Leading beef specialist retires
Leading beef specialist retires - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies
| 4 July 2011 |
 Wayne Upton, a prominent figure in Australia’s beef industry for almost 40 years retired on June 30 in Armidale, NSW.Following retirement however, Wayne won’t be distancing himself from the cattle industry, given that out of work hours he and wife Chris run a seedstock herd and small commercial beef cattle herd on 730 hectares north of Armidale. “There’s plenty to do especially this time of year. Like other cattle producers in the area, we have a significant winter feed gap and so are trying to hold our cattle on modest weight gain as they are grazing bush country. We’ll boost that in Spring,” he said. After graduating from University of New South Wales on a Department of Agriculture cadetship, Wayne spent the first two decade of his career as a Livestock Officer with the NSW Department of Agriculture at various offices in NSW. He was also posted for a period on AACo’s Wrotham Park cattle station near Chillagoe in North Queensland. His final appointment with the Department was as Special Livestock Officer Beef Cattle Breeding. Wayne then spent some years as private consultant to the beef industry in various roles in Armidale and lecturing of the University of New England (UNE). Since 1992 he has been an extension specialist and consultant at the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU), UNE, where he was responsible for extension of the use of AGBU products including BREEDPLAN and BreedObject. It was during his time in Queensland in the 1970s Wayne became interested in the environmental and genetic effects on reproductive performance and overall production in cattle. He said this interest carried right through to his eventual involvement in the applied aspects of the three Beef CRCs, the first of which commenced in 1993. “The Beef CRCs gave us the opportunity for direct application of genetic evaluation and breeding programs particularly using carcase and reproductive traits, and incorporating these into selection indexes to balance selection.” “It is also important that producers understand how to integrate genetics with culling and selection programs.” “For instance, we already use ‘days-to-calving” data in BREEDPLAN and we recommend that seedstock producers, especially in the North, look very carefully at their first-calf cows which are back in calf as three-year-olds and ensure they retain their progeny. Reproductive performance in the North will be lifted accordingly,” he said. Wayne’s role has seen him in charge of on-farm research projects responsible for introducing new technologies to the beef industry such as real time ultrasound for measurement of eye muscle area, fat and marbling. He was also responsible for testing accredited ultrasound scanners who collect data for BREEDPLAN. From 1992 to 1999 Wayne was the National Co-ordinator of what was then the world’s largest beef progeny testing program conducted through the Beef CRC. He was responsible for the implementation of the breeding and measurement of progeny of some 350 sires across 30 herds from seven different breeds in southern and northern Australia. “The design needed to be robust enough to allow the progeny to be split across numerous treatments such as grain or grass finishing at three different slaughter weights, and still give valid sire comparisons for slaughter traits.” “I have also worked within the industry and I very much enjoy interacting with breeders and producers.” “With their help, we have really improved data collection in BREEDPLAN with the design of commercial progeny test programs for individual herds and the Shorthorn Society through the Durham Research Project,” he said. Wayne is an unabashed proponent of extension techniques including Beef Profit Partnerships (BPP) and intensive workshop activities. The BPP network across Australia and NZ comprises cattle producers interested in improving the profitability of their beef businesses with an initial target of an additional 5% improvement in annual business profit within two years. In the future, Wayne won’t be as intricately involved in Beef CRC activities but he will be keeping a watchful eye on developments – in between feeding his cattle and improving the pastures on his farm. As a dyed-in-the-wool extension person though, he knows where to go if he needs help on the farm – to extension specialists. “To offset your resources risk, you seek advice from producer groups, local agronomists, reading print and online resources, or perhaps joining the Beef Profit Partnership network,” he said. |
| Media contact: Robert Nethery, 0439 40 50 77, Email: rob.nethery@beefcrc.com.au |
