DON’T expect any sudden, surprise announcements about implementation of a multibreed beef genetic evaluation system at this month’s Meat & Livestock Australia annual meeting in Townsville, or the Beef 2027 event in Rockhampton in May next year.

That’s the message from MLA managing director Michael Crowley following recent speculation that MLA might be close to pulling the trigger on a genetic evaluation program model.

The concept of multibreed has received considerable push-back in some seedstock circles this year, most noticeably within the Angus breed, where Angus Australia raised a series of concerns about what the adoption of multibreed evaluation might look like for Angus breeders.

However even within Angus seedstock circles, it’s clear that not all stakeholders are on the same page, with some prominent bull breeders advocating strongly for multibreed as being in the broader industry’s interest.

A comprehensive survey of Angus Australia members last month showed deep uneasiness about the effect multibreed might have within the Angus breed, but to be fair, some stakeholders have suggested to Beef Central that that survey represented push-polling, designed to deliver a certain outcome.

In an interview last Thursday, MLA managing director Michael Crowley said at the AGM in Townsville in a fortnight, he would be providing an update on how the industry service delivery company was progressing against its current five-year strategic plan. Part of that would reference accountability and transparency, and MLA’s keenness to engage with producers on all of its activities.

Just one of those topics is the prospect of adopting multibreed genetic evaluation, which is (aspirationally, at least) included in MLA’s current five year plan. 

Mr Crowley said as the current five year plan ending 2030 is being ‘brought to life,’ that’s when a lot more industry questions have started to arise, on topics like multibreed.

“That’s not necessarily a bad thing, because it means we are driving progress and pushing hard enough – but I recognise we need to take people along for the journey,” he said.

“The important thing for us is using the platform to be really clear of where we are up to on the journey; where to from here; and reflecting on what we have achieved so far.”

“As part of that, we equally need to consider how we engage further on delivering impact from the investment we make on industry’s behalf.”

Ten years in progress in multibreed

Beef Central asked Mr Crowley whether the negative reaction to the multibreed proposal from some industry circles had come as a surprise.

“I’ve been somewhat surprised – but in the context that multibreed itself is not a new concept,” he said.

“What is hitting home at the moment is that we have put ourselves on the hook by committing to deliver this by 2030, and that is very clearly called-out in the MLA strategic plan. But we have in fact been working on this, and related genetics work, since 2016, when we set up the National Livestock Genetics Consortium.

“Since that time, for all of the genetics projects MLA has invested in, it has been a clause in the contract that those projects contribute data to multibreed. We are now at a stage where we can start to deliver on that.”

In fact multibreed was ‘on the radar’ as far back as the Beef CRC days, which ended in 2012 – 14 years ago, Mr Crowley said.

“And staff at the Animal Genetics & Breeding Unit have told me that multibreed was in discussion in the very early days of BreedPlan, some 30 years ago.”

“What we are now doing is wanting to run this to ground – to deliver multibreed, and while we’ve already had a lot of questions about the process, how it might work and what the impact is likely to be – we are more than happy to continue providing answers to such questions, as we go through the development phase.

Research EBVs

Asked whether the 2030 five year plan deadline created undue pressure to adopt a model, given that is a little over three years away, Mr Crowley said MLA was working on a whole lot of research that allowed it to deliver research Estimated Breeding Values (effectively a trial model) as an important part of multibreed’s progression.

“That will be done throughout 2027. We’re more advanced in research EBVs in the northern tropical breeds, particularly because of major projects like Repronomics, where Droughtmaster, Brahman and Santa Gertrudis running ‘head-to-head’ for more than a decade, delivering a big dataset that we can now start to work with to show those breed societies what a multibreed output would look like, and compared that to BreedPlan.”

“And we will be able to build additional northern breeds into that. We want to make sure that all beef breeds are able to be part of multibreed.

MLA’s role would be around providing a ‘single source of truth’ around breeding values, that’s been very successful in BreedPlan. Sitting behind the commercialisation of multibreed will be a single source of truth for data quality, data control and making sure a whole lot of quality assurance is put around the results.

