Breeding strategies for the development of the Australian beef industry: an overview

Strategic directions for the period 2010 to 2020 and research and development needs are considered for the Australian Beef Industry from the breeding sector's perspective. These are related to the way major technologies are developed for an industry, the current status and likely trends in market development and appropriation of benefits to the consumer, processor, commercial beef producer and breeding sectors. The primary strategic needs identified are: (i) understand the functional biology for the major production environments ( supply chain packages), (ii) accelerate the speed of genetic improvement for production environment breeding goals based on commercial sector profitability and the dissemination of superior genetic material to this sector, and (iii) retain and develop the Beef Cooperative Research Centre concept over the period. Tactics for realising each strategy are considered. Rigorously designed industry-level studies based on a genotype x environment interaction approach, involving all major production environments and breeds, have an important role to play, as do the serial development of measuring equipment and procedures for carcass quality and yield, body maintenance, disease management and maternal performance. Information and communication, molecular genetics and artificial insemination technologies, along with formal progeny testing and an extended BREEDPLAN system, will be increasingly used by the breeding as well as commercial industry sectors to more consistently meet particular market demands. Carefully executed progeny testing is a pragmatic and necessary breeding approach for the period, serving a number of important purposes. The beef industry as a whole will need to take more responsibility for its genetic improvement element by: managing the appropriation of benefits across sectors, developing an increasingly effective system of value-based marketing and, for each sector and production environment, a more appropriate program of capacity building. The industry could now usefully consider the further development of its activity to address these longer-term strategic needs.