Dr Kath Donoghue

Kath grew up on a mixed farming enterprise, and developed her interest in beef genetics through involvement in her family’s Hereford stud. Kath obtained her Masters (2001) and PhD (2003) at the University of Georgia, USA, and following her postgraduate studies was employed at the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit, where her research activities included investigations into the feasibility of international genetic evaluation for several different cattle breeds. In 2008 Kath commenced employment with NSW Department of Primary Industries at Trangie Agricultural Research Centre, and has been based at Trangie ever since. Kath’s research has included the genetics of feed utilisation by cattle, in particular the relationship between age at puberty and feed efficiency; genetics of body composition in beef females (Beef CRC Maternal Productivity project) and genetic technologies to reduce methane emissions in beef cattle. Her current research projects include the Southern MultiBreed project, where the key objective is to enable beef producers across Australia to directly compare bulls of different breeds for all BREEDPLAN traits, and assess their genetic merit irrespective of hide colour. The most important output of this project will be the development of the necessary head to head comparisons in order to have multi-breed BREEDPLAN EBVs in Australia for all major temperate breeds.