Genetics Australia Appoints Tim Humphris as Chair
Tim Humphris, a dairy producer from Nirranda South in south-west Victoria, has taken over as chair of the Genetics Australia co-operative. He farms with his wife, Marie, milking 600 cows in a three-way crossbreeding system. Before moving to commercial dairy farming, Humphris spent 15 years in clinical veterinary practice in northern Victoria and later farmed at Tongala for 11 years before relocating in 2019.
John Pekin leaves the board after 11 years, including three as chair, following his withdrawal from active farming. The cooperative has also appointed independent director Michael Lyons, a Nuffield Scholar and commercial beef producer from Wambiana Station near Charters Towers. His appointment gives Genetics Australia its first board representation from northern Australia.
During Pekin’s tenure, Genetics Australia sold its former Parwan Park site near Bacchus Marsh and acquired Total Livestock Genetics. That transaction brought semen collection and processing facilities at Camperdown and Glenormiston into the group, followed by the purchase of another land parcel at Camperdown. The changes preceded the creation of Genetics Australia Holdings, a commercial joint venture with The URUS Group, a global herd-improvement company.
Under the arrangement, the farmer-owned cooperative continues to own the group’s land and other physical property and remains responsible for property capital expenditure and strategic acquisitions. Genetics Australia is also providing funding to place Australian operations of Trans Ova Genetics within Genetics Australia Holdings. URUS acquired the embryology and in-vitro fertilisation business globally. The Australian structure gives livestock producers access to genomic selection, sexed semen and embryo-transfer technologies.
The cooperative began in the southern dairy sector and later expanded into temperate southern beef markets. Its board is now seeking to develop reproductive programmes and seedstock genetics for tropical and northern herds, with high-performance bulls suited to northern Australian conditions. The stated areas of expansion include Queensland and the Northern Territory, alongside continued beef-on-dairy and purebred breeding programmes across Australia.
Genetics Australia has about 900 active farmer-shareholders. Membership is available through a $100 shareholding, and members receive pricing discounts and priority offers on selected Australian and international bulls. Humphris said the cooperative’s primary purpose remained the domestic production, development and availability of Australian bull semen for dairy and beef herds. He also said that higher profits from the joint venture would return more capital to the cooperative. The board plans for those returns to support further facility investment, larger member rebates and possible shareholder dividends from 2027.
