17 March 2005
New Zealand joins leading world beef research programme
New Zealand is to join an international programme using the world’s best beef researchers in a seven-year project aimed
at improving beef quality for domestic and international markets.
Meat & Wool New Zealand is investing $NZ2m over seven years in a new $AU120m Co-operative Research Centre (CRC) for Beef
Genetics Technologies from July this year. The investment was announced jointly with the Australian-based Beef CRC at
Meat & Wool New Zealand’s Growing the Future Conference today.
It’s the first time New Zealand has joined the Australian-based Beef CRC, which has been researching ways to better
understand the factors influencing beef quality for the past 13 years. Meat & Wool New Zealand Chief Executive Mark Jeffries said the CRC gave New Zealand access to the best beef research talent in
Australia, Korea, New Zealand, and also selected American scientists.
“It gives us the opportunity to join a world-leading research programme and access to all the results that it delivers
for New Zealand farmers. It is a research investment that we could not fund alone”. “Ultimately the aims are to produce
more cattle that meet market specifications for quality beef, enhancing farmer profits, and to reduce farmer costs by
developing more productive and efficient cattle” he said.
Beef CRC Chief Executive Professor Bernie Bindon said the new CRC focussed on gene discovery and expression. “This means
taking cattle breeding to a new level of sophistication by finding genes that control beef production traits.” The
project would identify gene markers which could test for beef quality, feed efficiency, disease resistance and
reproduction performance, he said.
The Centre’s recognition of the need to integrate genetics, nutrition and meat science in studies of pedigree cattle
from Australian seedstock herds led to the establishment of the world’s largest progeny test for meat quality traits.
The CRC also initiated world-class research in molecular biology, designed to identify gene markers and candidate genes
for carcase and meat quality attributes.
Mr Jeffries said being involved in the Beef CRC was a good opportunity for New Zealand. “It’s great that we can
participate in this programme and give our farmers the opportunity to benefit from cutting edge research in the
production of high quality beef,” Mr Jeffries said.
ENDS