Cattle producers will soon be able to have heifer calves produce their own calves before they are 12 months of age, according to Dr Michael D'Occhio of CSIRO Tropical Agriculture.

Dr D'Occhio was speaking at the CSIRO Livestock Improvement Industry Colloquium in Rockhampton. He said that the technology, known as FAST Breeding, is developing quickly and is being tested with northern Australian cattle.

He said at present through natural breeding the average cow can expect to have six to ten calves. By using multiple ovulation and embryo transfer, roughly 50 calves can be produced from a cow.

"Using the method of FAST Breeding, the number of offspring a heifer can produce could be many times that of current breeding methods," he said.

Dr D'Occhio explained that at the time of birth, the ovaries of heifer calves have in excess of 100,000 primordial follicles, each containing an oocyte (egg).

"The single outstanding reproductive advantage of heifers, compared with bulls, is that viable oocytes can be recovered from heifer calves before puberty, and fertilised in the laboratory to produce embryos."

He said clearly not all of the primordial follicles are accessible but enough are to allow selection; an average of 20 to 30 good quality oocytes were recovered from Brahman heifer calves aged 3 to 6 months after stimulation.

Dr D'Occhio explained that when combined in a CSIRO package known as SMART Breeding, embryos can in future be screened for genes or gene markers for sex, growth and product quality traits before transfer to recipient cows.

More information from: Mr Yance Jones (07) 3377 2703 or Dr Michael D'Occhio , (079) 360 174