Summary
Summary - Beef CRC - Beef Genetic Technologies
| Beef CRC’s third phase (CRC for Beef Genetic Technologies) commenced in July 2005, with funding to June 2012. The third-term CRC is aiming to increase the competitiveness of Australian beef businesses by targeting an additional 1.5% p.a. increase in gross revenue of the Australian beef industry, estimated at $179 million per annum from 2012, with total expected benefits of the new CRC research being more than $2 billion over 25 years. The centre is using emerging genetic technologies to: • Improve capacity to deliver high quality beef to Australia’s 110 global markets using cattle of known genetic merit for exacting specifications, without compromising animal welfare or the environment; • Enhance beef yield and herd reproductive efficiency, improve efficiency of resource use, reduce production costs, minimise methane emissions and avoid chemical and antibiotic residues through precise application of knowledge about the genes controlling these attributes in cattle, their rumen microorganisms and in parasites affecting herd productivity; and • Ensure Australia is the number one supplier of beef to meet the growing demand by neighbouring Asian countries to 2020. Research outcomes will provide Australia with the ability to consistently produce beef products of exacting specifications to meet the needs of domestic consumers and those of the 110 countries to which we export, based on selection of cattle for specific markets using knowledge of the genes they carry, not through artificial modification of their genomes. |