“It has also been a fantastic vehicle for the commercialisation of genetics, and multibreed really builds on that foundation,” Mr Crowley said.

The multibreed concept is already in use internationally, with International Genetics Solutions (IGS), based in the US, the largest and best known internationally – already being embraced by Australian beef breeds including Shorthorn and Simmental.

“The important points for the Australian industry to consider is how multibreed might help us build on where we are today; how does it address meeting the needs of breeders who aren’t serviced by the current genetic services pipeline; and how does this help drive greater rates of genetic progress and deliver productivity outcomes faster than what’s being seen already?” Mr Crowley said.

He said there were a ‘whole lot of people’ who were already very interested in multibreed, who were either not part of BreedPlan today (where there were not services for them to engage), or they wanted to be part of a whole of industry evaluation.

“But equally, I recognise that many breed societies have very strong business models, that want to complement what they are doing in their direction.

“Ideally, I think breed societies have the opportunity to deliver additional services to breeders who are not currently members of a breed society.”

Asked whether Angus bull breeders risked losing more than others, given the breed’s own heavy investment in genetic evaluation for more than 30 years, Mr Crowley said the breed had indeed invested heavily in driving genetic progress, and had also been a leader in marketing, and how Angus had been positioned as a breed.

“We see it in post farmgate beef brands – not just here, domestically, but overseas.

“We don’t want to slow them down, but I guess the key thing for MLA is to really work closely with Angus Australia to demonstrate the benefits in what multibreed might deliver to their industry.

“MLA has partnered with Angus in a number of projects over the years – either directly with Angus Australia or via indirect benefit through other work, while recognising that they have also made a lot of their own investments. All of that can come together under multibreed.”

“The best example I can think of (for multibreed) is in commercial carcase competitions, where all of those cattle (of different breed backgrounds) are measured on an equal basis – and yet our genetic evaluations do not compare them on the same set of genetic parameters – even where we are measuring the same trait in the same way.”

Outcome-oriented lens

“If we put an outcome-oriented lens on, and think about how we arm commercial producers with better tools and better decision-making on how they are going to drive productivity, increase fertility, and improve over the hooks outcomes, then creating pull-through demand for superior genetics when they are making seedstock decisions becomes important.

“We can also find common ground when we start talking about genetics innovation, and where we go from strong foundations today, that support where we need to go in the future. We might not agree on everything from where we sit today, but want to make sure that both myself and my team are very available to every breed and breed society who we need to work with on bringing multibreed to life.

‘Shifting the needle’ on genetic progress

As part of that, MLA has established a dedicated section on its genetics hub website devoted specifically to understanding the multibreed concept and how it might be applied

That platform has already had more than 6000 views over the past month since it was launched.

“There’s clearly been a lot of interest in the topic, but MLA can’t force anyone across to multibreed,” Mr Crowley said.

“A a co-owner of the BreedPlan analytical software, we will continue to support breeders who want to continue to use BreedPlan. But equally, there is a big opportunity, through multibreed to ‘shift the needle’ on genetic progress, providing services to people who aren’t serviced by the current pipeline.”

“It’s about growing from the very strong foundation where we sit today, by really looking at what the benefits are for the beef industry – the breeds and breed societies have a really important role to play in that, and I don’t see MLA stepping into a position where we are competing with traditional breed societies.

So has MLA consulted widely enough to this point?

“When I look at where we have come from since 2016 when multibreed was first talked about, and given that we spent 12 months consulting on the development of MLA’s five-year strategic plan, we have consulted really broadly,” Mr Crowley said.

“But that’s not saying the job is done. As we bring multibreed to life – and we are – people (stakeholders) are really leaning in. There’s a lot of curiosity, interest, enthusiasm, but also scepticism and concern – I recognise that.”

“But what I want to reinforce is that we will continue to consult. We have not yet made firm decisions on what that commercial multibreed model is going to look like, and if anybody feels they have not been consulted, then let’s have a conversation.

“We are still only at the stage of developing research breeding values, which will allow us to really open the doors over what this looks like for a breed, what it looks like for a breed society. Let’s understand those concerns, answer the questions, and I think we can find common ground as we try to drive benefits for industry.”

