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A Safe, Sustainable Future for Australian Agriculture
Reproduced with the permission of Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation
Agriculture has entered a new era where advanced, multidisciplinary sciences are harnessed to meet consumer demands for safe, ethically and sustainably produced foods, according to the incoming director of a key research institute.
Professor Matthew Morell, Director, QAAFI at University of Queensland – with sorghum in a glasshouse.
Professor Matthew Morell from the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation (QAAFI) at The University of Queensland, said agriculture had been criticised for its focus on productivity and profitability at the expense of sustainability.
“It is not enough to put food on the table; consumers want to know it is safe to eat, sustainably produced and providing them with adequate levels of nutrition,” Professor Morell said.
“This requires a much better understanding of, and response to, consumer perspectives and demands for sustainable and ethical food production.
“Provenance and traceability are not just marketing tools; they help us understand what agriculture’s footprint is and how we can produce the food we need while protecting ecosystems.”
He said food production spanned many disciplines, bringing together the traditional biological sciences as well as nanotechnology, artificial intelligence and machine learning, robotics and social sciences.
“There are innovations like plant-based ‘meats’, vertical farming and cropping in a controlled environments that are now part of agriculture.
“They are blurring the divide between city and country, as urban farming becomes a reality.”
Professor Morell said the GMO debate was one example where consumer uncertainty about technology meant a tool that has a role in a well-regulated system has been under-utilised.
“There are many important lessons to be learned about the GMO experience because new technologies will continue to come along and people will have legitimate questions about safety and about who owns or controls the production of food,” he said.
“Technology cannot be a solution that is isolated from these questions.
“We want to address the big picture challenges for agriculture, but we also know that we need to keep achieving productivity and profitability gains for producers.
“My ambition is to be able to stand in a paddock with a farmer in five years’ time and for them to be able to say their livelihood – their ability to employ people, and run a profitable enterprise sustainably – has been facilitated by the work we have done.
“If that happens, I will know that we will have done some great science for our agricultural industries.”
Professor Matthew Morell is Director of the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation, The University of Queensland. E. m.morell@uq.edu.au.
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Trace minerals are required for optimal growth, reproduction, and immunity. Optimising trace mineral status relying solely on oral supplements across a herd may fail because of variation in individual intake and reduced absorption due to antagonism of other ration components and minerals. The use of injectable trace mineral supplements has been associated with positive reproductive outcomes including improved conception rate, increased odds of pregnancy and greater final in calf rate. A study conducted on 2,168 dairy cows, administered injectable trace minerals, four weeks prior to calving and again four weeks prior to the start of mating showed treated animals had a 3.3 per cent greater final in-calf rate, and a reduced time from start of mating to conception, compared to control animals 1 . The Importance of B12 Dr Carl Eden, Technical Services Veterinarian with Boehringer Ingelheim says “Vitamin B12 is sometimes referred to as a ‘super vitamin’ because it is only required in very small amounts but vital to many essential metabolic pathways. However, demand for B12 can vary considerably during the year and we see serum levels of B12 fall at critical times, such as the first few months after calving.” Vitamin B12 contains cobalt, so deficiency in cobalt can lead to deficiency in vitamin B12 because ruminants get most of their B12 as a byproduct of ruminal fermentation where the bacteria in their rumen assemble B12 from cobalt for use by the cow. Sub-optimal trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at calving, mating, and drying off has been shown to negatively impact growth, reproduction, and immunity. Using a trace mineral injectable containing vitamin B12 can improve trace mineral and vitamin B12 status at these critical times. Marks-Min with Vitamin B12 – The Evidence In the largest trace element study to date, Marks-Min Injectable Trace Mineral with Vitamin B12 demonstrated remarkable results when compared to a reference trace mineral injection. “Given the differences between Marks-Min and other products on the market, we wanted to generate a compelling data set to demonstrate how effective it was compared to the pioneer product. We entrusted this work to a third-party research company” says Dr Eden. “We chose farms that were at the top of their game from a reproductive perspective. We made sure that the farms had no evidence of trace element or vitamin B12 deficiencies or excess.” Across all outcomes of interest, Marks-Min demonstrated clear non-inferiority when compared to the reference product. Outcomes measured included submission, pregnancy and conception rates, and six week in-calf rate. Marks-Min demonstrated it is highly suited as an alternative treatment to the reference product. Reference: 1. Hawkins, D., and B. V. S. Franklin. New Zealand Dairy Veterinarians Newsletter 24 (2007): 12-16 Company website: livestockfirst.com.au Company email address: CustomerCare.Australia@boehringer-ingelheim.com Company video: https://vimeo.com/1138807630?fl=pl&fe=cm
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