There has been a large increase in beef AI usage in the national dairy herd, with the number of beef inseminations for the year to date, up 25% compared with the same period last year. (more…)
Breeding contributes half the performance gains in dairy herds. Genetic gain from good breeding decisions is cumulative and permanent. The Economic breeding Index (EBI) must increase year-on-year. This is recognisable in the younger animals in your herd as they will have higher EBI figures. (more…)
New beef Euro-Star evaluations have just been published by ICBF. This will see the Euro-Star indexes for all suckler cows, heifers, stock bull and AI bulls updated. (more…)
So far in 2019, the Stockbull Finder has had 0ver 13,000 visitors! In the first week of April alone it had over 2000 searches performed on it for young pedigree Beef bulls which is a new record in terms of the number of hits it has received in a single week. (more…)
There are 3 factors that will both contribute to what ‘Calving Difficulty %’ index figure your bull starts out with and also how it changes over time.1.Back Pedigree, 2.Genotype, 3. Calving Data (more…)
This is the clear trend from analysis of the ICBF ‘5 Year Trend’ reports which were sent to 24,500 herds participating in BDGP earlier this spring. The report focuses on 6 key performance indicators (KPI’s) for a suckler herd’s genetic and reproductive performance. (more…)
Brendan Hinchion spoke to ICBF recently about his farm history, the system, his breeding policy and his use of dairy genomics. Brendan started farming when he was 18, developed the farm by putting in roadways, paddocks, a water system & cubicles. (more…)
The latest addition to the ICBF presentations page is a presentation entitled ‘The Irish Suckler Cow in 2030’ It was presented by Dr. Andrew Cromie at the Irish Farmer’s Journal Beef Summit which took place this week at the Shearwater Hotel in Ballinasloe, Co Galway. (more…)
Wed 15th May is the deadline to return DNA samples (tissue/hair) to the lab in order to make the 22nd July evaluation. This evaluation is of particular importance to farmers participating in the Beef Data and Genomics Programme (BDGP). (more…)