Dedicated to beef research: Spyglass and Brian Pastures are ‘research ready’
Beef research facilities play an important role in taking scientific concepts and lab proven hypotheses into the practical world, answering questions such as: ‘How does it stack up in the paddock?’ In Queensland, we are fortunate to have two of these centres, Brian Pastures and Spyglass Beef Research Facilities at our fingertips.
Brian Pastures
Brian Pastures Research Facility is a 2140 hectare property about 18km south-east of Gayndah. The property is owned by AgForce and leased and operated by the Department of Primary Industries (DPI). An old property by Queensland standards, it was part of country originally selected by Humphreys and Hubert in 1845, when it ran sheep, until it was found that black speargrass was detrimental to wool production, welfare and meat quality. The Australian Meat Board purchased Brian Pastures in 1952 for pasture research and the management was vested in the DPI.
The research undertaken in the years since has been extensive. Fast forward to today, and with over 70 years of research projects under its belt, Brian Pastures Research Facility has the ability to host research on both native and sown pastures, incorporate the use of agtech, and to investigate feed and supplement responses in a 44-pen feedlot complex.
Spyglass Beef Research Facility
Relatively new by comparison, Spyglass Beef Research Facility came about following the purchase of two adjoining properties ‘Spyglass’ and ‘Lucky Break’ in 2011. ‘Spyglass’ is a 38,221 hectare property approximately 110 kilometres north of Charters Towers. Owned and operated by the DPI, the property is typical of extensive breeding property in North Queensland.
The first herd of cattle came to Spyglass in 2012 when nearly 500 weaner heifers moved from the department’s former Swan’s Lagoon Research Station, near Ayr.
In the years following, there has been considerable and ongoing investment to transform the commercial cattle properties into a ‘research ready’ facility with controlled environments suitable for running trials and experiments. This included establishing or improving fences, yards and water infrastructure.
Current direction
The research and demonstrations undertaken by DPI and collaborators at these research facilities aims to increase productivity, profitability and sustainability for beef producers by addressing key industry research and development questions. Areas of research include:
- beef cattle genetics
- reproduction
- pasture improvement
- growth
- welfare and husbandry
- agtech
- effective grazing management, including land and gully remediation
- greenhouse gas emissions
- silvo-pastoralism.
To learn more about the research facilities or the current projects being undertaken onsite, check out their webpages: