Research on genetic tool use highlights data accuracy concerns

Central Queensland University PhD candidate Patricia Menchon is behind a research project looking into genetic improvement in beef cattle in northern Australia.

She aims to better understand the factors that motivate northern Australian beef farmers to use genetic improvement tools in their herds, and co-develop an extension program that will increase the levels of adoption of genetic data.

Having begun conducting interviews and surveys with industry stakeholders, some barriers have already been raised.

These include a lack of confidence in the accuracy of the data being collected, economic incentives and training to help interpretation.

Ms Menchon said the issue of raw data collection for generating estimated breeding values was a topic that frequently arose among participants that had been interviewed.

One producer, who wished to remain anonymous, said birth dates were the biggest problem.

"...getting a correct birth date of an animal, and in Queensland and the bigger areas...it's virtually impossible to get that except for a small amount of cattle," they reported to Ms Menchon.

"It takes time and money, and probably no incentive, you need to work, we're the ones doing all the hard work on the ground to collect this raw data," a producer said.

She said despite the recognition by northern Australian beef producers that genetic tools have low adoption, there had been a change in the conversation about their use in the decision making process.

"Some participants expressed that between 10 to 25 per cent of bull buyers look for genetic information, and up to 50 per cent of beef farmers would be using it," she said.

"However, despite the low adoption, those interviewed agreed that there has been an increase in the uptake of genetic tools in recent years due to the recognition of their usefulness.

"Examples include polled gene tests, promotion by large corporations and by the incorporation of genomics (DNA samples)."

She said the main motivation for obtaining genetic data was to gain information about an animal that was different from visual traits.

"You can't tell the birth weight of a bull when you are looking at him but you can when you're looking at the data," a participant said.

Seedstock producers, commercial producers, advisors and stock agents will be interviewed as part of the survey.