Genetics and Management to Improve Productivity in Australian Beef Herds
Animal Production Science
Special Issue Volume 49 Numbers 5 and 6
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Publisher:
CSIRO PUBLISHING |
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Description | Related Titles
Description
Publication of this Special Edition of Animal Production Science titled ‘Genetics and Management to Improve Productivity in Australian Beef Herds’ marks a very special milestone in the life of the Beef Cooperative Research Centre (Beef CRC). This is the tenth Special Edition or Research Front published by CSIRO PUBLISHING with Beef CRC scientists named as guest editors and/or Beef CRC results highlighted throughout the Edition. This Issue also becomes the second Open-Access volume published on behalf of Beef CRC.
The Beef CRC’s first 7-year research phase (1993–2000) answered the critical question: ‘Can we guarantee beef eating quality from Australia’s vastly differing and extreme beef production systems?’ Results from that first phase clearly demonstrated that, with careful attention to critical control points along the full length of the production and processing chain (literally from conception through to consumption), Australian beef producers could reliably and consistently deliver beef products that met consumer demands for beef palatability.
In the second phase (2001–2007), additional questions were addressed. Principally, there was a need to understand:
- whether carcass and beef quality attributes could be changed by genetic selection or through management processes without unduly compromising key fitness traits like reproductive performance and adaptation to environmental stressors;
- beef cattle growth and carcass compositional changes during that growth, to better predict and meet stringent market end points; and
- the appropriate weightings to give to genetics and management practices to most reliably improve the profitability and productivity of beef herds across northern and southern Australia.
The research described in the 17 papers in this Special Edition was specifically designed to answer these additional questions.
The leaders of the major second-phase Beef CRC are very pleased to commend these research results to you, knowing they will potentially contribute greatly to improved profitability and productivity of Australian beef businesses over coming years.
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