Irrespective of whether you start producing milk in the winter or spring it is now best practise to select sires on milk solids and fertility. Not that long ago, there was a large industry debate, with some suggesting that those farmers producing milk during winter required bulls that had better “type” and “higher volumes”.

Based on comments from some of the top farmers and from those involved in selling semen at this time of the year, it is now clear that selecting sires based on EBI seems to be “a given” at this stage.

Yes, individual farmers can select within the EBI to improve fertility or milk, but there is an increasing realisation that improved fertility will indirectly improve milk solids production. Also there is a growing emphasis on improving fertility and higher fertility will keep cows in the herd for longer, delivering more mature yields.

Industry comment

Tom Baker, Eurogene/LIC:

Traditionally, we would have more liquid milk farmers using high-volume sires only at this time of the year, but now milk solids or components are becoming more and more important. I’ve been talking to many farmers this week who maybe have one third of their herd freshly calved and they are getting over 30c/l for high-solids milk. EBI seems to be working, and that is the reality.

Volumes of semen sold at this time of the year have declined and continue to decline. We used to have about one third of sales during the autumn period, now we are closer to 10%. Lucky Whistler has been a good sire for us, and his EBI has actually increased as his daughters have come on stream. His EBI proof has lifted from around €320 EBI to €340. More importantly, farmers seem to be happy with his daughters in that they are not big cows, have good feet and have milk solids.

Other big sellers for us this autumn will be Parkduv Magnet (PKX), who has an EBI of €291 (€104 milk/€134 fertility), and Radney Levi 5 (YRY), who is €286 EBI and is very easy calving.

Bernard Eivers, National Cattle Breeding Centre:

The message about good fertility and high EBI seems to be gaining traction among autumn milk producers as well as the focus on fertility.

I was very impressed by some of the messages that winter and liquid milk producers were discussing at the recent winter milk conference.

It seems the industry is now talking from the same page, which is a long way from where it was when we were arguing over having two different indices for different subsets of the industry.

Yes, the volume of our sales at this time of the year is declining year on year. There was a time in the mid 1990s when November was one of the biggest selling months for our business, but that has changed.

Now, over 75% of our sales are from 1 April to the end of June. It is good to see producers taking on the message that fertility is important. The message is: keep it simple and use EBI.

Terry Dillon, Munster AI:

Our representatives get the feeling that winter breeding this year is being pushed later and later.

Our big sellers of the Irish sires available will be bulls like Longview Reliable (LWR), who is €357 EBI, with €136 from milk EBI and €174 from fertility EBI.

Also a bull like Ballydehob Pat (HZB), with €102 from milk EBI and €183 from fertility EBI.

The bigger selling sires of imported semen will be from sires like Zanibar (ZSR), who has an EBI of €273, which is €92 from milk EBI and €147 from fertility EBI.

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Focus on winter AI and BDGP