03 March 2025

Maximising dairy AI success

Each year at this stage, dairy AI bull selection is discussed in great detail, and rightly so. But what about dam selection? James Dunne, Teagasc Dairy Specialist, explores why choosing the right females is just as crucial for maximizing herd genetics.

The genetic potential of an animal initially comes from the average of both sire and dam figures therefore mating your best females to dairy AI is as important as selecting the correct bull team. As always there should be particular focus placed on the maiden heifers as these should be your highest genetic merit animals. Thereafter the question is how many cows do you need to breed to dairy AI to produce enough replacements and how do you select them?

Genetic merit

EBI is a single figure profit index aimed at helping farmers identify the most profitable bulls and cows for breeding dairy herd replacements. It comprises of information on seven sub-indexes related to profitable milk production. Each farmer should pay particular attention to individual traits that are low and need improving. For example, if a farmer is looking to improve overall performance they should select cows that are highly ranked within the herd on the milk and fertility sub-indexes.

Milk recording

The milk recorded lifetime report illustrates both profitability and performance of the cows within a herd. Cows are ranked within the herd based on milk-recorded lifetime performance. Dry days are included to rank cows therefore recording dry off dates are important to ensure the accuracy of this report. This is a within herd comparison considering, production costs, dry periods and month of calving thus identifying your best cows across each parity.