A RECENTLY completed survey of Angus Australia members has shown an overwhelming 84 percent rating a breed-owned evaluation as either ‘critical’ or ‘important’.

Results from the survey show that Angus seedstock breeders have given their national breed society a clear mandate to keep control of Angus genetic evaluation.

The survey, conducted as Meat & Livestock Australia moves to develop a national multibreed genetic evaluation, also found 84pc of respondents had never been consulted by MLA on the proposal, while 63pc did not yet have enough information to make an informed decision.

Angus Australia first raised a series of concerns about MLA’s multibreed project in a letter to members, passages from which were used in this article published last week.

Just one of a suite of issues raised in last week’s article was around seeking clarification about the potential role of commercial genomic DNA testing companies in delivering breeding values. One concern was that high-accuracy breeding values could eventually be marketed for unregistered or composite cattle outside established breed society systems.

Angus Australia chief executive officer Scott Wright said breeders were not against progress, but they wanted answers first.

“Our members aren’t against comparing breeds. They’re against handing over 30 years of their data, without understanding who will control it, how it will be used and who will benefit,” Mr Wright said.

“We gave every member an opportunity to have their say.”

Mr Wright rejected suggestions that the Angus breed was resisting change.

“Kodak invented the digital camera and left it in a drawer. Angus built its own and switched it on,” he said.

Angus Australia’s next-generation evaluation, Angus GenetiQ, was launched in December 2025. It now runs across every registered Angus animal and powers the HeiferSelect and SteerSelect genomic tools used by commercial producers.

MLA’s temperate multibreed evaluation remains in research and development and is not scheduled for commercial release until 2028.

The recent member survey also showed Angus breeders are open to collaboration on the right terms. Almost half (47pc) said they would support Angus data being used by MLA or third parties if Angus Australia retained approval rights and appropriate commercial safeguards were in place. Only 30pc rejected it outright.

“That’s our position in a sentence: not a blanket no, and not a blank cheque,” Mr Wright said.

“We’ve asked MLA for a business case. We want to know, who owns the data, who sells the results, who profits, and how is the investment that breeders have made over many protected? Show us the business case, and we’ll show it to our members,” he said.

Mr Wright said the Angus Australia board would consider the future of Angus genetic evaluation at its November meeting.

“Angus Australia will also continue working with Cattle Australia and other breed societies, several of which have publicly sought more detail from MLA,” he said.

MLA’s take on multibreed

While MLA has not responded to an earlier invitation from Beef Central to provide a response to AA’s multibreed issues outlined in this earlier article, a short passage on multibreed is included in the 2025-26 MLA annual report released on Friday. It says the following:

Whilst still in the R&D phase, Multibreed is developing, and we anticipate that progress continuing to take shape over the coming 12 months.

MLA has invested more than $40 million on a range of genetics programs since 2016, including Repronomics, Southern Multibreed, MLA’s Resource Flock and the BreedPlan evaluation. This research underpins the design and delivery of commercial multibreed beef genetic evaluations.

The development of national multibreed beef and sheep genetic evaluations are an important long-term initiative that has the potential to support commercial producers in achieving faster rates of genetic gain – delivering improved productivity, adaptation and profitability outcomes.

• Beef Central anticipates some announcements about the multibreed issue during MLA’s upcoming AGM in Townsville on 24 November, and possibly a full program launch during Beef 2027 in Rockhampton next May.