supported by Angus Australia, including the Angus Parentage Assurance program, the Angus Sire Assured and Heifer Select programs.

The Angus Heifer Select program is a genomic selection tool that identifies replacement heifers with at least 87.5 per cent Angus content, in a commercial breeding program, and complements other sources of information, including EBVs, pedigree information, phenotype and insight into the genetic potential of heifers. Angus Sire Assured guarantees sires have been DNA verified. Angus Parentage applies to cattle with sire and dam DNA parentage verified.

Sinclair said the size of the Angus gene pool in Australia now meant benchmarking programs produced beneficial information that commercial and stud breeders could rely on to predict progeny performance at a younger age.

“The Angus sire benchmarking is a progeny test program with benefits for the entire breed because it produces a whole lot of data that validates testing and developing genomic tools to identify traits of animals at a younger age,” Sinclair said.

“There’s been a lot of gains made through testing animals and collecting data in the past five years, that help us identify animals that are superior in certain traits at a younger age.”

Sinclair is applying that science in the Booroomooka herds.

“Our bulls are all genomically tested and we’re identifying animals in our herd at a younger age, because we can more accurately predict what those animals are doing for us. Our bull buyers have access to that information because the amount of genomic and performance data collected means it’s an accurate tool for them to rely on,” he said.

“We’re also able to identify potential sires in other studs, in Australia and overseas, because we can more reliably predict what those animals are able to do for us.

“And because we can use the data to select animals younger, we can increase genetic progress. “Breeders are ensuring consistent carcase development and maternal productivity, continue to improve fertility, and reliably use data to select animals that support producing high quality beef with less feed. So, the age of turnoff becomes younger and the meat quality stays up.”

THINKING AHEAD

There are also climate emissions gains to be made. Angus Australia is investing in research to measure the impact of using genetics to identify early maturing cattle.

“There’s potential for ensuring an improved carbon footprint for beef, because feeder cattle are being grown out and finished at younger ages," Sinclair said.

The industry body is not alone in pursuing research that meets consumer demand. In recent years it’s become apparent that consumers are expecting commercial and stud breeders and those along the supply chain to be responsible for reducing climate emissions and their livestock production footprint, and improving animal welfare.

The renowned AACo – Australian Agricultural Company – has committed to develop recognised Animal Health and Welfare certification standards for beef production by 2024. It will do this by investing and commercialising scientific research into supply chains.