Irish Cattle
Breeding Federation

Selection of high EBI young bulls from Irish cow families.

The aim is to progeny test 100 young bulls each year. For a bull to be considered for the G€N€ IR€LAND programme, the potential bull mothers must meet the following criteria;

• 1. High EBI (greater than €70),
• 2. Registered in the IHFA herd-book, and
• 3. Good functional type.

The key is to ensure the selection of these young bulls provides a good range of genetics, from a wide range of high EBI sires. At the moment a number of high EBI cows maybe missing the opportunity to become Bull Mothers because they are being mated to; (1) stock bull, (2) low EBI AI sire, or (3) a high EBI AI sire that has been widely used (eg RUUD). It is important farmers are aware of potential bull mothers in their herd and monitor what these cows are mated to. Any queries regarding bull mothers and sire selection can be directed to Robert Helen, Sire Analyst for NCBC.

In the past several high index bull calves have ‘slipped’ through the system as they were sold abroad before NCBC had a chance to review their indexes and contact the herd-owner. To help overcome this ICBF provides weekly extracts listing high EBI bull calves that have been registered on the database over the past week. Therefore, it is in the farmers’ best interest to register their calves on the ICBF database as soon as possible after birth.

In accordance with this, there is also the facility to be able to identify potential calves of interest even before an animal is born. An extract is provided by ICBF, identifying potential bull mothers that have been confirmed pregnant and are in-calf to a high EBI sire of interest. Again reinforcing the importance for farmers to record this sort of information on the ICBF database. With the introduction of the new On-line Recording system this will make the process easier.

A more detailed description of the Bull Acquisition process carried out by the Sire Analyst from NCBC was presented in the Irish Farmers Journal, the Spring AI Supplement, dated 4th March, 2006. Click here to view this article.

As the programme develops and more herds sign up to the ICBF database and the IHFA herd-book the pool of potential bull mothers should increase.  ICBF & IHFA have recently launched a new “grade-up & linear score” service, to help farmers meet the 3 criteria mentioned above. The cost is approximately €12/cow for a potential gain of €1600/bull calf sold to the programme.