AGBU invites you to celebrate 50 years of genetic improvement with industry leaders, innovators, and the livestock breeding community as we reflect on the past and shape the future.
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Join leading researchers and industry professionals to celebrate the impact of AGBU's contribution to animal breeding and envisage the future
Celebrating 50 years of Genetic Improvement.
Be part of a landmark celebration marking 50 years of excellence in genetic improvement. Bringing together leading Australian and international experts, researchers, industry innovators, alumni, students, and livestock breeding professionals, this special event will reflect on past achievements while exploring the opportunities and challenges that will shape the future of livestock breeding.
Insights, Innovation and Collaboration
The program will feature keynote presentations, expert panels, and the launch of Project Cygnet, highlighting the latest advances in genetic improvement and livestock breeding. Attendees will gain valuable insights from world-renowned speakers, discover emerging research and technologies, and engage in discussions that will help drive future innovation across the industry
Networking and Shaping the Future
Alongside a dynamic conference program, two dedicated networking events will provide opportunities to reconnect with colleagues, exchange ideas, and build new partnerships. Whether you are an industry leader, researcher, student, or practitioner, this event offers a unique chance to be part of the conversations shaping the next generation of genetic improvement.
Get event updates
Don't miss your chance to be part of this special event — email "I want to know more" to agbu@une.edu.au
Program Overview
Monday 12 October
Welcome and AGBU50 birthday party
An informal evening to reconnect with past acquaintances and make new ones.
Venue: Bellevue Grandstand, UNE
Time: 5:30 pm - 9:30 pm
Tuesday 13 October
Full-day symposium featuring Australian and international speakers, plus two expert panel sessions.
- Includes lunch, morning and afternoon tea.
Venue: Lecture Theatre EM1, UNE
Time: 8:15 am - 5:00 pm
It's not only fashion that has changed since the 70s
Time
Session
Theme
8:15 am - 8:30 am
1
Tea & coffee
8:30 am - 8:45 am
2
Welcome to AGBU's 50th Anniversary Steve Miller
The impact of 50 years of work
8:45 am - 9:30 am
3
OVIS and BREEDPLAN - AGBU's National Genetic Evaluation Systems
Daniel Brown and David Johnston (AGBU)
9:30 am - 10:15 am
4
Impact in the red meat industries
Peta Bradley and Andrew Byrne (MLA)
10:15 am - 10:30 am
Morning tea
10:30 am - 11:30 am
5
Expert Panel 1: Breeder impact - what matters to breeders
11:30 am - 12:30 pm
6
Meeting future needs. Methane / Multi-breed / Industry challenges
12:30 pm - 1:30 pm
Lunch
Where to now?
1:30 pm - 2:00 pm
7
Future contributions of animal genetics and breeding to food security
Alfred de Vries (Gates Foundation)
2:00 pm - 2:30 pm
8
Unifying a century-old model and emerging biotech - what's next for genomic selection?
Ben Hayes (University of Queensland)
2:30 pm - 3:00 pm
9
Precision, Progress and Pigs: How engineering thinking is reshaping global breeding
Abe Huisman (Hendrix Genetics)
3:00 pm - 3:30 pm
Afternoon tea
3:30 pm - 4:00 pm
10
Sensor-based phenotypes for genomic selection
Jennie Pryce (Agriculture Victoria & La Trobe University)
4:00 pm - 5:00 pm
11
Expert Panel 2: The future
Celebration dinner and launch of Project Cygnet
- Includes a live fundraising auction.
Venue: UNE Bistro
Time: 6:00 pm - 10:00 pm
Wednesday 14 October
Join experienced researchers Sonja Dominik, Jennie Pryce, and Toni Reverter for an interactive workshop featuring panel discussions, mentoring roundtables, and a guided career planning session.
Open to undergraduate students, HDR candidates, and young scientists — gain practical insights, build professional connections, and develop your career
roadmap.
Venue: UNE
Time: 9:00 am - 12:30 pm
Speakers
Meet some of our speakers:
Peta Bradley
Genetics Business Development Manager, Sheep Genetics, Meat & Livestock Australia.
Peta Bradley is the Genetics Business Development Manager for Sheep Genetics, the genetic evaluation service of the Australian sheep and goat industries.
She has worked in MLA for over 9 years and has held various roles within the MLA Livestock Genetics team. This includes roles within Sheep Genetics and across the Beef and Sheep Genetics R&D portfolio.
Peta completed a Bachelor of Rural Science at the University of New England in 2017 with honours in Livestock Genetics. Peta is based on a property near Armatree in Central West New South Wales where her family run a commercial and seedstock sheep operation alongside a cropping enterprise.
Her passion includes enabling producers to access Australia's world-leading genetic evaluation service and using it to drive meaningful results on-farm.
Daniel Brown
Professorial Research Fellow, Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit.
Daniel Brown is a Principal Scientist at AGBU at the University of New England in Armidale. He is part of the team responsible for the routine estimation of Australian Sheep Breeding Values (ASBVs) for Sheep Genetics, which are provided to ram breeders, as well as the ongoing research and development of the genetic evaluation system. Daniel has been working in this field for over 27 years, with a primary focus on the genetic improvement of sheep.
His primary focus during his more than 27 years at AGBU has been the genetic improvement of sheep across Australia’s diverse sheep population. His work focuses on understanding genetic traits and their relative importance to sheep biology and enterprise profitability. He develops systems to ensure accurate estimates of genetic merit, which are essential for accelerating genetic progress and, ultimately, improving the profitability and sustainability of sheep enterprises.
