Beef life and beach life, a good mix
From a very young age Sam Harburg knew he wanted to be involved in the beef industry, despite his urban upbringing. As a Consultant and Board Director for AbacusBio, the Australian has been based on the Sunshine Coast since last year, after first joining the company in 2019 where he called Dunedin home for more than half a decade.
Are you from a farming background?
No, I was a city kid growing up in Brisbane, but spent all my school holidays out on farms in southern Queensland. As far back as I can remember I had a strong interest in agriculture, I never really considered anything else as a future career. When I finished high school, I took a gap year and worked on a large sheep and cattle station in Western Queensland which gave me a good practical base before I started University.
Tell us a bit about your role with AbacusBio.
Now back in Australia, there is a focus on growing the team in this country. I’ve been involved in a lot of work within the beef industry in New Zealand and Australia in the areas of selection indexes and breeding objectives for Beef + Lamb New Zealand, as well as working with key beef breeding associations in Australia, and offering breeding support for four significant beef supply chains in New Zealand and Australia.
What trends have been steady or changing throughout this time?
The important breeding traits people are looking for are changing. This has come from social license pressures, around the environmental footprint as well as welfare traits. Changing market sentiments are also significant drivers, for example traits like marbling are growing in importance as these can help differentiate carcasses based on eating quality, attracting significant price premiums. Globally, we can’t compete with South America in the commodity segment, so we need to breed for an animal that commands the highest value and best eating quality within market segments that also demand a high level of product integrity and provenance. Whilst there has been a growing focus on sustainability within Australia and New Zealand, this isn’t necessarily replicated in every market around the world – this is tricky for industry when the vast majority of our beef is exported to so many countries with divergent priorities and preferences.
Technology must be a huge part of your job, what do you see?
Genomics has helped improve the ability to collect data for hard to measure characteristics such as carcass traits, methane and feed intake. We are also seeing a lot of innovative new technologies emerge that are helping us to identify and collect data for other attributes, for example more complex measures of fertility and some health and resilience traits.
So this links into breeding objectives?
Yes. Any breeding objective we launch for a breed association or a client like Beef + Lamb New Zealand incorporates many of the key traits that are implemented within the genetic evaluations delivered by these clients to their industry members. The range of traits incorporated within these tools are changing as new traits are developed. Once our tools are developed, these get adopted across bull breeder herds. We then see the impact of these tools multiplied through their commercial clients via the bulls that are presented for sale to these clients. It all makes sense in a bigger picture context.
Has anything surprised you in the beef genetic breeding world?
Well, if you had told me 10 years ago I’d be doing so much work in Wagyu, I would have said that would be a surprise. I honestly didn’t predict the growth in this industry over the last decade. Wagyu beef needs a significantly longer period in the feedlot, 450 days versus 100 to 150 for most other cattle. This means a much higher-cost animal to produce, but what’s been proven over the last 10 years has been that consumers appreciate the unique marbling attributes and are prepared to pay a significant premium. The fact that this premium has been maintained despite the growth in the industry suggests more and more people are seeking Wagyu as a preferred, luxury product.
What interesting collaborations are keeping you busy?
Firstly, with my New Zealand colleague Matt Newman, Senior Economist for AbacusBio, we attended the Adaptation Futures Conference in mid-October, in Christchurch. A recent study commissioned by the Agricultural Emissions Centre and conducted by us here at AbacusBio, utilised a whole-farm-system modelling approach to explore the impact of improved animal health management on whole-farm emissions. This was undertaken via case studies of key animal health conditions impacting both the sheep and cattle sectors within New Zealand. We presented a master class on the potential for improvement of animal health to contribute to reduced greenhouse gases. The invitation to participate in the master class came from the Ministry of Primary Industries. The overall focus was on animal health, and the need to adapt to climate change from an animal health perspective.
Secondly, for the past few months AbacusBio has been working with Meat and Livestock Australia, on a project to investigate independently electronicID (eID) device retention rates in Australian goats, collecting data across a network of 15-20 goat farms in New South Wales, South Australia, and Queensland. For the goat industry, eID tags became mandatory on 1 January 2025. The initial challenge has been the significant cost on goat producers, and some unverified industry perceptions of poor retention rates. We want to better understand factors that contribute to good and bad tag retention. MLA has its AGM and Updates conference in Adelaide in November, we’ve been invited to showcase our work at the conference.
Goat is the smallest of the red meat industries behind beef and sheep in Australia, but it is growing. There is a greater focus on managed rangeland and intensive goat farming, as well as fibre and dairy goats. The industry is definitely going through a growth phase and Australia is already the largest exporter of goat meat.
You can reach Sam at sharburg@abacusbio.com.
