"Chiswick", the CSIRO's Pastoral Research Laboratory, which today celebrates its 50th Jubilee, is the home of a scientific revolution which has made Australia a world leader in sheep and wool production.
Advances in livestock breeding, nutrition, management and care, pasture improvement and sustainability flowed from "Chiswick's" base in the New England Tablelands in NSW. Much of the knowledge and many of the products derived there have world-wide application, "value adding" to this country's pool of intellectual property and international contributions.
What began with a few sick sheep - sick, because existing native pastures were too poor to nourish them properly - led ultimately to dramatic gains in pasture quality and livestock production, better ways to control parasites, nutritional deficiencies and diseases, and high-technology breeding methods.
The controlled release device, a novel delivery system for use in sheep and cattle, was developed by staff of CSIRO Animal Production at "Chiswick" to deliver essential nutritional supplements to sheep and cattle as well as to control bloat and improve productivity in cattle - one of scores of the Lab's discoveries and scientific advances which have added hundreds of millions of dollars to national income over the past half-century.
The controlled release system is now being used by others as a novel way to administer drugs, worm control treatments and nutritional supplements to sheep and cattle automatically. The system developed at the Lab is on the market in Australia and worldwide, containing different treatments under a host of commercial brand names.
"The bloat capsule contains a substance, monensin, which makes the digestive microbes in the animal's rumen, or stomach, much more efficient turning more of the animal's feed into meat or wool and less into wasteful gases," says Dr Keith Ellis, one of CSIRO Animal Production's senior scientists.
The controlled release capsule is just one of many achievements by scientists working at "Chiswick" over the past 50 years.
The lab has also been in the front line of the national war on worms, pioneering the control strategies now in use by graziers in all States of Australia which aim to overcome the growing problem of drug-resistance in parasites.
The Pastoral Research Lab evolved breeding strategies that have helped woolgrowers across Australia lift the quantity and quality of their wool clips, and successfully transferred a merino gene for twin lambs to the prime lamb industry.
The PRL was a pivotal player in the revolution to improve Australia's most valuable asset - its pastures, which each year earn the nation more than $10 billion. "Chiswick" scientists developed better pasture plants, improved soil and pasture management, strategic use of fertilisers and ways to remedy micronutrient deficiencies.
Though its origins lie in the 1930s, the Pastoral Research Lab was actually established in 1947 on land purchased from the estate of the late F.J.White through the Wool Industry Trust Fund. Through much of its life, the laboratory benefited from close links not only to the grazing industry but also the University of New England nearby.
Key to its success was the exceptional range of scientific skills it could bring to bear on any farm problem - plant and animal science, soil science, biochemistry, veterinary science, reproductive science, nutritional science, computers, genetics, parasitology, microbiology to name a few.
Today the Pastoral Research Laboratory continues to serve the grazing industries and is a participant in two national Cooperative Research Centres the CRC for Beef and Cattle and the CRC for Premium Quality Wool.
More information:
David Paull, CSIRO Pastoral Research Lab 02 6776 1406
Dr Keith Ellis, CSIRO Animal Production 02 6776 1350
Pat Wilson, CSIRO Animal Production 02 9840 2741