Mr Crowley said given the tropical breeds mentioned earlier, involved in the Repronomics project research were further advanced, MLA would be able to start talking with those breeds ‘very soon’ about what multibreed might look like.

“But I don’t think we are going to have real clarity around what the model looks like for northern breeds until around mid-2027. For southern breeds, we are really looking at the end of 2027,  so we still have a good 12 months to go on developing research EBVs, and having all of those conversations about what it all means.

“If we have this conversation this time next year, we will have a firmer view of where to from here. But having said that, I think the 2030 timeline is still very realistic, because of the amount of investment that’s already been made since 2016. We should be able to deliver this in that timeframe.”

Southern multibreed project

Asked what impact the discontinuation of financial support for the Southern Multibreed project by NSW DPI might have on temperate breeds progress, Mr Crowley said MLA was ‘very keen’ to have a second phase of the project in collaboration with NSW DPI.

“Due to state government budget constraints, that project was not able to continue, finishing in June this year. But all of that data is highly valuable, and what is being worked through at the moment is what’s next for southern multibreed investments.

“That’s going to include a whole range of possible models, from collaborator herds, to individual breeders, collaborations with breed societies. That has certainly got things off the ground, with a number of cohorts contributing data, on which we can build through collaborator herds and commercially collected information.”

Southern multibreed would just look different than its original model.

Asked if any modelling had been done yet on multibreed set-up and administration costs, and potential revenue streams, Mr Crowley said the only modelling that had occurred was looking at some scenarios around what level of income could be generated, and whether that development can be generated through the MLA Donor Company.

“If we can engage large pastoral companies, for example, and breeders that are not serviced by the current BreedPlan model, it would add to the process. But it’s all theoretical, at this stage.

“We are jumping ahead if we start thinking about what income and costs might be generated, but that of course needs to be worked through.”

However he recognised that ‘a substantial amount of money’ would be involved.

“But we want that to be the case: it needs to be a viable business to attract an appropriate commercialiser,” he said.

“That’s what its important for it to sit within MLA while we get multibreed commercial-ready. Then, as we work through what the commercial model looks like, who the likely collaborators are likely to be along the supply chain, and how we partner with them.

“That will give us stronger understanding of the potential size of the market, the size of the starting point and the initial engagement. All of that will come together over the next 12 months.

One of Angus Australia’s stated concerns over multibreed is in the platform falling into the hands of an existing genetics/genomics company. Did MLA see that as a concern?

“They key role in all of this for MLA is to ensure that there is a central source of truth for breeding values,” Mr Crowley said.

“We do want to see genomics/genetics companies providing services for breeders, but if they are connected with multibreed – as we do with BreedPlan – that’s a positive.

“If we don’t engage genomic companies in this, they may themselves develop products that compete with our own genetic evaluations. It makes sense for us to work with them.

“We have genomic information, pedigree information and performance data that would underpin genomic products being delivered commercially, and connected with a central ‘source of truth’ through multibreed.

“We want commercial producers to be able to benchmark their herds, identify where the gaps are in achieving their breeding and productivity objectives, and then put more selection pressure on their seedstock selection to address those gaps.

“So we need those genomic products connected to the evaluation, while looking to avoid competing against the central service. There’s a really important connection that we need to make there.

“But when we do develop the ultimate commercial model of multibreed, there will be the analysis that sits behind it, and as always, we’ll be providing as much information to stakeholders as we can, without compromising any commercial-in-confidence information.”

Synergies with VBM

Mr Crowley’s final point was that multibreed evaluation would ‘really come into its own’ when connected to Value-Based Marketing.

“We actually have to start with the right animals going into the supply chain, in order to extract maximum benefit from VBM,” he said.

“We want better over the hook outcomes, we want better brand specification compliance, we want to improve performance on farm and in feedlots, and we want to address a whole range of credentials that we’re being asked to provide. But we also need to start with the right genetics, and multibreed will underpin our ability to achieve what we need to, in Value-Based Marketing.

“How much faster can we go when breeds are aligned in their genetic evaluation, and aligned in our supply chains in how we create and capture value?”