Belmont Research Station - banner image

Belmont Research Station

Belmont Research Station - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies

‘Belmont’ is located on the Fitzroy river north of Rockhampton and has a carrying capacity of 1,200 cattle.

The station is currently owned by AgForce Queensland and is leased to CSIRO as a research facility.

The Belmont Research Station provides the ideal environment for research into livestock production in the tropics and sub-tropics of northern Australia.

The station’s research and breeding programme officially began in 1953 to develop new tick-resistant cattle breeds by crossbreeding existing cattle breeds derived from the African Zebu line.

The programme has also been successful in developing the cattle breed known as the Belmont Red. The Belmont Red breed is a tropically adapted breed and is used to improve fertility, meat quality and tick resistance in northern Australia.

Research is currently being done in a range of areas. They include:

  • Methane mitigation strategies in beef cattle
  • Spatial grazing patterns and
  • Animal behaviour studies

CSIRO is working with Beef CRC to understand more about the lifetime reproductive performance of tropical beef cattle.

The genetic discovery work is focussed on the early life indicators of female reproduction.

Another project is looking at whether cattle will grow horns or not.

Dehorning is a time consuming exercise for producers and one which can negatively affect animal productivity and welfare.

The project supported by Beef CRC, Meat & Livestock Australia and CSIRO could allow cattle producers to conduct a single genetic test on their stock to tell them whether an animal will produce calves with horns or not and therefore which animals they need to breed from to produce a polled herd.

Want more information? Dr Ed Charmley, Officer-in-Charge, CSIRO Livestock Industries on (07) 4923 8174 or Ed.Charmley@csiro.au