As written by RACHEL SIMMONDS, Weekly Times, 20 August 2025
BEEF 2025: SPECIAL 8-PAGE REPORT Instead of installing solar panels on his farm, seedstock producer Jon Wright has gone straight to the source of his carbon emissions.
Coota Park Blue-E principal Jon Wright from Woodstock NSW has tested his bulls on feed efficiency for 28 years, or “the longest time in the world”.
But feed efficiency testing in Australia for seedstock producers has been a slow burn.
Mr Wright has eight feeders, with 10 bulls tested per feeder. He said they could potentially test 240 bulls a year, after the $250,000 initial investment.
He believed there were other places in Australia currently testing, including feeding facilities. He said one facility in the United States, Leachman Cattle at Colorado, invested in 300 feeders to test up to 9000 cattle.
“The question I ask, because we’ve done it for so long and can see the difference it can make and that it doesn’t effect profitability and production, ‘why aren’t these other studs testing for it?’,” he said.
“Especially when there’s a difference we can make in our emissions will be really, really important as a story to show we’re trying to make a difference.” Mr Wright manages 700 breeding cows with Angus, Shorthorn and Simmental, and said 70 per cent of emissions were from cows.
“People ask me ‘why don’t we have solar panels on our roof?’ It’s because most of my emissions I’m responsible for are coming from the cows so I’m much better putting my money into my cows than putting solar panels on my roof,” he said.
He started introducing Bos indicus genetics to the herd three years ago, and continued to introduce new genetics to keep the herd’s genetic pool fresh. He said he wanted to breed bulls more-suited to northern markets, and found it easier to use incoming genetics with a growing interest in feed efficiency testing globally.
Mr Wright said there had been a 15-20 per cent improvement in his herd for feed efficiency, and a 20 per cent reduction in the amount of feed animals used.
“We’re selecting them to grow as fast as possible with as little feed,” he said. “The relationship between an animal, how much it eats and how much methane it produces is just about a straight line.
“It’s really hard to quantify, but it’s a bit like breeding for marbling, you just have to trust the figures and the information that you’re improving it in your herd, until you kill the animal.” Vytelle, the developer of a residual feed intake system, Australia and New Zealand regional sales manager Andrew Donoghue said seedstock producers were now the main users of the system compared to 13 years ago, when 75 per cent of users were research groups and 23 per cent corporate use. In 2025, 32 per cent of users were research groups, 47 per cent were seedstock producers, 11 per cent were corporate and 11 per cent were feedlots.
“It is a slow burn, there’s nothing new about the efficiency trait, it’s been around for a while and the efficiency trait has a direct effect on profitability so it’s really important,” he said. “The more farms that are doing it, the more people are seeing and talking about it.” Mr Donoghue said Australia and the US were leading the charge for feed efficiency testing systems, followed by Kazakhstan adopting the technology, and southern Africa.
“The importance is that you’re doing more with less, whether it’s more cattle on less country, or the same country but less intensity to give you more of a buffer for seasonal conditions,” he said.
Te Mania Angus Merrang farm manager Edward Gubbins said they had tested about 1000 animals across two bull cohorts. He said they were currently in the data capturing stage, but had found sires with both feed efficiency and favourable carcass traits.
“Any record is valuable but because of how widely used Te Mania genetics are, it’s beneficial to the industry,” he said.
Mr Gubbins said it was crucial to understand efficiency and cost management. “There’s a huge correlation there as well with environmental impacts; net feed intake and its relevance to emissions is a double-edged sword,” he said.
Mr Gubbins said it would be promising to see greater collaboration with feed efficiency testing among the beef industry, feedlots and seedstock producers. “The more research and funding on these things the better,” he said.