Seedstock Bulls Could Be Ranked on Feed Efficiency at the Crush With QuickFlux, Launching 10 November

A bull comes up the race at a standard crush. A collector is fitted over his muzzle, sampling his breath along with the air around him. An RFID scan ties the reading to his ear tag. Three to five minutes later an indicator light shows the measurement is done, and he walks out. That is the procedure behind QuickFlux, a portable system from C-Lock that launches commercially on 10 November 2026.

The piece describing it appeared on Beef Central under its sponsored banner, so it is advertising from the product's side, aimed at seedstock breeders. It follows a September item that asked whether a visible efficiency number above every animal would change which ones a producer keeps. This time the question goes to the people who breed the bulls, on the argument that a stud's choices flow into every commercial herd its sires join.

According to the company, the breath sample shows how an animal uses its feed: how much energy goes to growth and maintenance, and how much is lost. Each reading is screened for outliers and checked by a C-Lock analyst. The result is a ranking of each animal against the rest of its group. The pitch is that this replaces the feedlot test, the automated feeders and the roughly 70 days that recording individual intake has usually required.

The case for the trait itself is long established. Feed is the biggest recurring cost in beef production, and Australian estimates put the heritability of net feed intake at about 0.34 to 0.41, similar to growth. The article says the obstacle has been cost and time of measurement. Breed societies such as Angus Australia publish a feed efficiency EBV, but few sale bulls are offered with a measurement taken on the bull himself, on the country that raised him. Those heritability figures are general industry estimates, not results from QuickFlux.

The sponsor lists five ways a stud could profit. Ranking herd sires and donor females sharpens selection in the herd. Measuring yearlings lets a breeder cull the tail end before paying for a full sale preparation. A per-lot efficiency ranking gives buyers and agents something extra on sale day. Commercial clients, who carry the feed bill for every calf, get bulls more likely to leave efficient progeny. And because the trait is heritable, a record started now builds in value. In support, the article cites an Australian study of Angus heifers in which the more efficient animals held liveweight better as pasture quality declined.

The suggested fit is within existing yard work: yearling bulls during routine handling well ahead of sale preparation, replacement heifers at selection, and herd sires and donor cows at pregnancy testing or pre-joining. The results are meant to sit alongside EBVs and genomic testing, not replace them, adding a direct measurement on the individual animal.

For credibility the piece points to C-Lock's record. The company says it has spent more than 20 years developing and validating the underlying measurement, with close to 1,000 units in 48 countries and more than 800 peer-reviewed studies. It also cites a study published this year that measured 453 composite and crossbred animals at four tropical and subtropical rangeland sites in northern Australia. The article offers no independent verification of these claims.

The call to action is practical: with launch on 10 November, studs with yearling bulls or replacement heifers coming through the yards in coming months are urged to plan which group goes first. What to watch is whether independent trials and real stud uptake follow.