Rennylea Angus' Lucinda Corrigan says time to focus on efficiency

Lucinda Corrigan, one of the most influential cattle breeders in Australia, has declared the "halcyon period of great prices, rain, grass and demand" is over and said producers must shift their focus to efficiency. 

Her operation, Rennylea Angus, is using the DNA data collected on 13,500 cattle at a cost of over $1 million, to superimpose feed efficiency onto existing traits designed around meat quality.

On the sideline of evokeAG in Perth on Tuesday, Ms Corrigan told APlus News that DNA data should have the dual benefits of lower emissions for the industry while improving the bottom line.

"When we look at the genetic description of our product, we've really nailed meat quality," she said.

"If we look at where the new investments are, they're really in lower methane emissions, lower emissions intensity and also improved feed efficiency.

"In our herd, we're focusing on fast growth, live light calves, fast growth, but not letting the cows get too big, because that also increases our emissions number."

Rennylea has taken a leading position on reproductive technologies, and said an encouraging development was the launch of a new semen sexing lab in Rockhampton.

"We've just run a big program ourselves, 700 cows in the program, and a really successful pregnancy rate," Ms Corrigan said.

"With sexed semen ... we've got a lot more flexibility now to produce certain products for certain end points."

Ms Corrigan also applauded the efforts by the beef industry to decarbonise, including the launch of a net-zero cooperative research centre.

"There's a real appetite within the industry to understand our emissions profile," Ms Corrigan said.

"It's all about the science, about discovering new ways of improving nitrogen efficiency and lowering methane emissions.

"I think it will be, it's a fantastic opportunity for industry."