The second half of 2024 saw 151,748 suckler beef calves (beef sire x beef dam) born on Irish farms, of which 34,382 have been registered to an AI sire. This represents approximately 22% of all suckler beef calves born in the period. Interestingly – 44% of these AI sired calves are already genotyped. Below is a list of the Top 10 AI sires of autumn 2024 born suckler progeny based on sires recorded.
The Top 10 AI Sires with the most progeny recorded to them between 1/7/2024 to 31/12/2024.
These 10 sires account for 32% of all the AI suckler progeny born in the first half of 2024. The list is dominated by well proven Charolais and Limousin sires along with one Angus and one Belgian Blue. The 10 sires listed above have an average Replacement Index of €122 with relatively high reliability across all the sires and very high in some cases.
Encouragingly, 7 of the 10 sires, and all the top 4, listed above have graduated from Gene Ireland over the years which highlights the value of the programme for consistently progeny testing young high impact sires. This helps to drive the rate of genetic gain by building high reliability indexes at a young age on the back of robust data recording. Every Spring and Autumn a new panel of young high genetic merit AI sires are made available to suckler farmers for just €8 per straw.
To order straws from the Spring 2025 panel, contact the HerdPlus team on 023–8820452. Click here to view the Spring 2025 directory.