Dairy bred bulls average 1.70 kgs/day and kill out 52% at Tully

The Gene Ireland Progeny test centre at Tully, Co. Kildare recently slaughtered 30 dairy bred bulls at Slaney Foods International, Bunclody, Co. Wexford. The progeny were sired by 18 different sires across 3 different breeds HO, MO and JE.

The group consisted of 30 February and March 2017 born bulls. The average carcass weight for the group was 330 kilos. They average daily gain for the group during their 97-day performance test period was 1.70 kilos per head per day. Average growth rate within the group ranged from 1.11 kilos to 2.20 kilos per head per day.

The average kill-out for the group was 52%, with kill-out ranging from 47% to 55%. Overall the animals graded extremely well with 11 of the bulls being of R grade conformation and 19 grading in the O grade class. 100% of the 30 bulls met the carcass fat specifications of 2+ or higher, this was a great achievement for dairy bred bulls.

The average dry matter intake (DMI) per day for the group was 14.18 kilos, with bulls consuming from 11.78 to 16.37 kilos per head per day on a DMI basis. The average feed efficiency for the group was 8.52, ranging from 5.46 to 12.00. The bulls were fed hay and ad lib concentrates over their 97-day finishing period.

Overall the bulls performed exceptionally well and were gaining .88 kilos of carcass for each day they were on test at Tully. The data demonstrates the large variation in performance between dairy progeny in a bull finishing system.

See below photos of some of the progeny slaughtered.

All individual data on animals slaughtered recently can be found at the link below.

https://www.icbf.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/03/Copy-of-Intake_47-FR-1.xlsx

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