Vale Andrew Swan

Vale Dr Andrew Swan, Chief Scientist, Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (AGBU), a joint venture between the NSW Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development and the University of New England.

The world lost a tremendous person on 14 December, 2024 in Professor Andrew Swan who was known to many as simply ‘Swanny’. Andrew was doing one of the things he loved in this world and that was cycling. He was racing with the Armidale cycling team on a remote road outside Armidale as he had done many times before on a sunny Saturday afternoon when four of the cyclists were tragically hit by a car. Andrew died at the scene.

Andrew had a few loves in his life and his love for his wife Kim, Deputy Director at AGBU was obvious to all who knew them. Together they raised three children and recently were thrilled to step into a new chapter as grandparents, with the grandkids also calling Andrew 'Swanny’. Besides a strong member of the local cycling community and devoted family man Andrew was a giant in his field of animal breeding and sheep genetics research globally. He combined capability with humility, two traits that don’t often trend together but are both required for meaningful impact in industry outcomes and also in the lives of those he worked with. 

Andrew grew up in the Riverina region of New South Wales near Wagga Wagga, before attending the University of New England and graduating B. Rur. Sci. with first class honours in 1986. His honours research project was on crossbreeding Hereford and Simmental cattle, and with that background he joined the Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit as a PhD student studying multibreed genetic evaluation methods under the supervision of Hans Graser and Brian Kinghorn. Following his PhD studies, he moved to the CSIRO Animal Production laboratory at Chiswick near Armidale and began a long career in sheep breeding. At the time the industry was dealing with the crash of the reserve price scheme and an over-supply of stockpiled wool, so the focus of breeding research turned to improving wool quality using new objective measurement technology.

At the same time Andrew was participating in the development of the breeder-led system of sire evaluation trials run by the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA). Working with the Advanced Breeding Services group of NSW Agriculture (now NSW DPIRD), he contributed to the across-flock evaluations published in Merino Superior Sires from the early 1990s. As a result of this involvement Andrew joined the Sheep Genetics Technical Committee in 2004 which developed the first industry-wide Merino genetic evaluation launched as MERINOSELECT in 2005. Following this landmark industry achievement, Andrew joined AGBU in 2006 to continue working on the MERINOSELECT and LAMBPLAN evaluation systems delivered through Meat and Livestock Australia’s Sheep Genetics service.

In subsequent years Andrew contributed to the introduction of breeding values for new traits, including carcase and eating quality traits, components of reproduction, and breech fly-strike indicators, and selection indexes focused on breeder needs and strategic industry targets. Andrew also participated in the development of genomic resources and technologies in the Sheep CRC, assisting in the transition of MERINOSELECT and LAMBPLAN to genomic evaluations.

In 2022, Andrew was the first to step into a new Chief Scientist role for AGBU where he had greater reach across the genetic improvement portfolio including influence on beef evaluations through BREEDPLAN. Most recently Andrew was quite energised working with the AGBU team he mentored to develop a combined LAMBPLAN evaluation including both Maternal and Terminal sheep. He was also looking forward to push the frontier on multi-breed genetic evaluations for beef cattle, coming back to the roots of his PhD. Andrew’s talents were broad and besides a deep understanding of genetic evaluation methods and programming he was also quite talented in multiple-trait economic selection decisions and recently built a new platform called BIODEX to better model animal growth and feed requirements, which is going to be critical to breed for lower emissions.

‘Swanny’ will be remembered not just for his scientific acumen but for those that had the pleasure of his company, his dry wit and strong commitment to make sure those around him were enjoying life. At an AGBU Christmas party, he was able to convince colleagues to not only buy bikes but to commit to training for a multi-day bike ride to support cancer research. This quickly evolved, a peloton of 20+ at times, bringing together work colleagues from AGBU and across the wider academic and industry community. The friendships built under the duress of a steep hill, and the laughs shared, made for a stronger team in the face of adversity. He had built a strong team of early career scientists, a sure sign of leadership. 

The livestock industries in Australia and globally have suffered a deep loss. A talented scientist and friend to many, devoted to quietly making change and helping others along the way.