TOP SIRE 2025–2026 VALE Professor Andrew Swan NSW SMBA wishes to acknowledge Professor Andrew Swan’s contribution to the Merino industry Professor Andrew Swan was doing one of the things he loved in this world – cycling. He was racing with the Armidale cycling team on a remote road outside town, as he had done many times before on a sunny Saturday afternoon, when four of the cyclists were hit by a car. Tragically, Andrew died at the scene. Andrew had a few loves in his life – and his love for his wife Kim, Deputy Director at Animal Genetics and Breeding Unit (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 grand kids also calling Andrew ‘Swanny’. Besides being a strong member of the local cycling community and a 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 with a Bachelor of Rural Science with first class honours in 1986. His honours research project was on cross-breeding Hereford and Simmental cattle and, with that background, he joined AGBU as a PhD student studying multi-breed genetic evaluation methods under the supervision of Hans Graser and Brian Kinghorn. Following his PhD studies, Andrew 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 reserve price scheme crash and an oversupply of stockpiled wool, so the focus of breeding research turned to improving wool quality using new objective measurement technology. At the same time, he was participating in the development of the breeder-led system of sire evaluation trials run by the Australian Merino Sire Evaluation Association (AMSEA). The world lost a tremendous person on 14 December 2024 in Professor Andrew Swan, who was known to many as simply ‘Swanny’. – 58 –
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