THE Australian Brahman Breeders Association says optimising feeding is an opportunity for the breed to enter higher value MSA programs, especially through increasing marbling.

Preliminary findings from the Southern Multi-Breed project were presented at an ABBA conference at last month’s Brisbane Ekka.

SMB is run by the New South Wales Department of Primary Industries and is conducted on a range of sites across the state in different environments. Its main purpose is to compare the performance of different breeds head-to-head on the same pastures – including Angus, Charolais, Hereford, Shorthorn, Brahman and Wagyu.

The project has been running for four years and has produced about 7500 progeny.

SMB principal investigator Dr Brad Walmsley said the research being done in southern systems was adding to the years of research that has been done in the Repronomics project. He said one of the big findings so far has been a greater variation in results within breeds than there has been across breeds.

With Brahman specifically, he said there was a big variation in marbling. He said with little variation in ossification, marbling was most likely the factor that could drive up MSA scores.

“The variation of marbling in Brahmans is actually bigger than the variations we see in crossbreds and other straightbreds,” he said.

“This means there is potential there to breed for marbling in Brahmans.”

Alongside the Brahman side of the project, there has been different trials with crossbreeding. Dr Walmsley said both crossbreds and straight Brahmans had big variations in growth rates.

“There are Brahmans that grow better, there is an advantage with crossbreeding and there are other purebreds that grow well and don’t grow well,” he said.

“Effectively there is no difference in ossification between all breeds, it is really just the growth capacity that changes.”

He said improving weigh-for-age was also an opportunity for the breed to improve MSA scores.

“If you can get them killed at a higher weight at a younger age, than you will get an advantage through meat quality,” he said.

More options than genetics

ABBA vice-president and Central Qld Brahman breeder Matthew Noakes said he agreed that improving marbling was one of the biggest opportunities for Brahman breeders to enter MSA markets.

He said marble score two was good enough to get Brahman cattle into MSA graded markets.

“I don’t want people to look at these results and think they have to necessarily start looking for genetic marbling, because when you try and improve marbling through genetics alone there could be some trade off’s,” Mr Noakes said.

“While a genetic pre-disposition to marble will always help, a good general growth pattern, good temperament and ability to finish are all important. A combination of all these factors will help Brahman cattle grade well enough to enter premium MSA markets.

“One of the points that separates Brahmans from the southern breeds is that they can achieve a good level of finish on lower quality inputs and can consistently grade year-round.”

Mr Noakes, who spent many years as a buyer for processors, said he believed discounts for fat cover had disincentivised producers from optimising meat quality. He said the introduction of MSA had turned the situation around.

“If you look at most processor grids allow for more fat than they did 10-years-ago,” he said.

“I think they have realised that fat is a necessary requirement for good meat quality and I think we have an opportunity to focus on finishing cattle properly as a result.”

Mr Noakes said this opportunity was particularly the case in grassfed MSA programs.

Birth weights yield interesting results

Birth weight results have also been an interesting part of the SMB project, ranging from a 72kg steer to an 8kg heifer which grew to successfully deliver a calf in the first year.

The average birth weight across all breeds involved in the project was 38kg. Dr Walmsley said there was big variations in all breeds.

“All breeds have a birth weight that is lower than 38kg and a birth weight that is higher – we are seeing massive amounts of variation within each breed,” Dr Walmsley said.

Dr Walmsley had also interrogated the crossbred data for birth weights, comparing the progeny of Brahman cows that had been crossed with an Angus or Hereford bull and Brahman bulls that had been put over Angus or Hereford cows.

He found that the average crossbred calf produced by a Brahman bull was 6kg heavier than a crossbred calf produced by a Brahman cow.

“If we have a Brahman bull, he actually needs a different EBV if he is mating to a Hereford than he would if he is mating to Brahman,” Dr Walmsley said.

Looking further into the crossbred data, Dr Walmsley the produced had also found bigger variations between steers and heifers when the crossbred came from a Brahman bull.