Irish Cattle
Breeding Federation

6 New Tully bulls for G€N€ IR€LAND

A total of 6 high index bulls (pictured) have been purchased by AI stations from the recently finished intake at the Tully Bull Performance Test Centre. These bulls will now graduate into the G€N€ IR€LAND program and will be available to beef farmers starting in early 2010. This brings a total of 11 bulls purchased by AI companies in 2009, with NCBC and Dovea AI purchasing 9 and 2, respectively.

Bulls identified for Tully are selected based on their €uro-stars indexes, age criteria (7 to 12 months) and high health status. The fact that all bulls selected for Tully are in the top of their respective breed for both Suckler Beef Value and Milk & Fertility ensures that, when used for breeding heifer replacements, selected bulls have the potential to produce a calf with superior weaning weights, excellent conformation and good growth rates

Table 1. Performance of recent graduates from the Tully Performance Test.

Breed	Name	Ave Daily Gain (kg/day)	Feed Conv Eff. (DMI/ADG)	Scan Musc Dep (mm)	Scan Fat Dep (mm)	SBV (€)	M&F (Stars)
AA1	Friarstown Dan Carter H094 ET	3.0	4.8	82.1	10.0	€32	****
AA1	Carrigroe Earl	2.9	4.5	77.7	7.94	€108	**
AA2	Mogeely Joe H979	2.5	6.0	83.6	12.6	€23	*
CH1	Skeaf Damien	2.6	4.7	95.2	6.48	€168	****
CH1	Liscally Domino 1	2.3	4.8	84.9	3.85	€126	****
SI1	Ballindrennan Wilbert ET	2.8	4.9	85.4	4.38	€191	*****

1.Purchased by NCBC
2.Purchased by Dovea

All six bulls are exciting prospects that have now graduated into the G€N€ IR€LAND program. This will allow us to gather more information on the bulls through their progeny, in order to increase reliability for all of the key traits that influence farm profit.

In overall terms, the Tully & G€N€ IR€LAND program is proving to be a great success, with the best bulls in terms of genetics and health status being identified through Tully, and the very best of these then being identified and selected for G€N€ IR€LAND. As a result, we are confident that Irish beef farmers can expect newer and better bulls each year, on which to based their breeding decisions.

Ballindrennan Wilbert ET, sired by Raceview King and bred by John and Rose Conroy Tullamore, Co. Offaly	Carrigroe Earl, sired by Cashelane Bowie A337 and bred by Frank and John Appelbe, Clonakilty, Co. Cork	Friarstown Dan Carter H094 ET, sired by TC Freedom and bred by Jeremiah Henchy, Grange, Co. Limerick
Liscally Domino 1, sired by Domino and bred by John Regan, Castlegal, Co. Leitrim	Mogeely Joe H979, sired by Young Dale Touch Down 36M and bred by Albert De Cogan, Castlemartyr, Co. Cork	Skeaf Damien sired by Nelson and bred by Dermot O’ Driscoll, Bandon, Co Cork