First of all, don’t panic, the issues that these text messages relate to are minor and very simple to rectify. There are many reasons why you may have a received a text from us (outlined below).
The rate of genetic gain in EBI has accelerated rapidly over the last number of years, propelled mainly by two important initiatives, the launch of the Dairy Gene Ireland breeding programme in 2005 and the introduction of genomic selection in 2009. (more…)
In March 2022, new dairy beef mating’s were incorporated into Sire Advice as a new additional feature to the main breeding tool. This has been a collaborative effort between ICBF and Teagasc (more…)
The Inbreeding Checker is breeding application, that can be found under ‘Applications’ in the HerdPlus menu. As the name suggests, the Inbreeding checker allows herd owners to check up to 10 bulls at a time with their cows and heifers. (more…)
Sire Advice allows the user to select bulls they wish to use for the breeding season and the mating program will match these bulls to cows to maximize EBI, reduce the variation between milk and fertility and avoid inbreeding. This Spring, ICBF has developed new dairy beef mating options in conjunction with Teagasc. (more…)
Using a bull only for his ‘easy calving’ or ‘short gestation’ attributes can result in lighter carcasses. However, incorporating several traits simultaneously into selection decisions using an overall index (i.e., the Dairy Beef Index; DBI) can produce more balanced cattle with more favourable economic returns. (more…)
ICBF and Sheep Ireland are delighted to announce the winners of the Brian Wickham travel bursary prize to attend the World Congress on Genetics Applied to Livestock (WCGALP). (more…)
Reports containing the latest co-op data are now available online and are being posted to farmers over the coming week. These reports include the most up to date calving information taken from the 2021 Dairy Calving Report.