Billi Marshall

The genetic gain Australian beef might be leaving on the table 

Driving the endless roads between pregnancy testing jobs, Western Australian Billi Marshall has plenty of time to think of ways to beef up the quality of the herds she sees.

Witnessing it first-hand that the quickest way to improve commercial herds can be the adoption of reproductive technologies like artificial insemination and semen testing, practices often only embraced in the seedstock industry.

From her home base at Milo, WA, Billi’s experience in the industry has heightened her awareness of the possibility of making rapid herd quality improvements if only cattle producers could see its value.

Her research, “Utilising advanced breeding technology in a commercial beef operation”, will provide sound financial and practical reasons for considering the adoption of alternative reproductive methods and management.

Billi will travel to New Zealand, the United States, South Africa and South America to examine how these reproductive technologies are applied, and how challenges have been overcome to increase the adoption rate in those countries.

Ultimately, she wants to develop a framework to show how the economics stack up and deliver practical methods for producers to be more confident utilising such technology in their herd management. Billi will use her scholarship to determine how other countries have overcome barriers around labour, costs and skills to deliver potential solutions that pass the pub test.