By mid-1997 leading Australian cattle producers will be able to buy a computer tool to help them create designer cattle for the tropics.

Dr Scott Newman and Dr Terry Stewart at the Tropical Beef Centre, a joint venture between CSIRO, DPI and CQU at Rockhampton, have been working on a decision support system for cattle producers called HotCross.

They are developing a computer software package which enables cattle producers to predict the performance of specific breeds of cattle -- or genotypes-- in different environments in hot climates.

The database will afford cattle producers the opportunity of developing a strategic cattle breeding program without the expensive and time consuming trial and error practises involved in live cattle breeding programs.

Dr Stewart, CSIRO McMaster Fellow, explained how the decision support system worked. "The performance of specific breeds can be evaluated simply by entering a description of the environment in which the intended cattle will be bred."

He said after the environmental entries have been made the breeders then chose which specific breeds and crosses they want to evaluate. Hotcross uses its environmental and genetic databases to predict the performance of cattle in the specific environment. This will allow the grazier the opportunity to capitalise on the limits of his environment while maintaining optimum breeding numbers. In effect the database runs a simulation of the success of certain cattle breeds in different environments.

The project has already developed an alpha test version of the final database and is currently having it trialed by a test group made up of 50 cattle producers and industry representatives.

Dr Newman said the alpha test version does have faults and that it does not contain the economic module set to be installed into the final version.

He said the aim of the alpha test versions is to improve the user friendly qualities of the database for cattle producers as well as to iron out other problems that they hadn't yet come across.

More information: Yance Jones Ph (07)3377 0394