A RAFT of Victorian research projects is aiming to create a genetics-led solution to dairy farm sustainability. Agriculture Victoria research director of genomics and cellular sciences Professor Jennie Pryce introduced the research at the Genetics Australia 2024 Today, Tomorrow and Beyond conference at Geelong, Vic, on March 18. She said Dr Rob Banks, from the University of New England, described genetic selection as a really cost-effective solution to almost any issue in the plant or animal breeding industries.
"This really sums up to me the power of genetics," Professor Pryce said. The dairy industry had used genetics to really great effect for more than half a century. Genetics had improved production efficiency and animal welfare and reduced the industry's environmental footprint.
But the big driver for genetic change had been a technology commercially introduced in 2008 - genomics, Professor Pryce said. "Now it is literally worth billions of dollars through plant and animal breeding globally," she said. Genomics had doubled the rate of genetic gain in dairy sires and had helped turnaround declining cow fertility.
Ginfo, a large-scale genotyping project using a reference population of more than 150 commercial dairy herds with excellent records, had boosted the development of genomics in Australia. Professor Pryce said genomics had underpinned many of the new breeding values, such as heat tolerance, health traits, gestational length and, most recently, the sustainability i.