Angus Australia in leadership position

For Angus Australia, 2025 was one of those defining years, a year larger and more consequential than most.

At a recent board meeting, director Ed Archer said Angus was number one — “what do we do now”?

“Our success at the World Angus Forum certainly reinforced Angus Australia’s leadership position, if indeed it needed reinforcing,” he said.

“At the same time, the broader industry continues to shift rapidly.

“There has been heightened media attention on genetic evaluation systems, and during this period Angus Australia launched Angus GenetiQ — a major innovation for the breed and a significant strategic milestone for the organisation.”

The World Angus Forum was held in Brisbane from May 7-8 at the Brisbane Convention and Exhibition Centre, marking a significant milestone for Australian Angus and the global beef industry.

Bringing together more than 1000 delegates from around the world under the theme Beef for a Better Planet, the forum showcased the strength, diversity and global relevance of the Angus breed.

This event followed the highly successful Angus EXPO in Tamworth.

Both events brought strong attendance from WA, and there was enthusiastic participation and representation of WA Angus and their genetics.

The commitment of WA breeders was evident and greatly valued.

In many ways, 2025 was a year of paradox for Angus Australia.

The celebrations included the World Angus Forum, the Angus EXPO, and the World Angus Youth Competition.

These events were powerful reminders of the depth of the Angus breed and the strength of the community behind it.

The “Angus family” came together in meaningful and memorable ways.

Yet during this same period, many members faced significant pressure, both personally and within their businesses.

Drought conditions were confronting.

Fortunately, spring rainfall brought some relief, and cattle markets have continued their steady improvement.

As this year started, some members have again been impacted by fire, resulting in the loss of pasture, livestock and infrastructure.

Sadly, there is rarely a time when some part of Angus Australia membership has not been affected by natural disaster or hardship.

Angus GenetiQ

A key transformation late in 2025 was the launch of Angus GenetiQ — a completely new genetic evaluation system for Angus cattle, developed internally by Angus Australia during the past four years.

In September, the Angus Australia board resolved to implement Angus GenetiQ to its commercial genomic products — Heifer SELECT and Steer SELECT.

Angus GenetiQ is entirely separate software from Breedplan, built using a different modelling framework.

It delivers significant efficiencies in run time, frequency, cost, and the speed at which research can be translated into usable traits.

Importantly, it demonstrates strong alignment with TransTasman Angus Cattle Evaluation, with average correlations of 0.85–0.88 — sufficient to provide confidence and robustness.

Key benefits include fast run times, lower overhead costs, more frequent evaluations, faster research-to-market delivery, and capacity to trial and implement new traits within Angus Australia.

Angus GenetiQ is already being used to calculate mature body condition score and mature cow height estimated breeding values within TACE, and underpins emerging research breeding values such as coat type and Meat Standards Australia marbling.

This represents one of the most significant innovations for the Angus breed in many years, and we are extremely proud of the work undertaken to bring it to life.

Angus GenetiQ will operate in parallel with Breedplan, and in early 2026 members will be able to view both Angus GenetiQ breeding values and TACE EBVs for their animals.

Commenting on the launch, Angus Australia chief executive Scott Wright said the organisation had deliberately taken a long-term view.

“We made a commitment five years ago to ensure Angus producers would control our own future,” he said.

“While parts of the genetic evaluation landscape are undergoing change, Angus GenetiQ provides our members with an independent, breed-specific genetic evaluation platform that allows us to adapt, innovate, and respond to future challenges.

“In 2025, we were also excited to launch Registered Angus, a new campaign designed to highlight the genetic and commercial advantages of purchasing registered Angus bulls.”

Mr Wright said in addition, The Angus Table podcast returned featuring in-depth conversations focused on knowledge-sharing, innovation and profitability for Angus producers.