A breeding plan to improve beef merit and maintain calving traits
Limerick dairy farmer, Niall Moloney places a firm focus on calving ease and gestation length when selecting beef sires for use on his dairy herd, but that doesn’t mean the beef merit of the calves produced can’t be improved.
Niall, married to Ann, farms near the parish of Crecora, Co. Limerick. Farming a total of 112ha with his father Gerry, a compact, spring-calving herd of 170 cows is carried. Niall employs both full and part-time staff, which are particularly important during the busy February to June period - encompassing both calving and breeding.
Central to reducing stress during the spring is the use of easy calving bulls. Niall has a preference for using Angus sires. And, following a meeting with Denis Brassil, Kerry Joint Programme Manager, and Alan Dillon, Teagasc DairyBeef 500 Programme Manager, it was decided to stick with the use of early-maturing breeds.
The beef sub-index of Niall’s high EBI herd of Friesian cows is -€12, with a maintenance sub-index of €16, meaning the herd is at the lower end of the spectrum in terms of beef merit.
Some of the bulls used by Niall in the past, while easy calving and short gestation, had quiet poor carcass characteristics. As a result, the main focus of the meeting was to increase the carcass characteristics of the bulls chosen within breed, while not impacting on calving difficulty or gestation length in a negative way.
This was done quite simply by examining the Dairy Beef Index and selecting bulls that fitted Niall’s criteria by using the filter on the app.
A minimum 10kg of carcass was accepted as the threshold for selecting bulls. No more than 3% calving difficulty, as Niall calves compactly on his own most of the time, and short gestation were the other two main traits looked for.
The minimum threshold of 10kg of carcass for bulls does eliminate a number of early-maturing Angus and Hereford bulls off the list, but there was still adequate numbers to put a team of bulls together. Niall is not linked to any supplier of straws, so this did help in achieving the required number with tight bull selection criteria.
Niall plans to breed 100 cows to beef sires meaning 130-150 beef sire straws will be required. Niall broke his choices down to 3 categories: mature cows; second calvers; and early heats.
Table 1: The selected bull team
| Sire | Calving difficulty | Gestation length | Carcass weight | Beef sub-index | AI company |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mature cows | |||||
| AA7485 | 2.6% | -3.5 days | 17kg | €126 | NCBC |
| AA4638 | 3.3% | 0.8 days | 16kg | €106 | Dovea |
| AA4640 | 3.1% | -0.7 days | 14kg | €112 | NCBC |
| Second calvers | |||||
| AA4631 | 2.7% | -2.8 days | 10kg | €96 | NCBC |
| AA4089 | 2.5% | -3.6 days | 10kg | €102 | NCBC |
| Early heats | |||||
| HE6841 | 3% | 0.5 days | 8kg | €105 | NCBC |
Niall has selected one Hereford bull to use on early bullers. Niall often finds Herefords tend to carry days slightly and this can be of benefit when used at the start of AI to maintain a tight calving spread. Short-gestation Angus bulls will be used at the end of the breeding season - either by AI or stock bull - to tighten up the calving spread at the other end.
All surplus calves are sold off farm at around three weeks, with surplus breeding females sold at around 13-14 months of age. Niall aims to improve the price he receives for his calves when the main flush arrives on the market. Niall sells the first 55 Angus calves to his neighbour, with the vast majority of the remainder going through the mart. Prices are variable with calves born from mid-February to mid-March meeting a lower price due to a higher volume of calves for sale.
Using high beef merit bulls should help increase this price over time. The Commercial Beef Value (CBV) of Niall’s calves are quite variable at the moment, ranging from €26 at the bottom end to over €140 at the top.
By selecting higher beef merit AI straws and replacing his low beef merit stock bulls with high beef merit bulls when the time comes to replace them, Niall will be in a better position to market his calves so as to give confidence to his customers that they will deliver increased carcass value when slaughtered over the following two years.
This article was produced by the Teagasc DairyBeef 500 team, and first appeared on Agriland, as part of the Dairy Beef Index Series.
Also read: Producing quality beef calves to ensure repeat custom
Also read: Dairy Beef Index Series: Mullen family farm, County Meath