Using both dairy and beef AI

Teagasc in conjunction with the Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) is running a dairy breeding week this week. The focus of today's videos is on Using both dairy and beef AI, from the start of the breeding season. Siobhan Ring, ICBF, and Hugh Egan, Dairy Farmer, Co. Offaly outline why here

Using dairy and beef AI : In this short clip, Siobhan Ring speaks about using both dairy and beef AI at the start of the breeding season which can lead to a more profitable system. In such a system, farmers can select the best cows eg. high EBI cows to mate to high EBI dairy bulls and use beef bulls with the high dairy beef index on their problem cows or on cows with a poorer genetic merit. This approach will increase the rate of genetic gain in the milking herd. It will also increase the no of high genetic merit beef calves born. This results in a more valuable beef calf produced. No extra physical work is required by the farmer to produce a better beef calf.

Using dairy and beef AI from a farmers perspective with Hugh Egan, a dairy farmer from Co. Offaly. Hugh is milking 90 Spring-calving cross-bred cows, and has 20 followers, on a fragmented farm. He is focused on grass and producing milk from a low cost system. Breeding is very important to Hugh. He uses beef AI bulls from the start of the breeding system, choosing either Angus or Hereford bulls and crosses these with selected cows and the low performing dairy cows in the herd. It increases the calf sales and Hugh finds there is always a demand for the beef calf. See what else Hugh has to say in the following video clip.

For more information go to Breeding Week