BRAHMAN breeders have quickly seized on the potential opportunity to fast-track their selection of polled animals without affecting other traits using the latest DNA test for polledness in Bos Indicus, released during Brisbane Show.
Cloncurry district Brahman breeder Rodger Jefferis said the ability to distinguish heterozygous and homozygous polls at a young age was a major breakthrough which could greatly change the composition of the Brahman industry over time.
While there were currently less than 10 percent polls in evidence among Australia's Grey Brahman herd (a little higher among Reds) he suspected the numbers could easily grow to 50pc over the next 20 years, as a direct result of testing.
That would have a strong trickle-down effect, with consequent improvement in animal and human welfare and safety, reduced bruising, and more efficient loading rates in livestock transport.
"We plan to use the test for upcoming sale animals, and I would fully expect to see a premium paid in the near future for Brahman bulls tested as homozygous polls," Mr Jefferis said.
"It's inevitable there will be Brahman sale catalogues later this year or next, containing test information on polledness for the benefit of those buyers seeking to improve their ratios of polled-to-horned cattle."
Mr Jefferis, a former president of the Australian Brahman Breeders Association, and wife Lorena do not currently breed a lot of polls in their large Elrose registered herd near Cloncurry - principally because of the difficulty in doing so in Brahman cattle.
However, they plan to apply more selection pressure in future, testing weaners to determine which ones to work on with, and which to avoid. Selection within female lines for polledness, based on the DNA test, would also become a higher priority.
Having said that, polls have topped the annual Elrose bull sale two years in a row, reinforcing the strength of demand among northern cattlemen for good polled herd improvers.
Asked about the commonly-held belief that selection for polledness in Brahmans would have a negative impact on scale and bone in cattle, Mr Jefferis said that was always a risk when breeders applied selection pressure for a single trait.
"I know in our own breeding program, we don't necessarily try to breed polls, but simply keep shifting polled bulls in and out. We've never specifically tried to breed poll-to-poll, and that is one big reason why this test will be so valuable to us in future," he said.
"There are obviously more good polls in the Red Brahman cattle than the Greys, but there's certainly enough in both phenotypes to make selective breeding for polledness worthwhile.
"We just have to find those bulls that have commercial value in every other way - fertility, carcase attributes and adaptation - but which are also polled."
Mr Jefferis said the frightening thing was that some breeders might be tempted to chase polledness at the expense of all else.
"There are some well-known examples of polled breeders in the past who basically bred themselves out of business, with cattle becoming smaller and more fine-boned because they ignored all other traits in the pursuit of breeding off the horns.
"They were probably 30 or 40 years ahead of their time in having a go, but of course they did not have the advantage of access to the new DNA test," he said.
* Elrose will not hold its annual Cloncurry bull sale this year, instead selling bulls including the 2010 elite sire prospects in the paddock, and holding some young bulls over to a sale marking the 100th anniversary of Elrose being held in May next year.
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