'Once you have breeding targets to follow, you can select suitable bulls'

Richard Starrett and his wife Wendy farm in Killendarragh, Lifford, Co. Donegal. With calving coming to a close, Richard highlights his farm’s transition to breeding in this update, emphasising the importance of EBI in steering bull selection.

With calving coming to an end, focus turns to breeding. We keep calving as compact as possible to maximise lactation length and get as much gain as possible from grass. There is no doubt, compact calving has a labour and facility requirement, but fortunately, we are set up for both. With a six-week calving rate of 82% this year, we hope to continue this.

EBI has been a big topic for our local discussion group for many years. You cannot underestimate the benefits of spending a few hours in the office every year picking bulls. Good breeding can give great return, while poor bull selection can do untold damage.

We continually breed for improvement, and with an average herd EBI figure of €247, I am seeing the rewards. That figure is largely made up of milk at €76 and fertility at €112. The other sub-indexes include carbon, calving, beef, maintenance, management and health. If you really want to improve breeding and production, each sub-index needs to be looked at individually.

Breeding plans

The plan is to have 150 cows bred to AI, with 65 getting high-EBI genomic Friesian straws and roughly one-third of these getting sexed semen.

I have set a target whereby the lowest cow that I will be breeding replacements from this year has an overall EBI of €265 and any cow with an EBI lower than this will get high Dairy Beef Index straws.

The Sire Advice programme on ICBF is an excellent tool to help maximise genetic gain. Looking forward, I aim to have a cow that will produce milk with an annual butterfat figure of 5% and an annual protein figure of 4%. Getting breeding decisions correct is key to achieving this and this is why it is so important to delve into the indexes when picking bulls.

Once you have breeding targets to follow, you can select suitable bulls for breeding and can select the cows you want to breed from. I have selected a team of 10 high-EBI bulls that will be used equally across cows and heifers being mated to Friesians. The team of 10 Friesian bulls selected have average figures of EBI €346, milk €122, fertility €143, fat of 0.36% and protein of 0.23%.

I have used sexed semen in recent years, particularly focusing on heifers, high-performing cows and young cows. I have had good results from sexed semen with a conception rate of 70% in 2023, so I will work with it again for this breeding season.

This article first appeared in the Farming Independent as part of a Signpost Update. More information on the Signpost Programme is available here.

See more updates from farmers enrolled in the Signpost Programme here.

Also read: Bull teams – equal use required to lessen risk

Also read: A game of thirds – splitting the beef team by gestation