As breeding season approaches its a good idea to have a look over the Active Bull List. This is the go-to page for dairy farmers when it comes to picking bulls.

We have reports from the two main systems studies on genetics – the Next Generation Herd in Moorepark and the UCD high-input study at Lyons Estate. Both are using high-EBI cows but under different feeding systems. This report is just on animal performance. We will return to system performance later in the year.

This spring has been turbulent for the male dairy calf, whether a crossed beef breed or not. I describe where I see dairy breeding going in the future. A key part of this is sexed semen, and we report the results from the 2018 trial here.

Another key part of this is the use of heat detection aids to encourage the use of more reliable AI, rather than mopping up with unreliable beef stock bulls. David Wilson gives the lowdown on the technology that is available for automated heat detection aids. While no better than manual heat detection, they remove the workload with heat detection and encourage farmers to use more AI.

Matt Ryan looks at on-farm performance across the milk production regions.

The standout figures are the differences in EBI and the six-week in-calf rate between the best and the worst regions. This proves to me that EBI is working. Why then are 50% of all heifers joining the national herd out of stock bulls? This flies in the face of common sense. We also look at the steps involved in using AI aimed at farmers who are not currently using AI.