The idea of picking low economic breeding index (EBI) bulls will be a foreign idea to many, but for one farmer, picking these bulls is resulting in high EBI cows. Farming near the village of Emly in Co. Tipperary, Simon Breen milks 250 Jersey-cross cows in a spring-calving grass-based system.
In a bid to improve the profitability, efficiency and fertility of his dairy herd, Padraic Harnan is using more LIC sexed semen than ever this spring, choosing top trait bulls that match up with his breeding animals.
LIC Ireland’s genetics development manager talks about his recent trip to NZ where he worked closely with LIC’s sire selection team during their busy bull buying period. The objective being to bring back important insights back to Irish farmers and LIC’s Irish bull breeding programme.
New LIC research reveals a staggering variation in milk production and efficiency between the ‘top-quartile’ and ‘bottom-quartile’ of New Zealand cows.
With the new LIC Ireland catalogue heading out to letterboxes and inboxes around the country, here is a closer look at some exciting bulls available to Irish farmers this season.
A record number of young bulls have recently joined LIC’s elite bull teams, with twenty-seven bulls making the cut, ready to help sire the next generation of profitable and efficient dairy cows.
The exclusivity of entry into the Hall of Fame is reserved for only the most exceptional bulls, having met very demanding criteria. What makes this an even prouder moment is that Priests Sierra’s breeder, Rowan Priest, is also an LIC employee.
A 12-year-old bull with over 150,000 daughters has been inducted into an elite animal ‘Hall of Fame’ for his outstanding contribution to dairy herd improvement in New Zealand.
New research has confirmed bulls’ genetics play a role in how much methane they emit, highlighting the potential for farmers to breed low methane-emitting cows in the future.
Input costs and carbon footprint are among the forces pushing dairy producers to make more milk from grass. Supporting AHDB’s grass campaign, grassland specialist Piers Badnell suggests even higher production herds can get more milk from grazing.
In this insightful webinar LIC’s Malcolm Ellis presents findings from New Zealand farms on efficient cows, Sophie Evers from Teagasc shares data from the Irish dairy industry then we cover the practical application of these concepts in your herd.
There has been a lot happening in New Zealand’s animal evaluation space over the past 18 months, including developing enhancements to the national animal evaluation system and a review of the National Breeding Objective.
