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Business View Australia - August 2015 65
CAAB has gained a strong reputation
on this count. The Angus Pure brand
has gained prominence as pasture-
fed beef, offering a hormone growth
promotant and antibiotic free option
for customers looking for a natural
product.
Peter Parnell, Chief Executive Officer
of Angus Australia, describes the
inception of the society, “Back in 1919
there were about 10 to 12 members
and the society has gradually grown
since that time and now we have
3,500 members. We have different
membership categories. We have
what we call full members who record
cattle and take advantage of the entire
range of services provided by Angus
Australia.
“We also have commercial members
who do not record cattle but they use
some of our services, our educational
services for example, and services
related to commercial beef production.
We have a junior membership for young
enthusiasts of the beef industry who
are less than 25 years of age. We also
have a very strong youth development
program.”
The Society has a staff of 21 who are
involved indifferent areas andprojects.
Oneof the important activities currently
being conducted by Angus Australia
is a large research project involving
progeny testing of a number of young
bulls. The Angus Sire Benchmarking
Program (ASBP) is being conducted
with the support of Meat & Livestock
Australia and industry partners Bayer
Australia, Rangers Valley Feedlot and
John Dee Abattoir
The ASBP aims to generate test data
of modern Angus bulls particularly
for hard to measure traits such as
feed efficiency, abattoir carcase
measurement,
meat
quality
attributes and reproduction. Another
important objective that this program
has is to build a comprehensive
phenotype and genotype database
on Australian Angus for genomic
technology validation, research and
development.
In order to meet these objectives
40 sires a year are joined with 2,000
Angus cows to achieve 25 progeny per
sire. All the Angus sires are nominated
by Angus Australia members and
the cows are located across several
commercial co-operator herds in New
South Wales and Victoria.
The project involves collecting data
regarding calving ease, growth,
temperament, heifer reproduction,
structure, feed efficiency, abattoir
carcase and beef quality attributes.