Alf Collins Snr, one of the most innovative beef cattle breeders in the world, was awarded the prestigious Helen Newton Turner Medal for 2017.

The Helen Newton Turner Medal perpetuates the memory of an outstanding sheep geneticist and a fine Australian. The Medal is awarded to provide encouragement and inspiration to those engaged in animal genetics.

The Medal is awarded to provide encouragement and inspiration to those engaged in animal genetics.
Building on the foundations established by his father, Alf Collins Snr has applied enormous dedication, careful recording and rigorous focus on breeding for profitability, to the continuous improvement of Brahman cattle in the Collins Belah Valley (CBV) herd.

Brahman cattle have to perform in very challenging environments, and breeding programs to deliver genetic improvement in those environments are challenging too - reflecting large scale of operations and variable climatic conditions.

Alf has met these challenges head-on and collected performance records underpinning reliable EBVs and used the information backed by a hard-nosed practical understanding of functionality and survival ability, to generate very impressive genetic progress over several decades. Perhaps the most outstanding aspect of that genetic progress is that it includes very substantial progress in female fertility - something that has effectively been treated as ‘too hard’ by most breeders of tropically adapted cattle worldwide.

CBV has actively participated in industry R&D, including significant contributions to beef CRC I, II and III.
Alf is a deep thinker about what cattle need to do in the tropical environment and has never been afraid to try novel approaches or include new traits if they will help breed cattle better and better suited to the environment and to improve profit.

Alf continues to be an outstanding pioneer and innovator in the real-world application of genetics technology, and the demonstration that it is possible to breed genetically fertile, productive, and profitable tropically adapted cattle is an inspiration.