THE first genetic marker-proven bull team have hit the Australian dairy industry.

Genetics Australia released the team this week, which is based on sons of the world-renowned proven bull Informer, who died in 2006.

Genetics Australia chief executive Ray Johnson said it was the first artificial breeding company in the world to incorporate genetic marker technology for profit into the progeny testing process.

"Now the technology is at a stage of development that we are confident of releasing the first genetic marker bull team," Mr Johnson said.

"The genetic marker technology is now at a stage where the bulls can be tested for genetic markers to predict their breeding value two to three years ahead of when their normal progeny test proof.

"The technology provides breeding values that are far more accurate than just using pedigree estimates, but obviously not yet as accurate as using full progeny testing.

"What is exciting is that we are able to fast-track this outstanding bull team into the market as an enhanced selection basis to the normal progeny test process."

A joint project of the Victorian Department of Primary Industries and the Dairy CRC, DPI Victoria scientist Ben Hayes said genetic markers were a great addition to the traditional methods used to select the top-ranking bulls for the industry.

"They are being used now around the world for this purpose," Dr Hayes said.

"Our challenge is to complete a large-scale test of the technology with thousands of Australian-proven bulls and the latest in DNA fingerprinting technology."

Australian Dairy Herd Improvement Scheme chairman Allan Burgess said the technology was ground-breaking in terms of its potential benefits to dairy farmers.

"There is still work to be done on improving the accuracy of the genetic marker predictions, but we are confident in the current approach by Genetics Australia," Mr Burgess said.

"The critical issue for farmers is that the markers were created from the ADHIS national database, and as such are 'tuned' for Australian farming conditions."

Dairy Australia program manager David Nation said farmers could manage a mid-level of reliability by selecting a team of sons with gene markers.

"We continue to invest to drive up the reliability of the test and expect a range of new products to be launched over the next 18 months," Mr Nation said.

Dr Johnson said the genetic marker information indicated the team of 12 bulls selected would rank in the top 5 per cent of bulls for Australian Profit Ranking and overall type.