LIC’s elite beef bulls for artificial insemination (AI) are carefully selected to maximise the value of your non-replacement animals. We aim to help you breed dairy x beef calves that are born easily, grow well and are more saleable in the marketplace.
Selecting elite beef bulls for dairy cows
We carefully select beef sires from a variety of breeds to offer you flexibility in both management and market options.
LIC base their selections on genetic merit for traits such as calving ease, gestation length, growth rates, and carcass and meat quality to ensure they meet your chosen criteria and produce profitable offspring.
We back our bull selections with trusted data sources like Breedplan’s Estimated Breeding Values (EBVs). Additionally, we rely on the expertise of our network of bull breeders, many of whom bring decades of invaluable experience and insights.
To ensure our choices meet evolving needs, we continuously monitor sire performance. By tracking NZ calvings through herd recording software, we gain a precise understanding of each sire’s calving ease and gestation length, tailored to dairy cows.
Beef bull options
LIC have for many years been working with Rissington Cattle Company for the supply of our Angus semen, which is selected for known traits that can make a real difference in cow herd profitability. All animals are recorded on Breedplan and on the Leachman multibreed database of over one million animals, allowing accurate comparisons and more profitable beef cattle.
Rissington Cattle Company Angus benefits include:
Homozygous polled- Low birthweights
- Shorter gestation length – average of 280 days
- Calving ease
- High quality, high yielding carcasses
- Feed Efficiency
- Moderate maturity patterns
Herefords are popular thanks to their excellent temperament and dominant white face which allows farmers to easily distinguish Hereford-sired calves from their AI replacements. LIC supplier Shrimpton’s Hill Herefords are the trait leaders for short gestation length across Australasia.
Shrimpton’s Hill Hereford benefits include:
Short gestation length. With records from close to a million inseminations, Shrimpton’s Hill Herefords have the shortest gestation lengths of any beef breed when mated over NZ dairy cows.- Easy-to-spot calves with dominant white face
- Calving ease
For the past few years, LIC has used Kakahu Charolais genetics to pinpoint excellent calving ease, low birth weights, and shorter gestation lengths than other terminal sire breeds. Liveweight gain is where Charolais give dairy farmers a genuine opportunity to secure premium market prices: Charolais-sired calves grow fast, wean earlier than many other breeds, and have a reputation for hitting target liveweights and carcase weights.
LIC Charolais benefits include:
Calving ease- Low birth weight
- Short gestation
- Fetch premium prices
- Homozygous polled
- Adds muscle and conformation to a dairy beef carcase
Belgian Blue beef cattle are known for their distinctive double-muscling trait, resulting in a heavily muscled, lean carcass with high yield. When crossed over your dairy cows, Belgian Blues can enhance the carcass quality in addition to colour-marking progeny
Belgian Blue benefits include:
- High beef yield
- Adds muscle and conformation to a dairy beef carcase
- Tender, high-quality meat
- Higher market value
- Rapid growth rate
- Available in triple mix
By using LIC’s beef bulls over your non-replacement animals you could increase the income potential of your herd. Contact your Breeding Advisor for more information or to purchase.
