Watch: beef replacement index v terminal index - the great debate

Episode one of this week’s Teagasc Virtual Beef Week kicks off today [Monday] on farmersjournal.ie at 12pm.

Adam Woods is joined by guests from the Teagasc beef research team - Michael McManus, who is technician and current manager of the Teagasc suckler demo herd, the Derrypatrick herd.

Michael will talk about the current performance on the Derrypatrick herd. It’s been an impressive start to 2020, with 110 live calves from 105 cows.

Virtual Beef Week: Beef Talk_Ep 1.

Ninety-five percent of the herd calved in nine weeks, with just 32% requiring assistance and 5% requiring veterinary assistance.

Breeding started on 4 May, with 100% of the heifers and 91% of cows calving in the first nine weeks.

Seventy-two percent of cows held to their first service and 58% of the heifers held to first service.

Michael goes through how the herd is managed to achieve the high performance.

Best practice

Dr Bernadette Early discusses best practice for dehorning male calves and disbudding young calves and what the latest research says.

She also discusses antimicrobial resistance (AMR) and what the industry is doing to overcome the challenges that it presents to both human and animal health.

Finally, Alan Twomey from Teagasc Moorepark discusses the age old question - what is better, the replacement index or the terminal index, and what should farmers use when selecting bulls.

A question that always comes up is whether there is a negative to using the replacement index on animal weight and quality.

Alan presents the latest research from the Derrypatrick herd showing that bulls with a high replacement index still have the ability to produce progeny with similar output traits to the progeny of bulls selected on the terminal index.

This week’s episode also features Galway farmer Niall O'Meara on his farm, where he discusses his farming system and why he uses 100% AI on his herd.

Tuesday’s episode will focus on dairy-calf-to-beef production and will go live at 12pm on www.farmersjournal.ie.

Read more

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