Northern beef industry stalwart looks forward to a polled herd
Northern beef industry stalwart looks forward to a polled herd - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies
 Charters Towers cattleman Tom Mann can’t wait for the day he can genetically test his herd to determine which cattle will and won’t produce horns.Dehorning adds an extra job to the station calendar. Breeding cattle that don’t produce horns could save the industry time and money, Mr Mann believes. A project supported by the Beef CRC, Meat & Livestock Australia and CSIRO could allow cattle producers to conduct a single genetic test on their stock to tell them which animals they need to breed from to produce a polled herd. Dehorning in northern Australia is commonplace, but Dr Kishore Prayaga, CSIRO Livestock Industries, said there’s a growing need to develop a non-invasive genetic application which replaces the practice in the long-run. “The general public is more aware of animal welfare issues. It would be much better if we could identify genetically polled animals which don’t pass horns on to the next generation of calves,” Dr Prayaga said. “We’re looking at the African Horn gene and the Scur gene. These genes play a role in the development of horns in Bos Indicus cattle,” Dr Prayaga said. “If we can develop genetic markers for these genes we can then develop a DNA test which will assess whether an animal will produce calves with horns or not and what proportion will be horned or polled,” he said. There are two main reasons why Mr Mann, who owns Hillgrove Station, likes polled cattle “You can fit an extra two beasts on each truck deck; that equates to a considerable saving in freight costs,” he said. “It’s also much safer for people handling the cattle. You might get a few bruises from a polled bullock, but you won’t get gored.” Hillgrove Station, north of Charters Towers, is around 42,500 hectares and carries between 5000 and 8000 head of cattle, depending on the season. Mr Mann said he has previously selected polled heifers and bulls in preference to cattle with horns. But that has meant he has had a smaller pool of cattle to choose from, he said. “This could be why some people think breeding polled cattle negatively affects productivity. But you have to remember that Rome wasn’t built in a day. If you try and eliminate horns over night by selecting only polled animals you could well be losing productivity in other areas.” Mr Mann said he hopes one day to be able to test a hair follicle or a blood sample and be told straight away whether a beast is going to produce a calf with horns or not. “That would allow us to make our selections much earlier when we have bigger mobs of cattle to choose from.” Mr Mann is confident producers would be prepared to pay for a genetic test for horn status; but doesn’t know how much they’d pay. “Like all these things, it depends on how much it is used as to how much it’ll cost. So until they find the gene marker, it’s all a matter of guesswork.” |
