CSIRO has a long history of working with the livestock sector to improve the productivity, profitability and sustainability of livestock systems. Our research station in NSW's temperate environment contributes to the sustainability of Australia's livestock production systems and ensures that livestock are managed through ethical and socially acceptable practices that reduce diseases, stress and pain in farm animals. We also have our Lansdown research station in north Queensland that works with the tropical beef industry and our site at Floreat in Western Australia that focuses on sheep and cattle production in mixed farming systems.
About the site
- temperate climate with summer rainfall
- 1,510 Ha (~3,730 Acre)
- rainfall 866mm on average
- predominantly pastures; limited cropping for livestock feed (hay, silage)
- currently stocking ~170 cattle (86 cows + followers) and 5,790 sheep (3,119 ewes + followers).
Research areas
Animal Welfare
- virtual fencing for cattle and sheep
- Numnuts pain relief system for lambs at marking time
- benchmarking beef cattle welfare
- behaviour and welfare of laying hens in alternative housing systems
- assessment of livestock emotional states.
Livestock Genetics and Genomics
Health and resilience
- Making informed destocking decisions to increase drought resilience
- Preparing a plan for the future of weed pest and disease control in agriculture
- ImmuneDex research EBV for cattle/ sheep immune competence
- eGrazor, measuring cattle pasture intake
- EweWatch – monitoring lambing related behaviours in ewes
- dual purpose crops for lamb production
- flystrike management and vaccine development
- assessing the value of genomic tools for drought resilience.
Livestock facilities and laboratories
- yarding facilities for sheep and cattle
- animal house
- wool shed
- facilities for housed lambing, including video camera set up
- feed intake facility + walk over weighing
- physiology, immunology, molecular biology and microscopy laboratories.