• Post category:News

The Gene Ireland Beef Open Day taking place on Saturday 12th October, will show-case commercial progeny from some of the top AI sires that have gone through the national breeding program over the past number of years. Examples of AI sires with progeny currently on test, and that will be available for viewing on the day include: CWI (5-star Limousin), CF85 (5-star Charolais), IS4 (5-star Simmental), RWB (5-star Angus) and BBQ (5-star Belgian Blue).

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The open day will take place at the Tully performance test centre. The event promises to be an excellent combination of practical information for farmers, including the opportunity to view the 217 commercial cattle currently on performance test, as well as strong technical message around a number of key beef breeding themes including; (i) the Maternal Beef Breeding Program, (ii) increasing profitability through the use of Euro-Star indexes, and (iii) latest commercial progeny performance from the Tully performance test.

The event will commence at 10am (for the first people arriving), with the last groups due to leave the starting area at 12.30pm. There will be 3 stops on the tour of the station, with each tour taking a total of about 1 hour 30 minutes. People attending the event will then be free to take time viewing the animals on test and/or spending time in the general area, which will comprise of various trade-stands and food/light refreshments.

One of the highlights of the event will also be the opportunity to recognise the top bull breeders and commercial progeny herd-owners that are involved in the program. A total of 12 awards were presented at the recent launch of the event, across three main categories (see Table 1 for a list of winners). In recognition of their achievements the breeders in the under and over 30 cow category for top Gene Ireland data recording herds each received €1000, while the breeders whose bulls excelled as part of the progeny test program received €2000 each.

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The event is BTAP approved and admission is free. If you have any question on any aspect of the event, or the Gene Ireland breeding program, then please contact HerdPlus on 1850 600900. Otherwise we look forward to seeing you on the 12th October.