A University of Queensland researcher is evaluating the Indian Blackbuck antelope as a potential candidate for a new farming animal industry for sub-tropical and tropical Australia.
Associate Professor Keith Woodford of the University's Natural and Rural Systems Management Department at Gatton College is assembling scientific documentation on the performance of the antelope species, Antilope cervicapra.
Mr Woodford said before farming of the exotic species could be legalised in Australia, a rigorous evaluation and documentation process needed to determine if the species was appropriate for Australian conditions.
Farming is currently prevented by vertebrate pest regulations.
Mr Woodford's interest in the species was aroused in 1990 following a conversation with Gippsland, Victoria farmer and venison marketer Alan Rundell at an international wildlife ranching conference in Canada.
Mr Rundell is believed to be the first person in the world to try farming the small to medium-sized animals, whose natural range is the arid and semi-arid grasslands of India and Pakistan. Up to 150 years ago, millions of the antelope were found in India, before the demise of herd sizes due to destruction of natural habitat for villages and farming.
Keith Woodford worked with Alan Rundell for the next three years to document the performance under Victorian conditions. This work was funded by the Rural Industries Research and Development Corporation (RIRDC) and was published as an RIRDC research report.
Mr Rundell reported good consumer response to the tender antelope meat.
Mr Woodford also worked with CSIRO Division of Food Science and Technology colleagues Dr Robin Shorthose, Janet Stark and Grant Johnson to conduct objective measurements relating to antelope carcass composition and meat quality.
The research findings were published last year in a prestigious international journal, Meat Science, in the United Kingdom.
Gatton College two years ago bought 20 weaner females and bucks from Dubbo Zoo with RIRDC funding and currently has a herd of more than 40 animals as part of its evaluation program.
Mr Woodford said the evaluation to date had determined the species was easy to handle once yarded. The animals tended to stand still in a confined space and were easy to restrain.
Although they were small animals, with adults typically weighing only 30-40kg, the meat was of very high quality. Blackbuck antelope also had high reproduction rates and good growth rates, could adapt to arid and semi-arid regions typical of much farm land in Queensland, and were resistant to internal parasites in sub-tropical and tropical regions.
'In warmer areas, they do not need drenching or vaccination, they fawn every seven months, muster as a group, perform well on moderate quality feed and can cope with prolonged dry spells,' he said.
'They are much better suited to Queensland than Victoria.
'The two questions to be answered are whether farming of the species will be allowed in Australia and whether the small size of the animal will prove a disadvantage relative to processing costs.
'I believe the other advantages will outweigh the disadvantage of small size and if Australia declines to legalise farming of the species then the industry will develop in other countries.'
Mr Woodford said it was a common belief that antelope were closely related to deer, but the species was actually genetically closer to fellow horned animals, sheep and cattle.
He said Gatton College had conducted deer farming research in areas such as deer embryo transplants,and new deer food products, since 1984, and had established a herd of 700 red, Rusa and chittal deer. There are currently 21,000 deer and more than 100 deer farmers in Queensland.
Forty-five minute tours of the Darbalara farm near the College will be held during Open Day on Sunday, July 20 between 8.30am and 1pm. Mr Woodford will conduct talks on the College's programs in deer and antelope research during the tours, which form part of the Gatton College Open Day and centenary celebrations.
Media: For further information, contact Associate Professor Woodford, telephone 0754 601 320.
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