Daniel also owns and operates a small sheep and beef operation with his family in their spare time.
Andrew Byrne
Program Manager - Genetics Commercial Services, Meat & Livestock Australia.
Andrew Byrne is Program Manager
– Genetics Commercial Services at MLA.
In this role, Andrew is responsible for the
overall performance of the genetics commercial services within MLA’s interest,
including Sheep Genetics, BREEDPLAN, and emerging genomic tools, through
implementing appropriate strategies, business models and commercial delivery
pipelines.
Born and raised on a mixed cattle, sheep and cropping enterprise in southern NSW, Andrew has spent more than 20 years in various roles associated with the delivery of genetic improvement technologies to the beef, sheep, dairy and goat industries, both in Australia and abroad, with roles at Neogen Australasia, Angus Australia, and the Agricultural Business Research Institute.
Andrew has held several industry positions, including Chair of the BREEDPLAN Technical
Liaison Group, and has served as a member of both the BREEDPLAN Advisory Committee and the National Livestock Genetics Consortium.
Alfred de Vries
Senior Program Officer for Animal Production, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
Alfred de Vries works at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation as Senior Program Officer for Animal Production. He leads the Foundation’s efforts in R&D for Animal Production (genetics, reproduction, farm management) aimed at increasing livestock and fish productivity in Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia.
Alfred has extensive experience in animal breeding across many geographies from his time at international breeding companies (CRV, Topigs Norsvin and PIC). He had management positions in R&D, technical service and operations.
He obtained his MSc and PhD degrees in Animal Sciences from Wageningen University.
Alfred was a visiting scientist at AGBU in 1992.
Ben Hayes
Professorial Research Fellow at the Queensland Alliance for Agriculture and Food Innovation.
Professor Hayes has extensive research experience in genetic improvement of livestock, crop, pasture and aquaculture species, with a focus on integration of genomic information into breeding programs. Professor Hayes has led many large scale projects which have successfully implemented genomic technologies in livestock and cropping industries around the world.
Professor Hayes was chairman of the 1000 bull genomes project, which ultimately resulted in SNP and genotype catalogues from more than 6000 whole genome sequenced cattle, which led to many new discoveries.
Author of more than 300 journal papers, including in Nature Genetics, Nature Reviews Genetics, and Science, contributing to statistical methodology for genomic, microbiome and metagenomic profile predictions, quantitative genetics including knowledge of genetic mechanisms underlying complex traits, and development of bioinformatics pipelines for sequence analysis.
Abe Huisman
Director of Product Excellence at Hendrix Genetics Swine.
Dr Abe Huisman trained as a geneticist and is currently Director of Product Excellence at Hendrix Genetics Swine, where he leads research and development for the swine division.
He completed his PhD in Genetics at Wageningen University & Research in 2002, one of the world's leading institutions in animal breeding science.
Over the course of his career, Abe has held roles at Wageningen University & Research, AGBU, and Hendrix Genetics — a trajectory that spans both academia and global industry. He has authored several publications, with expertise spanning animal breeding, quantitative genetics, genomics, and genetic analysis.
In his current role he provides leadership on breeding goals and trait selection, with a focus on animal welfare, productivity, and health. His research interests include genomic selection, inbreeding management, and innovative approaches such as CRISPR-based solutions to animal welfare challenges in swine production.
Abe spent three years working as a Research Scientist at AGBU from December 2003 to December 2006.
David Johnston
Principal Scientist, Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit.
David has been a beef cattle geneticist at AGBU for over 30 years. During that time, David has been responsible for the design and management of several large beef cattle breeding projects and the implementation of the research into BREEDPLAN.
David is the project leader of a large MLA-funded breeding project in Queensland and the Northern Territory that is developing enhanced genetic evaluation of female reproduction traits through the implementation of new genomic selection techniques in tropically-adapted beef breeds.
David spends considerable time interacting with the beef industry and has been an invited speaker at scientific forums, both nationally and internationally.
Jennie Pryce
Research Director for Genomics and Cellular Sciences at Agriculture Victoria.
Professor Jennie Pryce is Research Director for Genomics and Cellular Sciences at Agriculture Victoria (DEECA) and a Professor at La Trobe University. She is an internationally recognised leader in livestock genomics, with expertise spanning quantitative genetics, genomic prediction, phenomics and the translation of genomic technologies into industry and government impact.
Jennie leads large, multidisciplinary research programs applying genomics, computational biology and advanced phenotyping to improve productivity, resilience and sustainability across livestock systems. Her research integrates next‑generation sequencing, large‑scale data and predictive modelling to deliver decision‑ready tools for breeding and management, particularly in the context of animal health, climate adaptation and emissions reduction. While her career has been strongly shaped by dairy genetics, her focus is increasingly on cross‑livestock genomic solutions with broad applicability across animal industries.
In her leadership role, Jennie oversees state‑of‑the‑art capability in genomics, phenomics, bioinformatics and scientific computing, and drives strategic partnerships with industry, government and international collaborators. She is widely recognised for bridging deep science with policy and industry delivery, and for building collaborative, future‑focused research ecosystems that accelerate the adoption of genomic innovation.
Project Cygnet
will be officially launched in October.
Discover the story behind the project, learn how you can help shape its future, and contribute to Andrew Swan's lasting legacy with a donation.
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